It makes food taste good without bringing the feeling of satiety. People can eat a whole bag of Doritos without feeling full, despite consuming a full day’s worth of calories.
The taste vs satiety hacking of modern fast food is a reasonable hypothesis on the cause of the obesity crisis.
It’s not just MSG though. It’s also disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate which work together with MSG to produce the most profound umami response.
No, those salts don’t affect satiation at all. They just affect taste. The satiety part has to do with food bulk.
Potatoes are a good example. Very high in carbs, like Doritos, but also very bulky. The bulk makes you feel full, unlike the Doritos, so you cannot eat a huge amount. Potatoes also don’t come with the flavour enhancing salts so people don’t want to stuff themselves anyway (unless they add the ingredients themselves, such as with loaded baked potatoes).
I believe a prison actually experimented with this. Gave the prisoners all you can eat plain boiled potatoes with nothing to dress them up. The prisoners actually lost weight because they only ate enough to feel full, not to gorge themselves. On the other hand, rats will become obese on all you can eat Doritos but not on plain rat food.
It makes food taste good without bringing the feeling of satiety. People can eat a whole bag of Doritos without feeling full, despite consuming a full day’s worth of calories.
The taste vs satiety hacking of modern fast food is a reasonable hypothesis on the cause of the obesity crisis.
It’s not just MSG though. It’s also disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate which work together with MSG to produce the most profound umami response.
Or is it because you ate something that’s low on protein so your body needs a key macronutrient?
Would you feel more satiated if Doritos had no MSG in it? I doubt it
No, those salts don’t affect satiation at all. They just affect taste. The satiety part has to do with food bulk.
Potatoes are a good example. Very high in carbs, like Doritos, but also very bulky. The bulk makes you feel full, unlike the Doritos, so you cannot eat a huge amount. Potatoes also don’t come with the flavour enhancing salts so people don’t want to stuff themselves anyway (unless they add the ingredients themselves, such as with loaded baked potatoes).
I believe a prison actually experimented with this. Gave the prisoners all you can eat plain boiled potatoes with nothing to dress them up. The prisoners actually lost weight because they only ate enough to feel full, not to gorge themselves. On the other hand, rats will become obese on all you can eat Doritos but not on plain rat food.