Texture affects satiety

An apple to bite and apple puree come from the same fruit, but do not always provide the same feeling of fullness. An experiment conducted on 58 adults highlights the role of texture, without making apple puree a food to avoid.

Snack choices and fullness

At snack time, the choice sometimes seems trivial: an apple to bite, apple puree in a bottle, a glass of juice... Same fruit, same image of "healthy snack," but not necessarily the same feeling of fullness an hour later. The difference is not only in taste: it can also come from texture, the time spent eating and the act of chewing.

Study on apple forms

An experiment published in 2009 in the journal Appetite illustrates this among 58 adults. Under these conditions, the apple chunks provided more satiety than the apple puree or juice, and participants ate less at the following lunch.

Experiment setup

The study was conducted by researchers from Penn State University, in the United States. Each participant tested, during different sessions, several forms of apple before a meal: an apple in chunks, apple puree, apple juice, fiber-enriched juice, as well as a control situation.

Same energy, different effects

The key point is important for interpreting the result: the preloads were prepared to provide the same amount of energy. The difference observed therefore cannot be summarized as "one was more caloric than the other."

Limitations of the study

After the apple chunks, participants reported a higher level of satiety than after the apple puree or juices. They also consumed less energy at the subsequent lunch. In other words, in this specific experiment, the solid form of the fruit seemed to help better to hold until the meal. This conclusion remains targeted. The study focuses on 58 adults, in an experimental setting, with a short-term observation: the feeling and the intake at the following meal. It does not prove that an entire apple causes weight loss in the long term, nor that all apple purees would have the same effect on hunger.