Rye breakfasts, appetite and energy intake at lunch
What it found
In 10 healthy people, rye products at breakfast led to lower insulin responses than white wheat bread, and boiled rye kernels led to eating 16% less at a later lunch.
Rye kernels also kept blood sugar up for longer.
What they found
Studies in people
Insulin after breakfast
All rye products and boiled wheat kernels led to lower insulin responses than white wheat bread. The kernel-based products gave the lowest insulin responses.
Blood sugar response
Most rye products led to a lower early blood sugar rise than white wheat bread. Boiled rye kernels kept blood sugar elevated for longer than white wheat bread or wheat kernels.
Lunch energy intake
After the boiled rye kernel breakfast, people ate 16% less energy at the buffet lunch than after the white wheat bread breakfast. Their total energy intake over breakfast and lunch was also lower.
Fullness and hunger
In the first hour after breakfast, all test products made people feel fuller than white wheat bread. Rye kernels also led to less desire to eat in the hour before lunch.
Gut fermentation
Rye kernels led to more breath hydrogen before lunch than white wheat bread, a sign of fermentation in the gut. Higher breath hydrogen was linked to lower energy intake at lunch.
Appetite hormones
A longer-lasting blood sugar rise was linked to lower ghrelin levels before lunch. Lower ghrelin was in turn linked to eating less at lunch.
What the authors conclude
“A high intake of rye products could contribute to a lowered energy intake, and thus protect against obesity.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say rye products, especially whole kernels, decrease appetite after breakfast and lower energy intake at a later lunch.
- They suggest that the indigestible carbohydrates and soluble fiber in rye may affect fullness through a bulking effect and through fermentation in the gut.
- They call for longer-term studies to test whether a high intake of rye products could help protect against obesity.
How it was done
Rye products have been shown to lower the body's insulin demand after a meal and to produce a slow, long-lasting rise in blood sugar. The authors wanted to understand why this happens and whether rye also affects appetite.
They gave 10 healthy men and women breakfasts containing 50 g of available starch from different rye breads, boiled rye or wheat kernels, or white wheat bread, in random order on 7 occasions. They measured blood sugar, insulin, appetite hormones, breath hydrogen and feelings of fullness for 270 minutes, then served a buffet lunch and recorded how much people ate.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a small study with 10 people and only looked at single meals, so it cannot show what happens over weeks or months.
- The study measured appetite and food intake at one lunch, not body weight or long-term health.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Lund University, Sweden
The paper
- Title
- Effects of cereal breakfasts on postprandial glucose, appetite regulation and voluntary energy intake at a subsequent standardized lunch; focusing on rye products
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Rosén LA, Ostman EM, Björck IM (2011). Effects of cereal breakfasts on postprandial glucose, appetite regulation and voluntary energy intake at a subsequent standardized lunch; focusing on rye products. Nutrition journal. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-10-7Free full textPubMed 21247415DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error