The Benefits of a Lower-Sugar Afternoon Hummus Snack

The Potential Health Benefits of Hummus

Hummus is a creamy mixture of mashed chickpeas with tahini, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and various spices. It has increased in popularity globally in recent years because, like all legumes, it has a low glycemic index, is high in nutrients and fiber, and tastes good. The glycemic index is a rating given to a particular food indicating the rise in glucose level two hours after eating such food on its own. So it is possible that eating hummus as an afternoon snack might lead to improved body weight, increased satiety, and prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

High-glycemic foods are digested and absorbed quickly and can promote overeating. On the other hand, low-glycemic foods, like hummus, are digested and absorbed more slowly and can promote weight management through better blood sugar control and subsequent reductions in food intake.

This randomized, crossover design study aimed to determine whether a lower-sugar afternoon hummus snack, compared with a typical higher-sugar snack, improves diet quality, appetite, satiety, and glycemic control compared with no snacking in healthy adults.

The Study on Low-Sugar Hummus Snack for Improving Diet Quality, Appetite, Satiety, and Glycemic Control

39 healthy, normal-to-obese adults completed the following afternoon snack patterns for six days each pattern: HUMMUS contains four tablespoons (T) of roasted red pepper hummus, ten original pretzel crisps, and 237 milliliters (ml) of water. BARS contains 57 grams (g) of granola bars and 237 ml of water. NO SNACK had only 237 ml of water.

On Day 3 of each pattern, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) was inserted under the skin in the abdominal area, and free-living glycemic control was assessed up to Day 8. The CGM can measure glucose every 10 seconds and record an average glucose value every five minutes for 144 hours.

On day 7 of each pattern, the testing day, between 7:00 and 9:00 AM, the participants ate a standardized breakfast of quesadillas and pineapple bits ad libitum, meaning as much as they wished to. Before they took their standardized lunch, they completed an appetite, satiety, and mood questionnaire. After lunch of pizza and crème de menthe thin mints, they filled out pre-snack appetite, satiety, and mood assessment forms. Three hours after lunch, they ate their respective snacks for 20 minutes and assessed their palatability. Appetite, satiety, and mood questionnaires were measured for the remainder of the day until a standardized dinner was provided three hours after snack. They were given four options to choose from for dinner: 1) beef teriyaki, 2) four-cheese ravioli and chicken marinara, 3) kung pao chicken, and 4) tortellini primavera. After dinner, they were provided a snack cooler and were permitted to snack ad libitum that evening. In addition to the participants’ assessments, they also reported when they wanted to eat again to measure actual satiety. The following day, the participants returned the snack cooler and had the CGM removed. There was a seven-day gap between each testing day.

The Results

HUMMUS led to greater dietary compensation compared with BARS. Both the HUMMUS and BARS snacks led to fewer calories consumed in the evening than NO SNACK. HUMMUS significantly reduced subsequent snacking on desserts by about 20% compared with NO SNACK and BARS.

HUMMUS also significantly reduced indices of appetite like hunger, desire to eat, and prospective food consumption by about 70% compared with NO SNACK, whereas BARS did not. Additionally, satiety was 30% significantly greater following HUMMUS and BARS than NO SNACK. The HUMMUS snack led to noticeably smaller declines in daily and after-snack alertness than NO SNACK and BARS. Lastly, HUMMUS significantly lowered afternoon blood glucose concentrations by 5% compared with BARS.

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