"The increase of overweight and obesity among Europeans is becoming an important health and social issue as overweight people have a higher risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease than normal weight people. The diffusion of the Western diet, rich in energy-dense foods, is one possible cause of weight gain. Grilling, roasting, and frying of foods leads to the formation of Maillard reaction products including non-digestible melanoidins that are primarily found in coffee and bread crust. Melanoidins are structurally similar to vegetable dietary fiber, both are non-digestible dietary components partially fermented in the gut. It is known that dietary fiber is able to trigger short-term satiety through the modulation of gut hormones controlling food intake. The objective of this project is to verify the satiating efficiency of melanoidins. New types of bread enriched with melanoidins from the crust or from coffee will be developed and their effects on short-term satiety will be compared to those elicited by barley beta-glucans-enriched bread and control bread (only crumb, no melanoidins and no dietary fiber). For this purpose a human intervention trial will be performed. In four breakfast sessions, 15 volunteers will consume in a random manner all experimental breads one by one, fill out satiety questionnaires, be submitted to blood drawings at 5 specific time points, and consume an ad libitum lunch 3 h after breakfast. In the rest of the day, they will complete a food diary to assess their 24 h energy intakes. Gut and stress hormones, as well as endocannabinoid concentrations, will be measured in blood samples by Luminex technology and mass spectrometry. Additionally, satiety gene expression in blood samples from 5 subjects at two time points will be measured by a newly developed DNA array. The CHECKMATE-TO-HUNGER project will take advantage of a multidisciplinary approach to clarify mechanisms underlying satiety induced by Maillard reaction products."