New Food Supplement Could Reduce Cravings for High-Calorie Foods, Study Shows

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow asked 20 volunteers to consume a milkshake that either contained an ingredient called inulin-propionate ester, or a type of fiber called inulin.

 

After drinking the milkshakes, the participants in the current study underwent an MRI scan, where they were shown pictures of various low or high calorie foods such as salad, fish and vegetables or chocolate, cake and pizza.

 

The team found that when volunteers drank the milkshake containing inulin-propionate ester, they had less activity in areas of their brain linked to reward - but only when looking at the high calorie foods. These areas, called the caudate and the nucleus accumbens, found in the centre of the brain, have previously been linked to food cravings and the motivation to want a food. The volunteers also had to rate how appealing they found the foods.

 

The results showed when they drank the milkshake with the inulin-propionate ester supplement they rated the high calorie foods as less appealing.

 

In a second part of the study, the volunteers were given a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce, and were told to eat as much as they like. When participants drank the inulin-propionate ester, they ate 10 per cent less pasta than when they drank the milkshake that contained inulin alone.
 
In a previous research study by the same team, published in 2013, they found that overweight volunteers who added the inulin-propionate ester supplement to their food every day, gained less weight over six months compared to volunteers who added only inulin to their meals.
 
Professor Gary Frost, senior author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial, said: "Our previous findings showed that people who ate this ingredient gained less weight - but we did not know why. This study is filling in a missing bit of the jigsaw - and shows that this supplement can decrease activity in brain areas associated with food reward at the same time as reducing the amount of food they eat."