The power of suggestion: subjective satiety is affected by nutrient and health-focused food labelling with no effect on physiological gut hormone release
A randomised crossover trial led by Sinead Watson. Fifty people attended the first visit and ate the same 380 kcal granola and yoghurt breakfast on two mornings a week apart, labelled once as a 500 kcal indulgent product and once as a 250 kcal sensible one, without being told they were identical. Blood samples measured acylated ghrelin and two other gut hormones, and participants rated appetite. Reported fullness rose more after the indulgent label. No gut hormone, ghrelin included, differed between labels. The authors conclude the difference in fullness is more likely produced in the brain than by appetite hormones. It reverses the pattern of the 2011 milkshake study.
A randomised crossover trial led by Sinead Watson. Fifty people attended the first visit and ate the same 380 kcal granola and yoghurt breakfast on two mornings a week apart, labelled once as a 500 kcal indulgent product and once as a 250 kcal sensible one, without being told they were identical. Blood samples measured acylated ghrelin and two other gut hormones, and participants rated appetite. Reported fullness rose more after the indulgent label. No gut hormone, ghrelin included, differed between labels. The authors conclude the difference in fullness is more likely produced in the brain than by appetite hormones. It reverses the pattern of the 2011 milkshake study.
Written from the publisher page read on 8 October 2026.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
doi:10.3390/nu14235100. Read at the publisher, 2026-10-08: randomised crossover; 50 attended the first visit, 48 analysed for appetite and 38 for acylated ghrelin; 380 kcal breakfast labelled 500 kcal indulgent or 250 kcal sensible; higher fullness change after the indulgent label; no difference in gut hormones; effect judged more likely centrally mediated.