The group of researchers working for Nestlé S.A. were commissioned with a very challenging task: to invent foods that would artificially create a more lasting sense of satiety to help consumers all over the world fight obesity. This can be done through the careful research of the instincts associated with digestions and processes that constitute the work of so-called ‘gut-brain’.

Image: Wall Street Journal, www.online.wsj.com

According to the Wall Street Journal, Nestlé digesting laboratory is using a million-dollar gut that imitates the work of human digesion system to experiment with different sorts of products.

The eventual aim of the scientists it to come up with the foods that could make consumers feel full earlier and keep this sense for a longer time, in order to minimize the desire to eat more.

Nestlé is not the only food giant who works on the problem of «outwitting the gut brain». Unilever’s Slim-Fast product series «address the issue of hunger control head-on, by utilizing the body’s natural ability to signal satiety and control hunger for up to four hours», according to Unilever’s website. Wall Street Jounal reports that so do other food producers like Kellogg’s and Royal DSM.

According to Nestlé S.A., satiety-inducing food products will be available in 5 years. Although researchers refused to name the products they are working on, they said it could be for example, a special type of vegetable oil that takes longer to digest and will give the digestion system a harder work than normal.