Supplementation by thylakoids to a high carbohydrate meal decreases feelings of hunger, elevates CCK levels and prevents postprandial hypoglycaemia in overweight women

Abstract

Thylakoids are chlorophyll-containing membranes in chloroplasts that have been isolated from green leaves. It has been previously shown that thylakoids supplemented with a high-fat meal can affect cholecystokinin (CCK), ghrelin, insulin and blood lipids in humans, and can act to suppress food intake and prevent body weight gain in rodents. This study investigates the addition of thylakoids to a high carbohydrate meal and its effects upon hunger motivation and fullness, and the levels of glucose, insulin, CCK, ghrelin and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in overweight women. Twenty moderately overweight female subjects received test meals on three different occasions; two thylakoid enriched and one control, separated by 1 week. The test meals consisted of a high carbohydrate Swedish breakfast, with or without addition of thylakoids. Blood samples and VAS-questionnaires were evaluated over a 4-h period. Addition of thylakoids suppressed hunger motivation and increased secretion of CCK from 180 min, and prevented postprandial hypoglycaemia from 90 min following food intake. These effects indicate that thylakoids may intensify signals of satiety. This study therefore suggests that the dietary addition of thylakoids could aid efforts to reduce food intake and prevent compensational eating later in the day, which may help to reduce body weight over time.

The effect of heat treatment of thylakoids on their ability to inhibit in vitro lipase/co-lipase activity

“…In a series of previous studies we have found that thylakoid membranes, the photosynthetic membrane in plant cells, inhibit pancreatic lipase/co-lipase in a dose-dependent way in vitro, an effect confirmed both in animal studies on rat 12 and mice 13 as well as in human studies 14,15 .…”

“…If we allow us to apply these in vitro results to a food system, and assume that processing for 4 min at 90°C are needed to ensure a microbial safe food product, up to five times the amount of heat-treated thylakoids have to be ingested to get the same effect on appetite, compared to non-treated thylakoids. In our previous studies, 4-7 g thylakoid powder has showed significant effect on appetite 15 . If heat treatment has to be applied, the dose should be adjusted to 20-35 g to get the same effect.…”

Consumption of thylakoid-rich spinach extract reduces hunger, increases satiety and reduces cravings for palatable food in overweight women

“…The number of participants required to achieve a power of 0.8 in this cross-over study was calculated using data from an earlier study (Stenblom et al, 2013). Based on these calculations, 15 participants were needed to detect a 10 mm difference in VAS-ratings of hunger.…”

“…Based on a previous dose-response study, a single dose of 5 g thylakoids was used in this study (Stenblom et al, 2013). The thylakoids were served in a cold blueberry drink, mixed with 2.5 g rapeseed oil (Zeta, Di Luca & Di Luca AB, Stockholm, Sweden) and 92.5 g blueberry soup (Ekströms original, Procordia Food AB, Eslöv, Sweden), served immediately before breakfast on treatment test days.…”

“…Green-plant membranes, thylakoids, have been shown to reduce feelings of hunger as well as cravings for palatable food in human participants, during diet intervention and simultaneous weight loss in overweight women Stenblom et al, 2013Stenblom et al, , 2014. We found that these effects are connected to an altered secretion of appetite regulating hormones, including ghrelin, cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), in rodents, pigs and humans (Köhnke, Lindbo et al, 2009;Montelius, Osman et al, 2013;Montelius, Szwiec et al, 2013;Montelius et al, 2014).…”