Hypothesis
Raising the energy density and the volume density of rations should act together on appetite, and the positive link between energy density and intake should still hold at moderate-to-high densities.
What failed
Twenty healthy men completed four two-day crossover treatments; no energy-density-by-volume-density interactions appeared, and raising volume density produced no compensatory cut in self-selected intake, while total intake was 276 kcal lower (p = 0.01) on the low-volume-density treatments.
Broken assumption
Appetite compensates for the volume of food eaten the way it compensates for its energy density.
Why
The authors note that only a small isovolumetric portion of the diet was manipulated, and read the volume-density null as an opportunity rather than a problem.
From the published paper: Hatch‐McChesney et al. Appetite, 2024. ↗CC BY