Background: Breakfast skipping is a common dietary habit practiced among adolescents and is strongly associated with obesity.

Background: Although protein-rich plant foods have recently been touted as an equivalent to animal products, limited data exist regarding the effects

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a high-protein afternoon yogurt snack improves appetite control, satiety, and reduces subsequent food intake compared to other commonly-consumed, energy dense, high-fat snacks. Twenty, healthy women (age: 27 ± 2 y; BMI: 23.4 ± 0.7 kg/m2) completed the randomized crossover design study which included 3, 8-h testing days comparing the following 160 kcal afternoon snacks: high-protein yogurt (14 g protein/25 g CHO/0 g fat); high-fat crackers (0 g protein/19 g CHO/9 g fat); and high-fat chocolate (2 g protein/19 g CHO/9 g fat). Participants were acclimated to each snack for 3 consecutive days. On day 4, the participants consumed a standardized breakfast and lunch; the respective snack was consumed 3-h post-lunch. Perceived hunger and fullness were assessed throughout the afternoon until dinner was voluntarily requested. An ad libitum dinner was then provided. The consumption of the yogurt snack led to greater reductions in afternoon hunger vs. chocolate (p < 0.01). No differences in afternoon fullness were detected. The yogurt snack also delayed eating initiation by approximately 30 min compared to the chocolate snack (p < 0.01) and approximately 20 min vs. crackers (p = 0.07). The yogurt snack led to approximately 100 fewer kcals consumed at dinner vs. the crackers (p = 0.08) and chocolate (p < 0.05). No other differences were detected. These data suggest that, when compared to high-fat snacks, eating less energy dense, high-protein snacks like yogurt improves appetite control, satiety, and reduces subsequent food intake in healthy women.

Background: A large portion of daily intake comes from snacking. One of the increasingly common, healthier snacks includes Greek-style yogurt, which is typically higher in protein than regular yogurt. This study evaluated whether a 160 kcal higher-protein (HP) Greek-style yogurt snack improves appetite control, satiety, and delays subsequent eating compared to an isocaloric normal protein (NP) regular yogurt in healthy women. This study also identified the factors that predict the onset of eating. Findings: Thirty-two healthy women (age: 27 ± 2y; BMI: 23.0 ± 0.4 kg/m²) completed the acute, randomized crossover-design study. On separate days, participants came to our facility to consume a standardized lunch followed by the consumption of the NP (5.0 g protein) or HP (14.0 g protein) yogurt at 3 h post-lunch. Perceived hunger and fullness were assessed throughout the afternoon until dinner was voluntarily requested; ad libitum dinner was then provided. Snacking led to reductions in hunger and increases in fullness. No differences in post-snack perceived hunger or fullness were observed between the NP and HP yogurt snacks. Dinner was voluntarily requested at approximately 2:40 ± 0:05 h post-snack with no differences between the HP vs. NP yogurts. Ad libitum dinner intake was not different between the snacks (NP: 686 ± 33 kcal vs. HP: 709 ± 34 kcal; p = 0.324). In identifying key factors that predict eating initiation, perceived hunger, fullness, and habitual dinner time accounted for 30% of the variability of time to dinner request (r = 0.55; p < 0.001). Conclusions: The additional 9 g of protein contained in the high protein Greek yogurt was insufficient to elicit protein-related improvements in markers of energy intake regulation.