Preventing Gastric Sieving by Blending a Solid/Water Meal Enhances Satiation in Healthy Humans

Abstract

Separation of solids and liquids within the stomach allows faster gastric emptying of liquids compared with solids, a phenomenon known as sieving. We tested the hypothesis that blending a solid and water meal would abolish sieving, preventing the early rapid decrease in gastric volume and thereby enhancing satiety. We carried out 2 separate studies. Study 1 was a 2-way, crossover, satiety study of 22 healthy volunteers who consumed roasted chicken and vegetables with a glass of water (1008 kJ) or the same blended to a soup. They completed satiety visual analogue scales at intervals for 3 h. Study 2 was a 2-way, crossover, mechanistic study of 18 volunteers who consumed the same meals and underwent an MRI to assess gastric emptying, gallbladder contraction, and small bowel water content (SBWC) at intervals for 3 h. In Study 1, the soup meal was associated with reduced hunger (P = 0.02). In Study 2, the volume of the gastric contents after the soup meal decreased more slowly than after the solid/liquid meal (P = 0.0003). The soup meal caused greater gallbladder contraction (P < 0.04). SBWC showed a biphasic response with an initial "gastric" phase during which SBWC was greater when the solid/liquid meal was consumed (P < 0.001) and a later "small bowel" phase when SBWC was greater when the soup meal was consumed (P < 0.01). Blending the solid/liquid meal to a soup delayed gastric emptying and increased the hormonal response to feeding, which may contribute to enhanced postprandial satiety.

Specific food structures supress appetite through reduced gastric emptying rate

“…The active meal had a gastric retention half-time 30 min longer than the control meal. Although this seems to be in disagreement with a study showing that a mixed solid/liquid food empties faster and is less satiating than the same meal after homogenization to a "soup" (22), in that case the authors suggested that the mixed solid/liquid system initially emptied the liquid portion, which had a low energy density and in this way more quickly reduced the gastric volume and hence the sensation of fullness. Another study demonstrated faster gastric emptying when the viscosity of a meal was increased by adding pectin (30).…”

Empty calories and phantom fullness: a randomized trial studying the relative effects of energy density and viscosity on gastric emptying determined by MRI and satiety

“…It is known that gastric sieving of water occurs, which can be mitigated by blending the water with the stimulus (26). The blending of a stimulus may influence both the energy load sensed in the duodenal of the emptied gastric content as well as the viscosity of the content in the stomach.…”

On the kinematics and efficiency of advective mixing during gastric digestion – A numerical analysis

“…The use of advanced imaging technologies has recently demonstrated how the physical properties of the meal can modulate satiety and the rate of nutrient delivery to the small bowel, by simply modifying the intragastric distribution of the meal (Boulby et al, 1999;Faas et al, 2002;Kunz et al, 2005;Marciani et al, 2001Marciani et al, , 2007Marciani et al, , 2012. However, up to now little is known about the mechanisms underpinning the distribution and mixing of different digesta systems within the stomach.…”