Hunger and satiety

Full4Health is an EU-FP7 funded project comprising 19 academic and industry partners from across Europe which is investigating the mechanisms of hunger and satiety with the aim of developing solutions to address obesity, related chronic disease as well as under-nutrition. The Full4Health project is based around the concept of the food-gut-brain axis. In essence, the food and drinks we consume interact with the gut (gastrointestinal tract) at various levels from the mouth through to the lower bowel. These interactions not only provide for the digestion of food and the assimilation of nutrient into the body, but also generate feedback signals to the brain relating to physical fullness, passage of digesta and nutrients down the gut, localized and bloodstream hormone and metabolite concentrations and the digestive process itself. To address the complex signaling in an integrated physiological system, Full4Health has component research projects targeted along the food-gut-brain axis. Its overarching aim is to understand how appetite is regulated by signals from the gut that arise in response to the passage of specific food components and by validating that understanding through intervention studies to generate evidence-based recommendations about food composition that preserve the satisfying properties of food and its nutritional value, while reducing overall calorie intake. Full4Health is closely associated with a thematically related EU project, SATIN, (SATiety Innovation). The EU-funded projects Full4Health and SATIN offer the opportunity to assess whether food could also become part of the solution to the problem of overweight, by harnessing its physiological interactions with the gut. There is unlikely to be a single strategy to combat the problem of overweight and obesity and for individuals who already have a significant weight problem, surgery is likely to be a more viable approach than a diet-based intervention.