Since I started drinking more soups and smoothies and less solid foods, I have dropped a bit of weight. Not a lot, just a few pounds. In addition, I feel less ‘full’ after having liquid meals.
Why is this? Shouldn’t calories be the same, regardless of whether something is in solid or liquid form?
For example, I had a smoothie with two bananas, a cup of blueberries, and two cups of oat milk today. I could never bring myself to actually eat two bananas, a cup of blueberries, and two cups of oat milk *separately,* but blended together I can consume all of that, no problem. Why?
In: Biology
Satiety is dependent on a lot of factors, one of the *least* of which is total caloric content.
The primary differences are chewing and presentation. Chewing begins the digestive process, and releases hormones that make you less hungry. As far as your body is concerned, you’re chewing food, we don’t have to worry about your hunger anymore, its time to think about how we’re gonna track down that puma tomorrow. You skip this step when you drink a protein shake. As far as your body is concerned, if you’re drinking, its water and it should make you feel less thirsty but we still have to worry about hunger.
Presentation also matters. When was the last time you drank a protein shake from 2 glasses?
In a study where participants were fed soup and asked to rate their hunger levels before and after, participants in one condition had to refill their bowl from a pot and participants in the other condition were given a bowl that refilled itself as they ate from it. Participants who ate from the never-ending bowl of soup not only ate more soup on average, they also rated a smaller change in their hunger levels. When you drink a protein shake, its probably from a single cup. Which makes you feel less satiated because “well I only had one, how filling could it have been..?”
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