Effect of high-fat meals and fatty acid saturation on postprandial levels of the hormones ghrelin and leptin in healthy men

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Ghrelin.

The researchers investigated whether high-fat meals, which differed in saturated fatty acid (SFA) content acutely modified these hormones.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, men only.

Fasting and postprandial measurements of serum total ghrelin (RIA), leptin (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) and insulin (RIA) were made over 6 h.

Postprandial measurements were also made at 10 and 24 h following a fat-exclusion lunch, snack and dinner.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and crossover.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Ghrelin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Ghrelin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Ghrelin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Meals comprised either high (approximately 70:30) or low (approximately 55:45) saturated:unsaturated fatty acid (SFA:USFA) ratio.

A total of 18 lean, healthy men.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Area Under Curve, Circadian Rhythm, Dietary Fats, Dietary Fats, Unsaturated, Fasting, Ghrelin and Insulin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and crossover study of Ghrelin.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2006 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.