Everything you need to know about eating for satiety

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Ever notice that certain meals and snacks can keep you full for what seems like forever, while others leave you feeling hungry again (and looking for something else to nibble on) within the hour? Turns out, there’s more to feeling satisfied than the mere size of your servings. The nutritional makeup of what you eat is also a major determinant of satiety - that contented feeling of fullness you get after eating.

Specifically, we’re talking about the power of protein and fibre, two good-for-you nutrients shown to help people stay fuller longer. Feeling satisfied between meals may be one way to support success on your weight and wellness journey, says Heather Leidy, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specialises in nutrition sciences. Whether you're looking to shed pounds, maintain your weight, or simply fend off a case of the stomach grumbles, here’s how meal composition can make a difference.

Among the big three macronutrients, protein takes top honours at promoting satiety. “Protein helps you feel fuller a little bit more than carbohydrates, and quite a bit more than fats,” says Douglas Paddon-Jones, PhD, a distinguished professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Research suggests that protein-rich foods may reduce the secretion of ghrelin - a hormone that reminds you you're hungry - while increasing circulating levels of hormones that satiate.

Falling short on protein “can make us feel hungrier throughout the day and have more food cravings," Dr. Leidy says. Just note that there’s no one-size-fits-all amount of protein everyone should aim to eat. According to the British Heart Foundation, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.75g of protein per kilo of body weight per day. As an example, a person who weighs 150lb (~10st 10lb) would need about 55 g of protein per day to support good health overall. To give you an idea of what that looks like: 1 cup of Greek yogurt has about 23 g of protein, 1 cup of lentils has nearly 27 g, and a 3.5-oz serving of boneless, skinless chicken breast contains 31 g of protein. Put simply, it's about two portions of meat, fish, nuts or tofu per day. (As a guide, a protein portion should fit into the palm of your hand.)

Unlike other carbohydrates, fibre doesn’t break down during digestion to provide energy for the body. Instead, this complex carb, found only in plant-based fare, creates filling bulk in our diet and supports a steadier, more sustained release of energy from other food components we eat.

Good sources of fibre include fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and wholegrain foods (like oats or whole wheat pasta). Government guidelines published in July 2015 recommend a dietary fibre intake of 30g a day. However, most adults are only eating an average of about 18g day, according to the NHS.

People who enjoy plenty of fibre-rich foods in their daily diet tend to have lower body weights than people who consume less of the nutrient. In a small 2015 study that compared higher-fibre oatmeal to lower-fibre corn flakes, volunteers in the oatmeal group described their meal as more satiating. They also ate less at a subsequent meal than volunteers who had munched on cornflakes.

In general, we know that meals and snacks which combine protein and fibre are filling. Still, since, everyone’s body is different, there’s no universal magic formula for whipping up a filling meal or snack. WW recipe developer Leslie Fink, MS, RD, encourages sampling different ideas and combos to figure out which feel most satisfying to you. Here are some of her favourites:

• Instead of peeling potatoes, scrub them well, cook ’em up, and eat the spuds with the peels. The peel is where most of the fibre is found! The same goes for apples and pears.

• Add sautéed mushrooms, grated courgette, or other veggies to burgers and meatballs to increase not just the fibre, but also the juiciness and flavour.

• Add a pop of colour and a dose of fibre to pasta dishes and hearty soups by stirring in handfuls of fresh baby spinach until just wilted.

• Add fibre and replace some added sugar in homemade baked goods or breakfast items with mashed banana, pumpkin puree, or shredded apple.

• Feeling snackish? Choose air-popped popcorn over pretzels. Ounce for ounce, popcorn has four times more fibre than pretzels made with standard enriched flour.

• Top salads, veggie bowls and toasted sandwiches with a poached, hard-boiled, or sunny-side-up egg.

• Add powdered peanut or almond butter to pancakes, breakfast muffins and energy bites.

• Go for plain, 0% fat Greek yogurt, which contains 1.8 times the amount of protein than in regular plain, 0% fat yogurt.

• Stash a bag of cooked, peeled prawns in your freezer. They defrost in minutes and can be used in stir-fries, fried-rice dishes, salads, pasta meals, and more.

• Keep a variety of lean, pre-cooked chicken sausages in your fridge or freezer. Thinly slice them to make toppings for homemade pizza, or chop and add to soups.

(Hint: quinoa, beans, and nuts are your power foods on this front.)

• Swap rice for quinoa in chicken soup and grain bowls. One cup of cooked quinoa contains 5 g of fibre and 8g of protein; on the other hand, 1 cup of cooked white rice has only 0.5 g of fibre and 4g of protein.

• Use hummus or black bean spread as a sandwich condiment instead of, or in addition to, mustard and mayo.

• Give pasta dishes a vegetarian protein and fibre boost by stirring in some white beans or chickpeas.

• Try mashed beans as a binder instead of breadcrumbs in vegetable fritters.

• Sprinkle your breakfast oats with sliced or chopped almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or other nuts.

Smoothie fans, this is for you: as filling as whole fruits and vegetables can be, the situation changes once you blend them into beverage form. Research shows that liquids don’t promote the same feeling of fullness as solid foods do, as eliminating the act of chewing may affect signaling between the belly and brain.

“Any food in solid form is a little more satiating than the same total amount in liquid form," Dr. Paddon-Jones says. So while smoothies and juices can be a delicious and nutritious part of your diet, just note that sipping produce through a straw might not quell your appetite as well as, say, crunching on a juicy apple would.

Your presence of mind can affect how satisfying a meal feels as well, Dr. Leidy says. Mindful eating, or being fully present during a meal or snack, may encourage you to appreciate a food’s presentation, flavour, aroma, and texture. Compared with people who eat while distracted, people who eat more mindfully tend to have a better sense of how much they’ve eaten and eat less overall.

Remember that we eat for all sorts of reasons, not just because we might be physically hungry. Sometimes the urge to eat is influenced by factors such as emotions, or sights and smells of delicious things in our midst (hello, plate of cookies in the workplace break room). “While satiety can help curb appetite and increase one’s ability to adhere to an eating pattern, we need to be mindful of our hunger and satiety cues,” Dr. Leidy says. In other words, think of protein and fibre as two more things in your toolkit for working toward your overall wellness goals.