The aim of this review was to examine: (1) the ability of cholecystokinin (CCK) or analogues of CCK to influence satiation and changes in body weight generally and (2) the efficacy of CCK in influencing satiation and eating behaviour specifically at physiological levels of dosing. A systematic review of the literature was performed following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines in five electronic databases investigating the effect of exogenous CCK or analogues on satiation and body weight. A meta-analysis of studies that infused CCK and measured satiation via changes in food/energy intake was also conducted. A total of 1054 studies were found using the search terms which were reduced to fifteen studies suitable for inclusion. Of the twelve studies measuring the effect on the weight of food ingested or energy intake, eleven showed a decrease. An analogue of CCK which can be administered orally failed to produce any weight loss at 24 weeks. The meta-analysis found the effect of CCK on satiation dosed at physiological levels was significant with a standardised mean difference of 0·57 (95 % CI 0·30, 0·85, P < 0·0001). By comparison, CCK dosed at higher, pharmacological levels also had a significant effect with a standardised mean difference of 0·91 (95 % CI 0·46, 1·36, P < 0·0001). Eight of the ten studies in the meta-analysis combined CCK infusion with some means to facilitate stomach distension. The present review found evidence that at both physiological and pharmacological levels of dosing CCK has a significant effect on satiation but no evidence for weight loss over the long term.

Manipulation of food's macronutrient composition in order to reduce energy content without compromising satiating capacity may be helpful in body weight control. For cheeses, substituting fat with protein may provide such opportunity. We aimed at examining the acute effect of cheeses with different macronutrient compositions on accumulated energy intake and subjective appetite sensation. A total of thirty-nine normal-weight (average BMI 24·4 kg/m2) men and women completed the partly double-blind, randomised crossover study with high-protein/low-fat (HP/LF, 696 kJ), high-protein/high-fat (HP/HF, 976 kJ) and low-protein/high-fat (LP/HF, 771 kJ) cheeses. After overnight fasting, 80 g cheese were served with 70 g bread, 132 g juice and 125 g coffee/tea/water. Ad libitum spaghetti bolognaise was served after 3 h and energy intake assessed. Subjective appetite ratings were assessed using visual analogue scales. Composite appetite scores were calculated and evaluated relatively to energy intake. Total accumulated energy intake was 188·3 (se 97·4) kJ lower when consuming the HP/LF compared with the HP/HF (P ≤ 0·05), but, compared with the LP/HF cheese, the difference was not significant (177·0 (se 100·4) kJ lower; P = 0·08). In relation to energy intake, the composite appetite score was lower when consuming the HP/LF compared with the HP/HF (P = 0·003) and the LP/HF (P = 0·007) cheeses. Thereby, no compensatory eating following consumption of the HP/LF compared with the HP/HF cheese was found. The HP/LF cheese resulted in an increased feeling of satiety in relation to its lower energy content compared with both HP/HF and LP/HF cheeses.

A better understanding of the factors that influence eating behaviour is of importance as our food choices are associated with the risk of developing chronic diseases such as obesity, CVD, type 2 diabetes or some forms of cancer. In addition, accumulating evidence suggests that the industrial food production system is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emission and may be unsustainable. Therefore, our food choices may also contribute to climate change. By identifying the factors that influence eating behaviour new interventions may be developed, at the individual or population level, to modify eating behaviour and contribute to society’s health and environmental goals. Research indicates that eating behaviour is dictated by a complex interaction between physiology, environment, psychology, culture, socio-economics and genetics that is not fully understood. While a growing body of research has identified how several single factors influence eating behaviour, a better understanding of how these factors interact is required to facilitate the developing new models of eating behaviour. Due to the diversity of influences on eating behaviour this would probably necessitate a greater focus on multi-disciplinary research. In the present review, the influence of several salient physiological and environmental factors (largely related to food characteristics) on meal initiation, satiation (meal size) and satiety (inter-meal interval) are briefly discussed. Due to the large literature this review is not exhaustive but illustrates the complexity of eating behaviour. The present review will also highlight several limitations that apply to eating behaviour research.

