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satiety

A Global View of Innovative, Tasty New Food Products

by Janet on August 12, 2010

At the recent Institute of Food Technologists meeting in Chicago, Mintel hosted the Global New Products Pavilion and showcased the latest food and beverage trends from around the world. Mintel’s new product experts, Lynn Dornblaser and David Jago, identified three macro trends and asked attendees to taste and vote on their favorite products in each category.

Here’s a look at the outcome:

1. Baby Boomers: a generation in search of new products

“With baby boomers comprising 26% of the population, it only makes sense that manufacturers are positioning products just for them,” Dornblaser said. “The trick is to position these products with the needs of baby boomers in mind, without making the consumer feel like they have ailments or are aging.”

Smartfood Popcorn Clusters from the U.S. took first place in the boomer category. While being an indulgent snack, it also touts calcium and fiber.

Tripl3 O Antiox Green Tea with Honey from Colombia came in second.

Kellogg’s All-Bran Buds Singles from Canada took third place.

2. Satiety: the next big thing in weight management

With rising obesity rates and an increase in chronic ailments, wellness is a trend we’ll be seeing a lot of in the next few years and satiety fits right in.

IFT attendees chose the EcoSlim Dark Chocolate Bars from Portugal as their favorite product for staying fuller longer. 077976

Kellogg’s Special K Sustain Breakfast Cereal from the U.K. came in second.

Barilla Mulino Bianco Grancereale Fiber Biscuits from Italy took third place.

3. Simple ingredient statements: clear language for confused consumers

“Natural” and “additive-free” have become part of the consumer’s health and wellness vocabulary, according to Dornblasher.

People are attracted to clean labels and are taking great measures to avoid over-processed foods.

raw_pepsi

It was a tight race in the simple category. Pepsi Raw Natural Born Cola (U.K.) came in first place with its natural plant extracts and new pack design.

Yoplait Simply Gogurt Portable Lowfat Yogurt from the U.S. came in second place.

Planet Lunch Squeezable Fruit from the U.K. was the third place winner. The portable fruit in a bag touts 100% natural ingredients.

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Tagged as: Baby Boomers, clean labels, food trends, IFT, Mintel, natural, Pepsi Raw Natural Born Cola, satiety, Smartfood, squeezable fruit, Yoplait Simply Gogurt

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Sensa Diet Smells Fishy To Me

by Janet on September 11, 2009

sensa-shaker The latest diet to hit the infomercial scene is Sensa, a “natural weight loss system” designed to help you eat less by changing your sense smell and taste. It appears to be a reincarnation of “The Sprinkle Diet” that got a lot of press a few years ago. Now it’s back and coming on strong. In fact, in Chicago I’ve heard radio ads that sound like they’re recruiting for a clinical trial using Sensa — offering to provide a free supply of the “sprinkles.” No dieting, no exercise required. Sounds too good to be true, huh?

So here’s how it’s supposed to work. You buy a month’s supply of the Sensa packets ($59.oo) and sprinkle it on everything you eat. The flavorless “crystal tastants” are supposed to make you feel full faster by stimulating the part of your brain that tells your body it’s time to stop eating. The product claims to induce something called “sensory-specific satiety.” Sensa creator Dr. Alan Hirsch said it makes your brain think you’ve eaten more than you have and you’ll eat less and lose weight. What you eat doesn’t appear to matter. The trysensa web site features a big piece of pie a la mode with someone pouring on the sprinkles. Hmmm…what kind of message does that send?

Known as “Dr. Smell,” the Sensa creator Dr. Alan Hirsch is an interesting guy – he’s a neurologist, psychiatrist and founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. Dr. Hirsch has pioneered much of the research on smell, taste and appetite — and his studies were the subject of a Dateline NBC feature several years ago. It’s worth checking out…

His studies in the ’90s paved the way for Sensa. The first study was published in 1995 and the second study doesn’t appear to be published (only presented at a scientific meeting in Prague). Both studies are included on the web site in abstract form. The primary claim — people who sprinkled the tastant crystals on everything they ate lost an average of 30 pounds in 6 months, which was statistically significant more than those who did not use the sprinkles. The Web site boasts:

Sensa’s results beat Weight Watchers, Atkins and the Zone with more pounds lost in less time.

The product is starting to get more attention, including a recent article in the New York Times: A Slimmer You May Be A Whiff Away.

So what exactly is Sensa? The ingredients don’t look so magical. Actually, the packets contain similar ingredients to what you’d find in many processed foods…

Maltodextrin (corn starch)
Tricalcium phosphate (”bone ash,” a source of calcium used in supplements and fortification, also acts as an anticaking agent, so it probably helps the crystals not stick together)
Natural and artificial flavors
Artificial color yellow #5 (the second most widely used coloring that causes allergic reations, according to CSPI)
Carmine (the red coloring obtained from insects)

There are some earlier studies that suggest maltodextrin may offer some satiety benefits (particularly when added to soup), but it surprises me that the sprinkles would have such a dramatic impact on fullness. People have such a hard time getting in touch with their hunger cues (and certainly don’t always stop when they’re satisfied), so it’s hard to think that the sprinkles can help overcome this. It’s great that people lost weight with the product, but I have some concerns:

What did they learn? Those sprinkles are not helping you learn positive new behaviors, not helping you address the reasons you’re struggling with your weight.
What about the quality of the diet? There’s basically no nutrition education involved with the program. You can eat all the junk you want, as long as you add the sprinkles.
How long can this last? The program tells you to eat whatever you want. What’s going to happen when you stop using the sprinkles. Will you be sprinkle-dependent forever? What about long-term results, lifestyle changes?
No exercise plan. Sensa proudly declares that you don’t need to exercise. So there’s no encouragement of daily physical activity.
Your pocketbook. An additional $59.00 a month can add up quickly. I’d rather people spend the money on fresh fruits and vegetables, which have tremendous satiety value — and a lot more nutrients than you’ll find in maltodextrin.

