EVALUATION OF SATIETY SENSATIONS AND FOOD-INTAKE AFTER DIFFERENT PRELOADS

The reproducibility of three questions, related to fullness, satiety a nd desire to eat, rated on an unmarked triangle was verified. In four sessions 12 volunteers ate pasta with tomato sauce (520 kcal) and were asked to rate the sensations felt. There was no difference in rating scores of the replications so the proposed questionnaire provides a st able measure of sensations related to satiety. Subsequently three sati ety conditions were studied. Two foods, one rich in carbohydrate, past a (baked macaroni) and the other in protein, polpette (meatballs), wer e used as loads at two calorie levels and as preload before an ''ad li bitum'' meal. All the three questions proved useful in discriminating between the different satiety conditions. The food intake underlines t he specificity of satiety: subjects, after eating a preload which prev iously had satiated them, ate other foods in different amounts dependi ng on the kind of preload eaten. Food intake was significantly higher after the pasta preload, furthermore ''fullness'' and ''satiety'' rati ngs were significantly highest after the meatball preload, suggesting that in our experimental conditions, meatballs were more satiating tha n pasta. In conclusion, this study highlights the validity of using se veral quite different questions to study hunger and satiety, together with the actual food intake. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited