“There’s always room for Jell-O,” a jingle introduced in 1964 is now recognized as one of the most successful advertising slogans in history. The name “Jell-O” is clever because it is a play on “gelatin,” the peptide that turns flavoured water into a jelly. Today the famous slogan has sort of been usurped by pseudoscience influencers who trample across social media with the message that a tablespoon of gelatin taken a half hour before eating will leave no room for other foods in the stomach and therefore lead to weight loss. The misinformants mostly recommend unflavoured gelatin powder and have even taken to calling it “nature’s Ozempic,” capitalizing on the frenzy that was spawned by the success of semaglutide, the peptide that is Ozempic’s active ingredient.
Needless to say, the comparison of gelatin to Ozempic is pure poppycock. Yes, they are both peptides but that doesn’t mean anything given that “peptide” is just a general term for a short chain of amino acids. In general, if less than 50 amino acids are joined together, the term “peptide” is used, if more, then the chain is referred to as a protein. Since there are some twenty amino acids that can be found in peptides, the number of ways these can be assembled into a chain is virtually infinite. Gelatin and semaglutide have totally different compositions and gelatin, unlike semaglutide, does not mimic GLP-1, the hormone secreted by the lining of the small intestine that activates receptors on nerve cells in the hypothalamus and brainstem associated with the release of molecules that signal satiety and fullness.
If there is no link to activating GLP-1 receptors, where does the contention that gelatin can control the appetite and promote weight loss come from? The claim that gelatin forms a gel that fills the stomach is bogus. In order to produce a gel, gelatin has to be heated and then cooled. This will not happen at 37oC, roughly the temperature of the stomach. As anyone who has ever made Jell-O knows, the water has to be heated to near boiling to dissolve the gelatin. So, neither GLP-1 receptor activation nor gelling in the stomach are legitimate claims for the supposed appetite reducing effect of gelatin. Is there some other possibility?
As is often the case with the internet rumours that go viral, they snatch a kernel of truth and proceed to grow it out of proportion. In the case of gelatin, that kernel was planted by a study from Holland’s Maastricht University back in 2008. It was already well known at the time that proteins in the diet can suppress the appetite, researchers wondered whether the specific amino acid content makes a difference. They decided to compare the milk protein casein, which contains all the amino acids that humans need, to gelatin that is “incomplete” since it doesn’t contain all the essential amino acids. The hypothesis was that the lack of essential amino acids would cause the body to reject an imbalanced diet and result in a suppression of hunger.
Indeed, that did turn out to be the case but there are some sticking points in the study. Hunger suppression was measured by asking subjects to give a numerical answer on a scale of 1 to 100 to the question “how hungry do you feel right now” at various times after consuming a meal that contained at least 50 grams of gelatin or an equal amount of casein. Hunger suppression was 44% greater after the gelatin supplemented meal. However, no measurement was made on whether any less food was consumed on a subsequent meal! The authors’ conclusion was that “in terms of weight loss for people with obesity, the greater hunger suppressing effect of gelatin may play a role in reducing energy intake if this effect is maintained when consuming a gelatin diet in the long term.” Note the weasel word “may.” It is there because the study presented no evidence of reduced food intake in response to gelatin! Also note that 50 grams is much more than the 7-8 grams of gelatin found in 1 tablespoon which is the amount recommended online in the various versions of the “gelatin weight-loss trick.”
A subsequent study by the same group did show that after a breakfast that contained at least 50 grams of gelatin, there was a 20% reduction in calories consumed at lunch. That is not the same as consuming a spoonful of gelatin 30 minutes before a meal and furthermore, the study did not investigate whether continuing the gelatin-laced breakfast regimen would eventually lead to weight loss. That is just what the researchers then went on to probe. In 2011, they published a study in which they followed 72 overweight people who over 8 weeks consumed a gelatin-laced meal that according to the previous study should have reduced calorie intake at the next meal and therefore lead to weight loss. It didn’t. A reasonable theory was slain by the facts.
And that is where the gelatin story rested until 2025 when all of a sudden, the gelatin “magic trick” was resurrected and scooted into the limelight on social media. No new studies had appeared but someone it seems had come across the early Maastricht University studies, and ignoring the later ones, pulled off the trick of converting “gelatin may help reduce calorie intake” to “gelatin is nature’s Ozempic.” Obviously, a bridge too far. Some huckster even went as far as creating false videos in which Dr. Oz, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Oprah Winfrey appeared to promote the “gelatin trick” for weight loss.
While that trick is utter bunk, gelatin is capable of pulling off a pretty good trick. It can turn water into a jelly! That trick has been known since antiquity with the discovery that boiling of animal skins, bones or tendons produces a broth that sets into a solid jelly on cooling. It was only in the 20th century that the chemistry of this phenomenon was unraveled. Collagen is a protein that is extracted by hot water from animal tissues and with heat is broken down into smaller peptides that are collectively called “gelatin.” The term derives from the Latin “gelare” meaning to “freeze” or “congeal.” The gelatin peptides move about freely in solution but as the solution cools, they begin to form weak bonds to each other, trapping water molecules in the process resulting in a gel.
It was back in 1845 that inventor Peter Cooper managed to isolate gelatin as a dry powder that half a century later came to the attention of Pearle Bixby Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, N.Y. who was looking for a thickening agent to prepare a cough syrup he intended to market. When he realized how well the gelling agent worked, he began experimenting with other uses and eventually he and his wife perfected a fruit flavoured dessert for which Mrs. Wait coined the name Jell-O. It quickly became “America’s favourite dessert” and people still continue to “make room for Jell-O.” But the gelatin’s supposed trick of causing weight loss is just an illusion.
