What if you didn’t have to take a shot to lose weight? What if all you had to do was sprinkle a special powder into your dinner, blend it into a smoothie, or bake it into a loaf of bread? According to researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow, that idea is just around the corner, as the EU recently approved it.
After 15 years of research, the European Union has approved a dietary fiber called inulin propionate ester, or IPE, for use as a novel food ingredient. Instead of helping people rapidly shed pounds like Ozempic and other GLP-1s, IPE is designed to slow down the slow creep of weight gain that happens over the years.
The white powder itself is a combo of inulin and propionate, the former being a fiber naturally found in vegetables and the latter being a fatty acid produced by gut bacteria. When combined, they deliver propionate directly to the colon, where it stimulates hormones that help people feel full. In clinical trials, only about 10 grams a day reduced appetite and helped prevent weight gain.
Researchers also found some signs that it might preserve lean muscle and improve liver fat.
Researchers Say This Food Additive Could Help People Feel Fuller and Gain Less Weight
The best part is that you don’t need to jab yourself with a needle. The idea is to be able to mix IPE into your regular diet, whether it’s over a bowl of corn flakes, the way people used to douse their cereals with sugar, or even in a hearty beef stew, if you want. It isn’t being positioned as a replacement for weight-loss meds, but as a way to make them less necessary by slowing weight gain before it becomes a more serious issue down the line.
IPE took about 15 years to develop, and the European Food Safety Authority spent 6 years reviewing safety data before the European Commission granted final approval. There’s still one major hurdle: production.
For now, the research team can only manufacture small pilot batches, so they’ve launched a startup called Satisfied to scale production in the hope of one day bringing IPE to market.