Consumption of sugars and the regulation of short-term satiety and food intake

This review examines the relation between the consumption of sugars and their effects on short-term (ie, to 2 h) satiety and food intake in humans. Many factors need to be considered in the evaluation of reported studies and the conclusions derived from this body of literature. These factors include evaluation of the dose and form (solid or liquid) of the treatments, time of day administered, characteristics of the subjects, sample size, and approaches used to measure satiety and food intake. Mechanisms by which sugars may signal regulatory systems for food intake need to be considered when evaluating both study designs and conclusions. For this reason, the relation between the blood glucose response to sugar consumption and subsequent feeding behavior is also examined. It is concluded that sugars stimulate satiety mechanisms and reduce food intake in the short term and that the mechanisms by which this response occurs cannot be attributed solely to their effect on blood glucose.