Subjective palatability and appetite after gluten-free pasta: A pilot study

The interest in gluten-free (GF) diet has greatly increased also in people without celiac disease (CD). This pilot study aimed to investigate the postprandial effect of GF-pasta, made by using the pasta-making process applied to artisan wheat pasta, on palatability, appetite sensation, and glucose metabolism in 8 healthy volunteers. Two iso-caloric lunch-meals consisting of: 1) gluten-free pasta (GFP) and 2) refined wheat pasta (RP) were compared in cross-over design. Both subjective appetite, assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS), and blood sample were taken before meal and at half-hour intervals for 4 hours. Palatability was evaluated immediately after the meal-test by VAS. All participants underwent pre- and postprandial energy expenditure (EE) measured by indirect calorimetry. We found that subjective palatability did not significantly differ between meals. Similarly, repeated measures ANOVA showed that GFP did not affect appetite ratings, postprandial glucose, and insulin responses compared to RP. Then, postprandial EE was affected by time (P=0.006), increasing at 60 min, but not by meals. In conclusion, artisanal GFP was as palatable as RP pasta, without affecting perceived satiety and postprandial glycaemia compared to RP in healthy subjects. Clearly, GFP results are preliminary and need to be investigated in larger studies.