The gastrointestinal peptides are classically known as short-term signals, primarily inducing satiation and/or satiety. However, accumulating evidence has broadened this view, and their role in long-term energy homeostasis and the development of obesity has been increasingly recognised. In the present review, the recent research involving the role of satiation signals, especially ghrelin, cholecystokinin, glucagon-like peptide 1 and peptide YY, in the development and treatment of obesity will be discussed. Their activity, interactions and release profile vary constantly with changes in dietary and energy influences, intestinal luminal environment, body weight and metabolic status. Manipulation of gut peptides and nutrient sensors in the oral and postoral compartments through diet and/or changes in gut microflora or using multi-hormone ‘cocktail’ therapy are among promising approaches aimed at reducing excess food consumption and body-weight gain.

The current review considers satiety-based approaches to weight management in the context of health claims. Health benefits, defined as beneficial physiological effects, are what the European Food Safety Authority bases their recommendations on for claim approval. The literature demonstrates that foods that target within-meal satiation and post-meal satiety provide a plausible approach to weight management. However, few ingredient types tested produce the sustainable and enduring effects on appetite accompanied by the necessary reductions in energy intake required to claim satiety/reduction in hunger as a health benefit. Proteins, fibre types, novel oils and carbohydrates resistant to digestion all have the potential to produce beneficial short-term changes in appetite (proof-of-concept). The challenge remains to demonstrate their enduring effects on appetite and energy intake, as well as the health and consumer benefits such effects provide in terms of optimising successful weight management. Currently, the benefits of satiety-enhancing ingredients to both consumers and their health are under researched. It is possible that such ingredients help consumers gain control over their eating behaviour and may also help reduce the negative psychological impact of dieting and the physiological consequences of energy restriction that ultimately undermine weight management. In conclusion, industry needs to demonstrate that a satiety-based approach to weight management, based on single-manipulated food items, is sufficient to help consumers resist the situational and personal factors that drive overconsumption. Nonetheless, we possess the methodological tools, which when employed in appropriate designs, are sufficient to support health claims.

Pulses are low glycaemic foods; however, their effect on satiation is unknown. The objective was to determine the effects of an ad libitum pulse meal on food intake (FI), appetite and blood glucose (BG) before and after a test meal (4 h later) and on FI at the test meal. Males (n 24, 22·8 kg/m2) received one of four treatments or control. The pulse treatments contained pasta and tomato sauce and 44 % of energy from: (1) chickpeas, (2) lentils, (3) navy beans or (4) yellow peas. The control was pasta and tomato sauce (pasta and sauce). FI (satiation) was measured at the treatment meal (0–20 min) and at an ad libitum pizza meal 4 h later. BG and appetite were measured from 0 to 340 min. At the treatment meal, lentils led to lower FI compared to chickpeas and pasta and sauce, whereas navy beans led to lower FI compared to chickpeas. Also, lentils led to lower cumulative FI compared to pasta and sauce. All pulses led to lower BG peak and cumulative area under the curve (AUC; 0–340 min); however, only chickpeas, lentils and navy beans reduced pre-pizza meal BG AUC (0–260 min) relative to pasta and sauce. Chickpeas led to lower post-pizza meal BG AUC (260–340 min) compared to navy beans and yellow peas. Consumption of pulses in a high-glycaemic meal contributes to earlier satiation, lower BG following the meal and after a later meal, but these effects are specific to pulse type and cannot be explained by their glycaemic properties alone.

The brain response to a retro-nasally sensed food odour signals the perception of food and it is suggested to be related to satiation. It is hypothesised that consuming food either in multiple small bite sizes or with a longer durations of oral processing may evoke substantial oral processing per gram consumed and an increase in transit time in the oral cavity. This is expected to result in a higher cumulative retro-nasal aroma stimulation, which in turn may lead to increased feelings of satiation and decreased food intake. Using real-time atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation-MS, in vivo retro-nasal aroma release was assessed for twenty-one young, healthy and normal-weight subjects consuming dark chocolate-flavoured custard. Subjects were exposed to both free or fixed bite size (5 and 15 g) and durations of oral processing before swallowing (3 and 9 s) in a cross-over design. For a fixed amount of dark chocolate-flavoured custard, consumption in multiple small bite sizes resulted in a significantly higher cumulative extent of retro-nasal aroma release per gram consumed compared with a smaller amount of large bite sizes. In addition, a longer duration of oral processing tended to result in a higher cumulative extent of retro-nasal aroma release per gram consumed compared with a short duration of oral processing. An interaction effect of bite size and duration of oral processing was not observed. In conclusion, decreasing bite size or increasing duration of oral processing led to a higher cumulative retro-nasal aroma stimulation per gram consumed. Hence, adapting bite size or duration of oral processing indicates that meal termination can be accelerated by increasing the extent of retro-nasal aroma release and, subsequently, the satiation.

