Energy density of food, gastric emptying, and obesity

Certain receptors in the duodenal mucosa respond to the osomotic effects of the digestion products of dietary carbohydrates and proteins with a resultant slowing of gastric emptying. Other receptors respond to the soaps formed during the digestion of fats. The relative effectiveness of these two sets of receptors is such that foods with equal energy produce equal slowing of gastric emptying. Thus the rate of delivery of energy to the duodenum, and hence to the blood, can be regulated without the energy having been directly measured. The results in the literature that we have examined are consistent with this duodenal system playing some part in the regulation of food intake.