Orange pomace fibre increases a composite scoring of subjective ratings of hunger and fullness in healthy adults

Dietary fibre has been shown to increase subjective satiating ratings. However data from human trials has produced mixed results, possibly due to different types of fibre which have diverse physicochemical properties and gastrointestinal transit behaviour. The aim of study 1 was to investigate whether orange juice (OJ) with 5.5 g of added orange pomace fibre (OPF) was as satiating as whole orange (WO, chopped and blended to a puree/liquid) compared with OJ. Study 2 was to evaluate the dose-dependent satiating effect of OPF delivered in an orange-flavoured beverage. Both studies were randomized, controlled, double blind, cross over in design with 4 intervention arms in study 1 including OJ, OPF, WO, and water, and 3 arms in study 2: orange-flavoured beverage with low (2.5 g) and high (5.5 g) dose of OPF (LD-OPF and HD-OPF), and orange-flavoured beverage without fibre (Control). Volunteers were asked to response to 8 questions relating to hunger, fullness, desire to eat, thirst and discomfort by visual analogue scale (VAS) for each question. Differences were detected in least squares mean estimates of composite satiety scores and each individual question with statistical modelling to adjust for differences in baseline scores. Addition of 5.5 g OPF either to OJ or to orange-flavoured beverage significantly increased the composite satiety scores compared with OJ (P < 0.0001) or Control (P < 0.0001), and the effect was comparative to WO. LD-OPF showed some satiating effect (less desire to eat) compared with Control (P = 0.038), though less effective than HD-OPF (P = 0.043). In conclusion, the addition of OPF to OJ was as effective at increasing satiety as WO consumption compared with OJ; and there was a trend of dose-dependent effect of OPF on satiety compared with the control.