A Candy That Curbs Your Cravings?

Putting the brakes on mindless eating can be a difficult task, but a new type of candy may help.

Created by San Francisco entrepreneur Mark Bernstein, MealEnders are small dessert lozenges that claim to help slow the overeating process by giving your body time for satiety hormones to kick in.

MealEnders are touted to be a low-calorie and stimulant-free option for overeaters.

An outer “reward” layer in the candy triggers the taste buds that perceive sweetness, signaling the end of a meal, while the inner layer activates a cool, tingling sensation that engages the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for the motor senses of biting and chewing.

Lozenge looks to battle the ‘overeating zone’ of a meal

By taking a MealEnder lozenge when you are about 80 percent full, the 20 minutes that Bernstein calls the “Overeating Zone” (which occurs at the tail end of a meal) is spent allowing the body to “catch up” with natural satiety signals.

“Unlike other diets or diet aids that focus solely on your stomach, MealEnders cue the cessation of eating by targeting the mind’s attention and the body’s reaction to sensations,” says MealEnder’s website.

While Bernstein hasn’t conducted research, he says he has received support from nutrition professionals and customers.

“At its core our product is a food, and like other foods people can decide rather instantly whether they like it, whether it tastes good, whether it helps them to not want to eat more,” Bernstein said in an article on Fast Company .

The lozenges are about 15 calories each and come in a variety of flavors, like Chocolate Mint and Cinnamon.

Source: Fast Company