ACQUIRED SENSORY CONTROL OF SATIATION IN MAN

Lean male and female subjects who had been taking their meals as usual were given a 100 ml drink of starch immediately before a sandwich lunch. In the training phase 65% starch was given before lunches which included a yogurt-based dessert of 1 flavor and 5% starch was given before another flavor. Subjects who initially ate lunches of similar size following the 2 drinks began after several pairings to take larger lunches following dilute starch than following concentrated starch. In extinction tests identical 35% starch drinks were given before lunches including desserts of either flavor. Lunches including the flavor hitherto paired with dilute starch remained larger than lunches including the other flavor, at least initially in extinction. Some of the difference in intake occurred in the dessert itself. None was attributable to differences in the early stage of the lunches. These results extended to man recent demonstrations that the satisfying power of a foodstuff is in part acquired by association of its sensory characteristics with some consequence of ingesting the nutrients which are consistently taken with or in that food. This consequence may be rapid intestinal absorption of glucose during or shortly after sensory input. The nature of the intake-suppressing response remains to be determined.