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Food Marketers Target Dieters

Major food marketers are working overtime to create new products that appeal to diet-conscious consumers who want to eat less but still feel satisfied. The lineup of companies jumping into the fray includes Nestle, Unilever, and Kraft Foods, all of whom are experimenting with special starches, new types of fiber and other processes to develop foods that will appeal to dieters. The reason is that while sales in the overall food industry are relatively flat, the diet food category is growing quickly. In the case of Unilever, the company's goal is to trick the body through science. The marketer's technology focuses on the "ileal brake mechanism." The ileum is the lower part of the small intestine, an area that fat penetrates only when there is too much for the body to process. When it does, the ileum sends a message to the brain that the body is full. Unilever found a way to alter the structure and the coating of fat molecules so that they remain intact as they pass through the digestive system and trigger a sated response when they hit the ileum. Unilever says the technique can convince the body that it has consumed 500 calories-- the equivalent of a ham and cheese sandwich--when it really had consumed only 190, which is the amount contained in a Unilever SlimFast shake.

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