Methodological issues in the assessment of satiety

Abstract

Satiety is notoriously difficult to assess because of the considerable overlap between physiological and cognitive factors in its development. Short-term studies of satiety are typically based on a variation of the classic preload paradigm while medium-term studies involve observations of food intake, where some or all of the foods may be covertly manipulated. However, both short- and medium-term studies have generated highly variable outcomes, depending on the exact methodology used. Methodological issues that need to be considered when designing and interpreting satiety studies include 1) the use of free-living or laboratory studies, 2) the sensitivity and statistical power of the study, 3) subject selection, 4) antecedent diet of the subjects, 5) the formulation of the preload, 6) the use of subjective ratings of satiety, 7) the time interval between preload and subsequent test meal(s), 8) the formulation of the test meal(s) and 9) use of ad libitum vs fixed diet regimens in medium-term studies. Keywords: Appetite, food intake, hunger, satiation, satiety