Role of Dietary Protein on Satiety, Food Intake and Thermic Effect of Food

Role of Dietary Protein in a Familiar Breakfast Meal on Subjective Satiety, Food Intake and Thermic Effect of Food in Normal Weight and Overweight/Obese Children

Objectives: To determine the effect of protein content of familiar breakfast meals on subjective appetite, food intake (FI), glycemic response and Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) in normal weight (NW) and overweight (OW)/obese (OB) children.

Specific Objectives:

1a.To determine the effect of familiar breakfast meals (450 kcal containing eggs and varying in protein content (15, 30, and 45g) on subjective appetite, glycemic response and food intake at a test meal 4 h later in NW and. OW/OB children.

1b. To describe the effect of isocaloric (450 kcal) familiar breakfasts either high in protein (optimal protein from Objective 1a) or low in protein on TEF and substrate utilization over 5 h in NW and OW/OB children.

Hypothesis: The investigators hypothesize that increasing the high-quality protein content of a breakfast meal will dose dependently increase subjective satiety, lower FI and glycemic response, and increase the TEF in both NW and OW/OB children.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 14 y
• Only peri-pubertal girls
• Normal body weight (between the 5th and 85th BMI percentile for age and gender)
• OW/OB (>85th BMI percentile for age and gender)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Food sensitivities
• Food allergies
• Dietary restrictions
• Health, learning, emotional or behavioural problems
• On any medication