Can a tiny amino acid boost make you feel full without eating more protein?
Consuming Lower-Protein Nutrition Bars with Added Leucine Elicits Postprandial Changes in Appetite Sensations in Healthy Women.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave women snack bars with the same calories but different amounts of a special amino acid called leucine to see if it made them feel fuller.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
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Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave women snack bars with the same calories but different amounts of a special amino acid called leucine to see if it made them feel fuller.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 559 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Bolster DR, Rahn M, Kamil AG, Bristol LT, Goltz SR, Leidy HJ, Blaze Mt M, Nunez MA, Guo E, Wang J, Harkness LS
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Consuming 2 grams of leucine with a low-protein meal reduces hunger compared to not taking leucine, and increasing the dose up to 2 grams increases this reduction in hunger.
When total protein intake is low, meals with added leucine lead to a greater decrease in feelings of hunger than meals with different amino acid profiles.
In healthy women, consuming a 3-gram leucine peptide supplement does not reduce hunger or desire to eat more than a control bar, even though it raises blood leucine levels more than a 2-gram dose, showing that higher leucine levels do not proportionally reduce appetite.
When healthy women eat nutrition bars with 0, 2, or 3 grams of added leucine peptide, their blood leucine levels rise proportionally to the dose, but their feelings of fullness and peptide YY levels do not change in a corresponding way.
A nutrition bar with 11 grams of protein and 2 grams of leucine peptide produces the same level of fullness after eating as a bar with 13 grams of protein and 3 grams of leucine peptide in healthy women.