Can a snack before lunch make you feel fuller?
The effect of oral l-arginine alone or in combination with sodium butyrate on glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion in non-diabetic adults with obesity.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave people with obesity a powder before eating to see if it made their body release a fullness hormone. One powder (with two ingredients) worked a bit, but the other (one ingredient) didn’t clearly help.
Surprising Findings
GLP-1 increased significantly, but hunger and blood sugar didn’t budge.
GLP-1 is known to reduce appetite and stabilize glucose—this study breaks that link in humans, contradicting mouse studies and common supplement claims.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re trying to boost GLP-1 naturally, try eating protein-rich meals—L-arginine is found in meat, nuts, and dairy.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave people with obesity a powder before eating to see if it made their body release a fullness hormone. One powder (with two ingredients) worked a bit, but the other (one ingredient) didn’t clearly help.
Surprising Findings
GLP-1 increased significantly, but hunger and blood sugar didn’t budge.
GLP-1 is known to reduce appetite and stabilize glucose—this study breaks that link in humans, contradicting mouse studies and common supplement claims.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re trying to boost GLP-1 naturally, try eating protein-rich meals—L-arginine is found in meat, nuts, and dairy.
Publication
Journal
Nutrition and health
Year
2025
Authors
Afif Nakhleh, Wasim Said, Salim Hadad, Sagit Zolotov, Naim Shehadeh
Related Content
Claims (6)
Taking L-arginine or L-arginine plus sodium butyrate didn’t change blood sugar levels after eating in obese people — even though it raised one appetite hormone.
Giving obese people a one-time mix of L-arginine and sodium butyrate before eating made their body release more of a hormone (GLP-1) that helps control blood sugar and appetite — but only for that one meal.
Taking just L-arginine before a meal might slightly raise the appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1 in obese people, but the result was too weak to be sure it wasn’t just random chance.
Even though the supplements raised a hormone linked to fullness, people didn’t feel any less hungry or more full after eating.
The combo of L-arginine and sodium butyrate raised the appetite hormone more than L-arginine alone — but we don’t know if that difference was real or just luck.