5, DIGESTION AND SATIETY. Satiety signals create a sensation of fullness and reduce your desire to eat.

Digestion and satiety

Together, the stomach and intestines are known as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The food you eat passes into this digestive system, where it is processed both mechanically and chemically until it is broken down into small, easily-absorbed fragments.

It is here that carbohydrates are disassembled into simple sugars such as glucose and fructose, most fats are dismantled into fatty acids and monoacylglycerols, and proteins are pulled apart to become amino acids.

Your body then absorbs these basic nutritional units, along with any micronutrients that are present, such as vitamins and minerals. The whole operation of digestion is regulated by signals passing to and fro along the pathways of your enteric nervous system, as well as various hormonal and other chemical signals produced by cells lodged in the lining of your gastrointestinal tract.

Gastrointestinal satiety signals.

Gastrointestinal peptides are synthesized in certain areas of your brain, as well as being manufactured in your GI tract.

Steven Woods, doctor of Physiology, Biophysics and Experimental Psychology in the USA writes, “. . . when food is eaten, it interacts with receptors lining the stomach and intestine, causing the release of peptides and other factors that coordinate the process of digestion with the particular food being consumed. Some of the peptides provide a signal to the nervous system, and as the integrated signal accumulates, it ultimately creates the sensation of fullness and contributes to cessation of eating.

“Although dozens of enzymes, hormones, and other factors are secreted by the GI tract in response to food [inside the GI tract], only a handful are able to influence food intake directly. Most of these cause meals to terminate and hence are called satiety signals…”

Satiety signals create a sensation of fullness and reduce your desire to eat.