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Tagged as: Dr. Alan Hirsch, new diets, Obesity, satiety, Sensa, The Sprinkle Diet, weight loss

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The FullBar Diet Has It Half Right

by Janet on August 10, 2009

fullbar The latest diet product starring in late-night infomercials, buzzing on the Internet, and showing up in health food stores (even Walgreens) is FullBar. If you’re not planning to have weight loss surgery any time soon, these appetite-curbing bars are the next best thing — or so claims the creator Michael A. Snyder, MD, a bariatric surgeon in Denver. You can learn more about these products and how you can “Be Full, Live Full” by visiting the FullBar web site. Or check out a review of the FullBar Diet Plan by registered dietitian Kathleen Zelman on WebMD.

By eating these granola-type bars twice a day with an 8-ounce glass of water 30 minutes before your meals, Dr. Snyder says you can achieve the same weight-loss results without the surgery. How convenient! He claims to have the “real secret” to losing weight:

“When you feel full, you eat less. When you eat less, you lose weight.”

Yeah, right. Got that.

He also promises…

“No special diet. No calorie counting. No hassles. It’s worked for a lot of people.”

Certainly one person it didn’t work for is Roni. I especially enjoyed her rant against FullBar. Maybe I’m just glad not to be the only one ranting.

Sure, I can appreciate the importance of managing hunger. And it’s true that feeling full on fewer calories is an effective weight management strategy. That’s the foundation of one of my favorite approaches to weight control: The Volumetrics Eating Plan by Barbara Rolls. Dr. Rolls is one of the country’s leading authorities on satiety and her hugely popular books show people how they can choose foods that control hunger while losing weight.

I give him credit, Dr. Snyder has hit on a nutrition hot button. Satiety does appear to be the new weapon in the war on weight — and lots of other new products on supermarket shelves are touting aquafull_berry_bliss_4002 their ability to control hunger, including Dannon Light & Fit Crave Yogurt, Lightfull Foods Satiety Smoothie and Aquafina Alive Satisfy. Many of these foods and beverages are fortified with so-called functional fibers, such as maltodextrin or inulin (an extract typically from chicory root or Jerusalem artichoke). Inulin is the key ingredient in the “liquid form” of FullBar called AquaFull. These flavored artificially-sweetened powdered drink mixes are to be added to water and consumed along with your twice-a-day FullBar before mealtime.

These products are not meant to be meal-replacements, but simply pre-meal supplements to help you eat less during your meal. Of course, you’ll need to really pay attention to your internal hunger cues during your meal and stop eating when you’re satisfied (which is easier said than done). Otherwise, you’ll be adding up to 360 additional calories by eating two FullBars each day.

But my biggest concern is the product itself. I think the best approach is to eat real food to curb your appetite — the techniques that Dr. Rolls suggests in Volumetrics. Foods with a lot of “volume” and not a lot of calories include water-laden fruits and vegetables. Other belly-filling foods include soup. Studies that Rolls and colleagues conducted at Penn State have shown that eating a bowl of broth-based soup before your meal helps you to eat less and reduce overall calories. For 180 calories, I can sure think of a lot more nourishing, satisfying and appealing options than a FullBar to take the edge off your appetite.

The first two ingredients in the bars are brown rice syrup and puffed wheat cereal. Even though the web site says “no processed sugar,” the bars are loaded with sweeteners — including high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar and honey. Agave nectar and honey may have a “natural” halo, but there’s no significant difference between these sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup or sucrose. Get your facts straight, Dr. Snyder, these sweeteners ARE sugar.

The bars come in five different flavors: Cocoa Chip, Caramel Apple Crisp, Cranberry Almond, Peanut Butter Crunch and Fresh Berry Bliss. They’ll cost you $175 for a 2-month supply (although you’ll get the third month free). Those are the online costs, retail prices may be higher. Perhaps one of the comments I most objected to on the web site was how you can actually SAVE MONEY with FullBar because of all the real food you won’t need to buy. Ugh.

Dr. Snyder is even promoting these products to kids, as you can see in this video below. He describes the “all natural” FullBar as a healthy snack for kids. Not in my book. Instead of a Caramel Apple Crisp bar, what about an apple? These snacks are high in sugar and contain very few nutrients: 0 vitamin C, 0 vitamin A, 4-6% DV calcium. Since these bars aren’t intended to be meal replacements, they contain a lot fewer nutrients than other nutrition bars.

Managing hunger may be important to help stay on track if you’re trying to lose weight, but I don’t think these products are the answer.