The Effect of Dietary Sugar Consumption on Sweet Taste Perception

N/ACompletedNCT02090478

Monell Chemical Senses Center50 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of the study is to determine how reducing the amount of simple sugars in the diet affects sweet taste perception. Healthy adult subjects will be assigned to either follow their usual diet, or to replace sugar calories with fats or starch. The investigators hypothesize that eating less sugar will: 1. cause foods and drinks with a given amount of sugar to taste sweeter 2. cause people to prefer lower levels of sugar in foods and drinks

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Sweet Taste Perception

Interventions

Low sugar dietOTHER

All subjects followed their usual diet during month 1. For months 2-4: sham diet intervention for the control group, 40% reduction in sugar calories for the experimental group. All subjects were allowed to chose any diet they wished during month 5.

Sham diet manipulationOTHER

Subjects in the control group will meet with a dietician and discuss diet records, but the dietician will not instruct the control subjects to reduce the number of calories from simple sugars in the diet

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 60 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Good general heath (by self report) * Consume at least 2 sugar-containing soft drinks/day on average) * Able to control diet (select their own foods) Exclusion Criteria: * Major illness of any kind within the last six months, or any chronic illness * Daily use of medication, except for birth control, vitamins, and aspirin * Regularly consume non-nutritive sweeteners * Pregnant women * Gained or lost 10% or more of their body weight in the last 3 months

Locations (1)

Monell Chemical Senses Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in Sweet Taste Intensity over Five Months

Subjects rated the sweetness of pudding and beverage samples that varied in sucrose concentration during each study month to determine how perception changes over time with diet manipulations

Time frame: Monthly (for five months)

Change in Pleasantness Over Five Months

Subjects rated hedonic value (degree to which the sample was pleasant) for model pudding and beverages that differed in concentration of sucrose once each month over five months to determine how perception changed over time with the diet manipulation

Time frame: Monthly (five month participation duration total)

Secondary Outcomes

Sucrose detection thresholds

Test of the minimum concentration of sucrose solution that subjects can discriminate from water. Forced-choice, ascending concentration method.

Time frame: Every month (for five months)

Body mass index

BMI, calculated based on weight and height. This was measured both to balance treatment groups and to ensure that assigned diets maintained adequate energy balance (no change in BMI over the study was the ideal outcome for all groups)

Time frame: Every month (five months total)

Diet records

Subject reported in detail the types and quantities of the foods and beverages they ate.

Time frame: Every month (five month total)

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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