Snack bar compositions and their acute glycaemic and satiety effects

Maintaining blood glucose within homeostatic limits and eating foods that sup-press hunger and promote satiety have beneficial impacts for health. This study investigated the glycaemic re-sponse and satiety effects of a serving size of a healthier snack bar, branded Nothing Else, that met the required nutrient profiling score criteria for a health claim, in comparison to two top-selling commercial snack bars.

In an experimental study, 24 participants aged >=50 years were recruited. On three different days blood glucose concentration was measured twice at baseline and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after consumption of a serving size of each bar. Satiety effects were self-reported hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and amount could eat ratings on visual analogue scales.

The incremental area under the blood glucose response curve (iAUC) over two hours for the Nothing Else bar was 30% lower than commercial Bar 2 (p<0.001). At 45 minutes after eating, the Nothing Else bar induced the highest fullness rating and lowest hunger rating among the three snack bars. At two hours, fullness induced by the Nothing Else bar was twice that of Bar 2 (p=0.019), but not different to Bar 1 (p=0.212).

The Nothing Else snack bar developed using the nutrient profiling scheme as a guideline, with its high protein and dietary fibre contents, had a lower glycaemic impact and induced a higher subjective satiety than the two commercial snack bars of equal weight.