Other Eating Disorders Clinical Trial
Official title:
Awakening to the Taste of Food: What Are the Effects on Cognitions and Behaviors About Food and Eating Among Restrained Women?
Energy-restricted diets often require dieting rules, which forced the dieter to eat
according to cognitive norms, which increase his vulnerability to external food cues.
Allowing the recognition of internal hunger and satiety cues by using conscious food tasting
could be helpful among restrained eaters to facilitate an internalized regulation of food
intake.
The objectives of the proposed study are to investigate among restrained women whether
conscious food tasting can influence 1) attitudes and behaviors associated with food and
eating; 2) reliance on hunger and satiety signals; and 3) development of taste and olfactory
memory.
Females (n=50) will be randomly assigned to: 1) experimental group (conscious food tasting
intervention) (n=24), or 2) control group (n=26). The conscious food tasting intervention
will be conducted by a registered dietitian into groups of ten to twelve women during six
weekly 2-hour workshops. Women in the control group will not receive any intervention.
Measurements will be taken at baseline, at the end of the intervention period, and at
12-week post-intervention. Restraint Scale, Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, Mindful
Eating Questionnaire, Intuitive Eating Scale, Body-Esteem Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale will measure attitudes and behaviors associated with food and eating as well as some
aspects related to psychological functioning. The Intuitive Eating Scale and a snack-meal
taste rating task (visual analogue scales) will assess internal hunger/satiety cues.
Vocabulary used to describe the foods will be recorded from the snack-meal taste rating task
and use to assess taste and olfactory memory. Sensory capabilities will be assessed by odour
detection and identification test, and a taste detection test.
The proposed study will provide a better understanding of the effects of conscious food
tasting on eating attitudes and behaviors, which is relevant to dietetic practice as it
could help to promote sustainable healthy eating habits.
In the experimental group (n=24), the conscious food tasting intervention will be conducted
by a registered dietitian into small groups of ten to twelve women during six weekly 2-hour
workshops. Workshops will be taking place in a well-ventilated room to insure that there are
no extraneous odours or noises that may hamper the activities involving senses. To enhance
feeling of belonging to the group as well as the confidence within each participant, time
will be allowed for participants' introduction at the beginning of the first workshop.
Specific themes will be addressed during each of the six workshops. During the first and
second workshops, theoretical notions about weight management and energy-restricted diets,
restrained eating versus intuitive and mindful eating, appetite sensations, sensory-specific
satiety and weight-related issues will be presented by the registered dietitian. The
presentation will be interactive, so that discussion and questions will be foster throughout
the workshops. From the third workshop, basic knowledge and activities related to sensory
food perceptions will be introduced. Prior to food tasting activities, participants will be
advised to avoid drinking coffee or eating chocolate and any other foods with a strong or
persistent taste, and to avoid wearing perfumes, scented lotions and creams as all these
conditions could affect sensory perceptions. During the third workshop, theoretical notions
about taste qualities (sweet, salt, sour, bitter) will be firstly addressed. A taste
activity will then be done using aqueous solutions containing different concentrations of a
taste compound. The objective of this activity will be to let participants experience their
own taste sensitivity level so that they can identify at which concentration level they can
detect different tastes. During the fourth and fifth workshop, theoretical and practical
notions about food tasting techniques will be addressed. The various roles played by other
senses (i.e., sight, hearing, touch, smell) during food tasting will also be experienced by
the participants using practical activities. For that purpose, various foods will be used
such as herbs and spices, cheeses, fruits, chocolate and chips. In addition, one of the most
difficult aspects of tasting evaluation is to find the right words that well-described food
perception. Each participant will thus be guided by the registered dietitian and discuss
about some of the terminology of tasting in order to find out appropriate terms they could
be used to describe the tasted foods. A list of these descriptive words will then be
created, so that they can have their own list of reference. At the end of each food tasting
activities, a discussion will be led by the registered dietitian about appetite sensations,
emotions and recollection of memories associated with the tasted foods. As enjoying eating
involve more than sensory stimulation from the foods, the last workshop will discuss the
cognitive, social and emotional aspects related to tasting and pleasure while eating (e.g.
dichotomized thinking about healthy eating, eating with family and friends, and affective
processes in eating behaviors) in order to integrate these eating-related aspect to a
peaceful relationship with foods.
In the waiting-list control group (n=26), women will be instructed to follow their usual
lifestyle habits for the duration of the study. Over the study period, these women will not
receive any form of contact from the research team, with the exception of post treatment
testing sessions (T=2 and T=3), as performed in the experimental group. To control for
potential confounding effects of other treatments, the investigators will ask to women from
the waiting-list control group to report all consultations with health professionals and/or
any forms of intervention that they received during the course of the study. After the final
testing session at 12-week post-intervention (T=3), women from the control group will be
invited to participate in the conscious food tasting intervention on a voluntary basis.
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Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label