Research reportAscophyllum nodosum enriched bread reduces subsequent energy intake with no effect on post-prandial glucose and cholesterol in healthy, overweight males. A pilot study☆
Highlights
► We investigate the acceptability of Ascophyllum nodosum enriched bread. ► We measure the effect of A. nodosum enriched bread on markers of appetite. ► A. nodosum enriched bread was acceptable at concentrations of 4% per loaf. ► A. nodosum enriched bread reduced energy intake but not nutrient uptake at a meal.
Introduction
Obesity is described as an excess accumulation of body fat to the detriment of health leading to an increased risk of mortality (Sorensen, Virtue, & Vidal-plug, 2010). Recent UK data suggest that in 2008, 61% of adults were overweight or obese, with 24% classified as obese (NHS Information Centre, 2009). It is evident that the increased prevalence of overweight individuals has been accompanied by a parallel rise in numbers of obese individuals (Foresight, 2007). With an increasing body mass index (BMI), comes an increased risk of the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, general cardiovascular disease, certain cancers (Kopelman, 2007) and poor psychosocial well-being (Dixon, Dixon, & O’Brien, 2003). The direct and indirect costs of treating overweight and obesity in England are extensive and are anticipated to rise in parallel with average BMIs (Foresight, 2007). Obesity is a multifactorial disease (Martinez, 2007) and the aetiological factors involved act both independently and dependently (Haskell et al., 2007). In response to the problem, numerous prophylactic and lifestyle approaches have been developed although the majority appear, in the long term, relatively unsuccessful with only an estimated 20% of individuals deemed “successful” in achieving weight loss (Wing & Phelan, 2005).
As body weight is determined by long term energy balance, manipulating the satiating capacity of food may prove beneficial in the control of food intake, and potentially therefore, weight regulation. The addition of fibre to the diet may be particularly beneficial in this respect (Birketvedt et al., 2000, Howarth et al., 2001, Liu et al., 2003, O’Neil et al., 2010, Slavin, 2005).
For centuries, seaweed (a source of dietary fibre), has been a traditional part of the Asian diet (Jiménez-Escrig & Sánchez-Muniz, 2000) however consumption is comparatively low in the UK (Rose et al., 2007) where typically, the only consumption of seaweed is as isolated hydrocolloids used in the food industry as thickening and stabilising ingredients (Brownlee et al., 2005). However, it is becoming increasingly well recognised for its nutritional properties. Notably, seaweed contains favourable amounts of a variety of polysaccharides, dietary fibre, minerals (iodine and calcium) and polyphenols (Burtin, 2003, MacArtain et al., 2007). Seaweed isolates (for example alginates) used in appetite research have predominantly yielded encouraging results by decreasing free-living energy intake (Paxman, Richardson, Dettmar, & Corfe, 2008a), reducing cholesterol absorption in rats (Kimura et al., 1996, Seal and Mathers, 2001) and post-prandial, BMI dependent cholesterolaemia in humans (Paxman, Richardson, Dettmar, & Corfe, 2008b), reducing peak glucose (Williams et al., 2004) and glycaemic response (Wolf et al., 2002), increasing feelings of fullness and decreasing feelings of hunger (Hoad et al., 2004). However, not all studies have shown this modulation of appetite markers. Mattes (2007) found that daily consumption of an alginate enriched breakfast bar had no effect on appetite ratings or energy intake over a 5 day period.
Whilst there is growing evidence to suggest the use of seaweed isolates may be beneficial to health, there appears to be a paucity of evidence surrounding the use of whole seaweed as an ingredient. As consumption of seaweed remains highest in Asian populations most observational studies investigating seaweed ingestion have been conducted in this region, where is has been shown longitudinally to reduce the risk of breast cancer (Yang et al., 2001), osteoporosis (Nakayama, Sakauchi, & Mori, 2008), cardiovascular mortality (Shimazu et al., 2007) as well as type 2 diabetes and prediabetes (Lee, Kim, Vitek, & Nam, 2010). Wholefoods (such as seaweeds) are also an attractive option to food manufacturers and consumers in the light of clean declaration initiatives which are now popular in the food industry. To date, no appetite research has been conducted using seaweed as a whole food ingredient. However, as the prevalence of overweight and obesity are rife in the UK it seems appropriate to investigate its appetite modulating potential.
The aim of this study was to assess the acceptability of seaweed-enriched bread as part of a breakfast meal, and to determine its effects on human energy intake, appetite sensations, and post-prandial glycaemia and cholesterolaemia.
Section snippets
Methods
The study took place in two stages: an acceptability study followed by a satiety study. In each phase participants gave full informed written consent and procedures for both phases were approved by the appropriate local ethics committee (reference number CFI/2009/RE06).
Study 1: Acceptability results
Seventy-nine untrained sensory panellists (40 males and 39 females) were recruited; all of whom successfully completed the acceptability tests. Importantly, all the breads were rated by panellists as acceptable overall and for each individual sensory attribute (Table 2). The control bread was rated significantly higher than the A. nodosum enriched bread for overall acceptability (p = 0.002) and for aftertaste (p = 0.003), and significantly higher than all but the bread enriched with 3% A. nodosum
A. nodosum enriched bread is acceptable
Results from the acceptability tests show that A. nodosum can be successfully incorporated into a 400 g wholemeal loaf at concentrations of up to 4% whilst maintaining acceptability. This is encouraging for the food industry, particularly the bakery sector who may wish to incorporate seaweed such as A. nodosum not only as a potentially satiating ingredient, but also as a salt replacer and antimicrobial agent (Gupta & Abu-Ghannam, 2011). Importantly, the breakfast meal used in the satiety study
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2022, International Journal of Gastronomy and Food ScienceCitation Excerpt :The studies presented evaluate sensory acceptability using a hedonic scale. In most cases, this is reduced by incorporating seaweed, and the most affected attributes are flavor, taste, aroma, and aftertaste; as presented in Fig. 1, which represents the variation of acceptability (measured on a 9-point hedonic scale) to the concentration of added seaweed, for different sensory attributes (Hall et al., 2012). In some cases, the addition of seaweed causes increased acceptability, when concentrations are low, such as 0.5–1% in bread (Kim et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2010), 5% in biscuits (Pratiwi and Titik, 2019).
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Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Seagreens® and the Seaweed Health Foundation. With thanks to Dr. Iain Brownlee for his critical review of the manuscript, Chris Trueman for sample manufacture and Paul Ash for his technical assistance.