Effects of Sweetness on Neurocognitive Responses, Glycemia and Food Intake

Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title: The Impact of Dietary Sweetness on Neurocognitive Responses to Visual Food Cues, Appetite and Physiological Parameters on Normal Weight Adults: a Pilot Study

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

This study aims to examine potential differences in neurocognitive responses to food-related cues, physiological and appetite responses as well as subsequent energy intake following the consumption of preloads differing in sweetness and/ or postprandial metabolic effects in healthy normal weight subjects.

Clinical Trial Description

Excess consumption of caloric sweeteners, together with the high availability of palatable food cues are some of the factors for the alarming high rates of overweight and obesity. Although non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) are used to decrease energy content of foods and beverages, there is an on-going debate on the relationship between NNS intake, obesity and cardiometabolic risk. Caloric sugars have a differing effect on physiological responses compared to NNS. However it is almost wholly unknown how NNS consumption affects eating behaviour and cognitive processes.

This study compares the performance on food related neurocognitive tasks following the consumption of the test preloads on 5 visits. In particular, sucrose, glucose, maltodextrin, water or a natural high potency sweetener from leaf extract will be ingested as single test agents in randomized order. Water will be used as a control for gastric distension and non-sweet, whereas maltodextrin will be used as a non-sweet control for carbohydrate content.

Participants will be asked to attend a screening visit at the Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit of the University of Manchester on a morning after overnight fast. Participants' weight and height, fasting blood glucose and blood pressure will be measured. This will be followed by some questionnaires regarding general health status, weight and dieting history and eating behaviour.

Participants who satisfy the inclusion criteria, will be then invited to take part in the full study. This will require 5 separate visits at the University of Manchester, which will be scheduled between 11.30 and 13.30. Participants will have to attend these visits after having fasted for 3-4 hours and will be asked to have their regular breakfast in the morning before the testing session, and then not eat or drink anything else for 3-4 hours until they come in the lab for the testing session. Water will be allowed up to 1 hour prior to your testing session. Prior to each testing session participants will be asked to have the same breakfast, and they will have to provide a picture of the breakfast each time to ensure compliance.

The 5 visits correspond to 5 test beverages, both the participants and the investigators are blinded to the study treatments. Blood will be collected at 0 (before the consumption of the test beverage), 15, 30 and 60 min after the consumption of the drink. Participants will also be asked to rate their feeling of hunger, fullness etc using visual analogue scales (VAS) at the same time points 0, 15, 30 and 60 min.

Fifteen min after the consumption of the drink, participants will complete a set of computer-based tasks. They are designed to capture behaviour in response to food cue presentation. This will last approximately 15 min.

Thirty min after the consumption of the drink, a lunch buffet will be served and participants will be free to eat as much or as little as they like until feeling comfortably full. Each session is anticipated to last for approximately 1 hour. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Obesity

• NCT number: NCT03711084
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Manchester
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 26, 2018
• Completion date: November 15, 2018