Given the increasing evidence that supports the ability of humans to taste non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), recent studies have sought to determine if relationships exist between oral sensitivity ...to NEFA (measured as thresholds), food intake and obesity. Published findings suggest there is either no association or an inverse association. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to determine if differences in fatty acid taste sensitivity or intensity ratings exist between individuals who are lean or obese. A total of 7 studies that reported measurement of taste sensations to non-esterified fatty acids by psychophysical methods (e.g.,studies using model systems rather than foods, detection thresholds as measured by a 3-alternative forced choice ascending methodology were included in the meta-analysis. Two other studies that measured intensity ratings to graded suprathreshold NEFA concentrations were evaluated qualitatively. No significant differences in fatty acid taste thresholds or intensity were observed. Thus, differences in fatty acid taste sensitivity do not appear to precede or result from obesity.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Taste is frequently cited as an important factor in food choice, and while a number of studies have attempted to identify relationships between taste function and dietary intake, a systematic review ...of these studies has been lacking. This review identified studies that examined associations between taste function or taste perception and dietary intake. The purpose was to determine which taste measure was most closely associated with dietary intake in healthy adults. Studies that measured some component of dietary intake, either acutely or longer-term, were eligible for inclusion. Studies were grouped into three categories: those that measured sensitivity (thresholds), intensity, or hedonic responses to sweet stimuli. Sensitivity and intensity studies demonstrated little association with dietary intake measures. Hedonic measurements were more likely to be associated with dietary intake, especially if sweet likers were analyzed separately from sweet dislikers, but the degree of heterogeneity among stimulus concentrations and dietary measures as well as small sample sizes likely obscured more consistent relationships between hedonic evaluation and dietary intake. Due to the potential for within-day and between-day variability in both taste function and dietary intake, future work should explore obtaining more than one taste measurement before comparing results to longer-term dietary assessments and attempts to standardize methods.
The human body associates sensory cues with metabolic consequences. Exposure to sweet-tasting sugars – even in the absence of ingestion – triggers physiological responses that are associated with ...carbohydrate digestion, absorption and metabolism. These responses include the release of insulin and incretin hormones, which work to reduce blood glucose. For this reason, non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) have been posited to trigger similar physiological responses and reduce postprandial blood glucose concentrations. The first part of this review presents a brief overview of sweet taste receptor activation in the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract and the ensuing physiological responses related to glucose homeostasis. The second part of this review contains a systematic literature review that tested the hypothesis that NNS use improves glucose regulation postprandially. Studies were grouped based on sweet taste receptor stimulation paradigms, including pre-ingestive stimulation, ingestion of NNS alone, co-ingestion of NNS with foods, and using NNS as preloads to influence subsequent blood glucose excursions. In summary, the review found that NNS triggered physiological responses, albeit inconsistently, yet failed to significantly lower blood glucose levels in almost all studies.
•Taste has important nutritional and health implications.•Activation of sweet taste receptors by sugars triggers physiological responses.•These responses improve glucose homeostasis.•Non-nutritive sweeteners activate receptors but do not improve glucose homeostasis.
Oral microbiome dysbiosis has been associated with various local and systemic human diseases such as dental caries, periodontal disease, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Bacterial composition may ...be affected by age, oral health, diet, and geography, although information about the natural variation found in the general public is still lacking. In this study, citizen-scientists used a crowdsourcing model to obtain oral bacterial composition data from guests at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to determine if previously suspected oral microbiome associations with an individual's demographics, lifestyle, and/or genetics are robust and generalizable enough to be detected within a general population. Consistent with past research, we found bacterial composition to be more diverse in youth microbiomes when compared to adults. Adult oral microbiomes were predominantly impacted by oral health habits, while youth microbiomes were impacted by biological sex and weight status. The oral pathogen Treponema was detected more commonly in adults without recent dentist visits and in obese youth. Additionally, oral microbiomes from participants of the same family were more similar to each other than to oral microbiomes from non-related individuals. These results suggest that previously reported oral microbiome associations are observable in a human population containing the natural variation commonly found in the general public. Furthermore, these results support the use of crowdsourced data as a valid methodology to obtain community-based microbiome data.
This study examined the effects of one night of sleep curtailment on hunger, food cravings, food reward, and portion size selection. Women who reported habitually sleeping 7⁻9 h per night, were aged ...18⁻55, were not obese, and had no sleep disorders were recruited. Sleep conditions in this randomized crossover study consisted of a normal night (NN) and a curtailed night (CN) where time in bed was reduced by 33%. Hunger, tiredness, sleep quality, sleepiness, and food cravings were measured. A progressive ratio task using chocolates assessed the food reward. Participants selected portions of various foods that reflected how much they wanted to eat at that time. The sleep duration was measured using a single-channel electroencephalograph. Twenty-four participants completed the study. The total sleep time was shorter during the CN (
< 0.001). Participants reported increased hunger (
= 0.013), tiredness (
< 0.001), sleepiness (
< 0.001), and food cravings (
= 0.002) after the CN. More chocolate was consumed after the CN (
= 0.004). Larger portion sizes selected after the CN resulted in increased energy plated for lunch (
= 0.034). In conclusion, the present study observed increased hunger, food cravings, food reward, and portion sizes of food after a night of modest sleep curtailment. These maladaptive responses could lead to higher energy intake and, ultimately, weight gain.
