Appetite-suppressing foods are on the horizon.

Many processed foods contain emulsified fats which are broken down in the gut by lipase. This enzyme attaches itself to fat droplets and breaks the fat down into a form which the body can absorb. We know that if we can slow the breakdown of fat, so that some of it passes through to the lower small intestine, it can stimulate the body's own natural response to reduce appetite, causing people to consume less in subsequent meals.

With this knowledge in hand, scientists at the U.K.'s Institute of Food Research (IFR) are taking a biophysical approach to try and understand how the physical structure of food influences its nutritional quality. They are developing strategies to reduce the fat content of foods but give them the same taste and texture of conventional products. They are trying to understand how food processing can change the allergenicity of proteins. They are attempting to modify foods in natural ways to stimulate the body's own appetite-suppressant responses.

Essentially, the investigators want to know how to modulate lipid digestion so that they can induce satiety. The developed protocols could then be incorporated into foods and ingredients in the future. The project is still in a fairly early stage, and could evolve into an approach that the food industry could use in the fight against obesity.

Many believe that the glycolipids prevent the enzyme from attaching to the surface of the droplet, preventing it from breaking down the fat within the droplet. So IFR scientists plan to use some naturally occurring glycolipids from plants--galactolipids--to try to slow the breakdown of fats. They'll use a model gut, developed at IFR, which simulates the action of the stomach and small intestine, to see if this leads to a significant reduction in the breakdown of fat.

This research may lead to the development of a whole range of foods specifically designed to reduce appetite by controlling the composition of molecules on the surface of fat droplets. It will be at least two to five years before this research will lead to new products on supermarket shelves.

FYI: In the United Kingdom, more than 1 million prescriptions are written for obesity drugs each year, costing [pounds sterling]47 million, or about $95 million, annually. In the United States, about $120 million is spent annually on obesity-related health care.

Further information. Dr. Peter Wilde, Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UA, U.K.; phone: +44 1603 255000; fax: +44 1603 507723; email: peter.wilde@bbsrc.ac.uk.