The Satiety Index

by Nicole Weston, Posted Jan 3rd 2007 @ 9:03AM

The Satiety Index was developed by an Australian researcher who was looking into the relationship between what we eat and how hungry we are afterwards. The testing involved feeding volunteers 240 calorie portions of 38 different foods after which volunteers ranked their appetite (or lack thereof) and had their food choices monitored for a period after eating them. White bread was used as a baseline, with a satiety ranking of 100.

"Roughly speaking," said Dr. Susanna Holt from the University of Sydney, the woman who ran the study, "the more fiber, protein and water a food contains, the longer it will satisfy." Bulky foods, which produced larger portion sizes for the amount of calories consumed, also made eaters feel fuller simply because they had more stuff in their stomachs. The full index scores the following as less satisfying than white bread (ranked 100): croissants (47), peanuts (84), ice cream (94). The following were more satisfying: french fries (116), white rice (138), cheese (146), eggs (150), popcorn (154), beef (176), oranges (202), oatmeal (209) and potatoes (323).

In addition to fiber and protein rich bulky foods, we can also see that white bread is not that filling in the overall scheme of things.

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Filed Under: Science, Lists, Did you know?, Light Food, Health & Medical
Tags: bread, did yo know, did you know, diet, dieting, filling, food, foods, full, health, index, light food, list, potatoes, research, satiety, science, white bread

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-03-2007 @10:42AM Erica said... Erm, this isn't really a new thing. This just sounds like a rebranded glycemic index ~> www.glycemicindex.com
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1-03-2007 @11:37AM ratatosk said... With regard to the glycemic index, I figured the results of this study would be similar as well, especially since the glycemic index is often used to explain to people what foods will make you hungry sooner rather than later.

However, if you look at the results of the Satiety Index, they are quite different from the glycemic index. The glycemic index measures how foods affect your blood glucose levels. Low GI foods affect it less (and presumably don't make you feel as hungry as quickly), whereas High GI foods cause a spike and then significant drop in blood glucose levels (and presumably, this sort of spike makes you hungry more quickly and helps contribute to diabetes, heart disease, etc).

If you look at the results, the Satiety Index says that peanuts are less satisfying than white bread, while peanuts have one of the lowest GI rankings and therefore don't make your blood glucose level increase significantly.

On the other hand, potatoes (especially baked potatoes) have higher GI rankings (and cause blood glucose spikes), while the Satiety Index says they are one of the foods best at keeping people from getting hungry.

I think the big different between the SI and the GI is that the Satiety Index is based much more on subjective factors ("Do I 'feel' hungry?"), rather than the scientific measure of just how eating the food affects your blood glucose levels.
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1-03-2007 @2:23PM John La Puma said... Satiety index is not new, but satiety is hugely underestimated: how full does a food make you feel?

More suggestions like this I hope to publish in Grand Rounds (purportedly the best of the medical blogosphere)on 1/9/07: its topic is Food and Diet in Medicine---how can food be used for good in health care, not just disease-causing?

Submissions due 1/7/07: anyone can submit; SlashFood bloggers have a lot to say on this, and I'd like to publish bloggers from outside of medicine.

Info on how/what to submit here:
http://www.drjohnlapuma.com/?p=283

Permalink for Food and Diet Grand Rounds to be published here:
http://www.drjohnlapuma.com/?p=284
Thanks!
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1-03-2007 @4:33PM Becki said... Seems to me the SI comes with a helping of subjectivity, what with the index being a measure of feelings of fullness. The GI meanwhile is based on measuring blood glucose levels for 2 hours after the food was consumed.
However, if a large enough sampling was taken for the Satiety Index then cross referencing that with the GI might turn up some interesting results peope could use for a filling and low glycemic diet plan.
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