14 DAY TRIAL // Australian researchers have recently tracked down a new type of flour which is extremely beneficial for cooking bread, as the ingredient reduces energy intake and leads to faster satiety sensation in the consumer, in the short time at least. The University of Western Australia, Perth team found that bread made of lupin flour may be a new efficient ingredient to be intensively used in body weight management, as the particular type of flour makes people feel full almost instantly and also has a lower calorie content as compared to wheat flour.
Nutritionists and food experts highlighted the fact that lupin flour may soon be considered the direct competitor to soybean, as it is extremely rich in proteins and provides individuals with health benefits. If soybean has a 44-48% content of proteins, lupin flour contains 30% proteins. Europeans have already started to use lupin flour for foods such as pasta and bakery products, soups, salads, cereals, snacks, baby formula etc.
Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the Australian researchers led by Professor Ya Lee pointed out: "These results suggest that protein and fiber enrichment of bread with lupin kernel flour has the potential to influence appetite and reduce energy intake, at least in the short term."
A previous study on lupin flour's potency to boost satiety in people has been previously run, in 2004. Lead researcher of that study also stated for Nutraingredients.com: "Apart from matching energy intake and the higher inclusion rate, our study is the first to assess effects both within and between meals and to look at ghrelin as a factor that might modulate the effect of LKF on satiety."
The current study has been conducted on 16 subjects with an average age of 58 years and an average body mass index of 31. The two goals of the research were: to investigate how bread enriched with lupin kernel flour works on satiety and energy intake as compared to standard white, wheat bread and to study how lupin kernel bread and white bread affect the ghrelin hormone level in the blood stream.
Ghrelin is also known as the hunger hormone and is primarily found in the cells of the stomach epithelial tissue, but also in various areas of the brain and hypothalamus. Before we eat, the levels of ghrelin in our bodies are very high and stimulate brain cells that "let us know" that we should eat. After we eat, the levels of the hunger hormone decrease considerably. Therefore, high levels of ghrelin in one's body make people hungrier, while lower levels of the hormone do not trigger hunger sensation.
Depending on the group they have been assigned to, volunteers had to eat lupin or white bread for breakfast and in a sandwich for lunch every day for a month. Overall results of the study showed that subjects who consumed lupin bread reported feeling full considerably more quickly than their peers in the white bread group. Also, lupin bread accounted for a 20% lower energy intake and lower levels of plasma ghrelin hormone than white bread.
Researchers concluded: "Consistent with the findings for self-reported satiety, the lupin bread breakfast resulted in up to 20 percent lower energy intake at lunch than did the white bread breakfast. These results are supported by previous studies that showed that high-protein diets reduce energy intake at subsequent meals more so than do high-carbohydrate and high-fibre diets reduce energy intake at subsequent meals more so than do low-fibre diets."