It is suggested that the brain response of a food odour sensed retro-nasally is related to satiation. The extent of retro-nasal aroma release during consumption depends on the physical structure of a food, i.e. solid foods generate a longer, more pronounced retro-nasal aroma release than liquid foods. The aim of this study was to investigate if a beverage becomes more satiating when the retro-nasal aroma release profile coincides with the profile of a (soft) solid food. In a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised cross-over full factorial design, twenty-seven healthy subjects (fourteen males and thirteen females; aged 16–65 years; BMI 19–37 kg/m(2) were administered aroma profiles by a computer-controlled stimulator based on air dilution olfactometry. Profile A consisted of a profile that is obtained during consumption of normal beverages. Profile B is normally observed during consumption of (soft) solids. The two profiles were produced with strawberry aroma and administered in a retro-nasal fashion, while the subjects consumed a sweetened milk drink. Before, during and after the sensory stimulation, appetite profile measurements were performed. Subjects felt significantly more satiated if they were aroma stimulated with profile B (P = 0·04). After stimulation with sweet strawberry aroma, there was a significant decrease in desire to eat sweet products (P = 0·0001). In conclusion, perceived satiation was increased by altering the extent of retro-nasal aroma release.

The study of vertical migrations in aquatic organisms has a long and colourful history, much of it to do with the effects of changing sampling technology on our understanding of the phenomenon. However, the overwhelming majority of such studies carried out today still depend on detecting differences in vertical distribution profiles during some course of time, or acoustic echoes of migrating bands of organisms. These can not distinguish migratory activity of individual organisms, but can only assess net results of mass transfers of populations, which may integrate many individual migrations. This is an important distinction, for without knowing the actual movements of individuals it seems unlikely that we will be able to understand their causes, nor the effects of vertical migrations on the environment or on the migrators themselves. This review examines evidence for individual vertical movements gathered from ‘tracers’, mainly gut contents, and reviews the evidence for the hypothesis that such movements are in fact driven by hunger and satiation. The more recently appreciated vertical migrations of phytoplankters and their similarities in form and driving forces to those of zooplankton and nekton are also discussed. Finally, the role of vertical migrators in vertical fluxes of materials is discussed, along with the consequences of satiation-driven descent for such estimates.

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is a hypothesis stating that pollution rises with income at low income levels but falls at higher ones. We analyse the EKC in a representative consumer model in which pollution is generated by consumption and can be abated. We show that at low income levels no abatement is optimal and pollution increases with income. Once abatement expenditures are positive, we demonstrate that satiation in consumption is not only sufficient to find an EKC, but a tendency to satiation—or in other words the condition that environmental quality is a normal good—is even necessary if we assume a standard functional form for the pollution function. Finally, we reconsider the results of two related models of the literature: We verify that the relationship between the income elasticity of demand for environmental quality and the EKC is ambiguous.

(JEL: D62, O40, Q20)

Fruiting phenology, habitat types and proximity to conspecific fruiting adults may influence the degree of escape from pre- and post-dispersal seed predators. Successful predator escape by means of satiation is considered to be especially important for selection of masting and monocarpic reproduction in trees, such as exhibited by Tachigali versicolor, a tropical canopy tree. How pre- and post-dispersal predation rates varied with dispersal timing and among trees in T. versicolor was examined in young and old forests on Barro Colorado Island in Panama during a 4-mo period. Seeds were collected from above-ground traps to assess predispersal predation by bruchid beetles, and from quadrats on the ground to record predation and removal by terrestrial mammals. Proportion of seeds aborted varied greatly among trees (range 6–30 %, mean 16 %), and was especially high for trees on the edge of the island with fruiting conspecifics nearby during the early part of fruiting season. The proportion of seeds killed by bruchid beetles varied less among trees (14–25 %, mean 20 %), and remained constant throughout the fruiting season. Seeds on the ground were attacked mostly by rodents, and possibly by deer (26 % of all seeds and 43 % of intact dispersed seeds). The post-dispersal predation level was higher in the young forest than in the old forest (61 and 26 % of intact dispersed seeds, respectively), and was unaffected by the proximity of fruiting conspecifics. Temporal satiation of seed predators was evident only for post-dispersal mammalian predators in the old forest.