Nematodes play an important role in ecosystem processes, yet the relevance of nematode species diversity to ecology is unknown. Because nematode identification of all individuals at the species level ...using standard techniques is difficult and time-consuming, nematode communities are not resolved down to the species level, leaving ecological analysis ambiguous. We assessed the suitability of massively parallel sequencing for analysis of nematode diversity from metagenomic samples. We set up four artificial metagenomic samples involving 41 diverse reference nematodes in known abundances. Two samples came from pooling polymerase chain reaction products amplified from single nematode species. Two additional metagenomic samples consisted of amplified products of DNA extracted from pooled nematode species. Amplified products involved two rapidly evolving ~400-bp sections coding for the small and large subunit of rRNA. The total number of reads ranged from 4159 to 14771 per metagenomic sample. Of these, 82% were > 199 bp in length. Among the reads > 199 bp, 86% matched the referenced species with less than three nucleotide differences from a reference sequence. Although neither rDNA section recovered all nematode species, the use of both loci improved the detection level of nematode species from 90 to 97%. Overall, results support the suitability of massively parallel sequencing for identification of nematodes. In contrast, the frequency of reads representing individual species did not correlate with the number of individuals in the metagenomic samples, suggesting that further methodological work is necessary before it will be justified for inferring the relative abundances of species within a nematode community.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased the already high levels of stress that higher education students experience. Stress influences health behaviors, including those related ...to dietary behaviors, alcohol, and sleep; yet the effects of stress can be mitigated by resilience. To date, past research studying the connections between dietary behaviors, alcohol misuse, sleep, and resilience commonly investigated singular relationships between two of the constructs. The aim of the current study was to explore the relationships between these constructs in a more holistic manner using mediation and moderation analyses.
Higher education students from China, Ireland, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the United States were enrolled in a cross-sectional study from April to May 2020, which was during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for most participants. An online survey, using validated tools, was distributed to assess perceived stress, dietary behaviors, alcohol misuse, sleep quality and duration, and resilience.
2254 students completed the study. Results indicated that sleep quality mediated the relationship between perceived stress and dietary behaviors as well as the relationship between perceived stress and alcohol misuse. Further, increased resilience reduced the strength of the relationship between perceived stress and dietary behaviors but not alcohol misuse.
Based on these results, higher education students are likely to benefit from sleep education and resilience training, especially during stressful events.
There is a growing body of literature that links chronotype to certain undesirable eating behaviors. However, the relationship between chronotype and dietary intake is poorly characterized among ...adults in the United States (U.S.). This cross-sectional study examined the associations among chronotype, snacking habits, dietary intake and quality, and food cravings. One-hundred adults living in the U.S. completed the study. Based on the Horne-Östberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire score, an individual was categorized as having either a morning (M)-type, intermediate (I)-type, or evening (E)-type chronotype. Snack intake was assessed using a previously published specialized food frequency questionnaire. Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake was assessed using the updated version of the Beverage Intake Questionnaire-15. Alcohol misuse was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption. Diet quality was obtained using the Diet History Questionnaire III. The validated General Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait measured participants' food cravings. E-type individuals reported consuming snacks more often over the course of a week than M-types (p = .002) but not I-types. In terms of timing of snacking, E-type individuals consumed more snacks after dinner than M-types (p < .001). E-type individuals consumed more energy-dense snacks (p = .005), especially candies (p = .005), than M-types. However, there were no significant differences in healthy snack frequency, diet quality, energy and macronutrient intake, SSB consumption, alcohol misuse, or food cravings among chronotypes (p > .05, for all). In conclusion, E-type individuals consumed snacks more frequently and later than M-types; however, chronotype was not associated with an individual's energy intake, diet quality, and food cravings, which suggests that chronotype is negligibly associated with weight gain-related behaviors in this population.
Objectives: To characterize the health behaviors and outcomes of first-year international students (FYIS) studying in the U.S. Participants and methods: Three different cohorts of FYIS from a large ...midwestern university in the U.S. completed three laboratory visits between August and March. The study began in 2017 and ended in March 2020. Anthropometrics, acculturative stress, eating behaviors, sleep, physical activity, and eating habits were assessed. Results: Fifty-four students completed the study. Females had a significant increase in percent body fat (p = .036) and a decrease in sleep quality (p = .006) at the final visit vs. baseline, and uncontrolled (p = .006) and emotional (p < .001) eating behaviors were higher. FYIS who gained more than the median 1.2 kg over the study period experienced higher acculturative stress (p = .004) and a decline in sleep quality (p = .003). Conclusion: Reducing acculturative stress and improving sleep quality should be explored as interventions to protect against undesirable changes in adiposity among FYIS.
Eating behaviors are a set of cognitive processes that influence dietary decision making and, thus, overall health. Some of the most studied eating behaviors are those characterized by the Three ...Factor Eating Questionnaire-18 (TFEQ). The TFEQ examines three eating behaviors: emotional eating (EE), uncontrolled eating (UE), and restrained eating (RE). While frequently used, there is little information characterizing these eating behaviors in the Ghanaian population. This cross-sectional study describes EE, UE, and RE behaviors in a university student population (n = 129) in Ghana. Of the three behaviors, EE was the only one associated with any of the health outcomes in this study: BMI for males (r = 0.388,
= 0.002) and anxiety (r = 0.471,
< 0.001, higher score is less desirable), and sleep quality (r = 0.464,
< 0.001, higher score is less desirable) for females. Overweight and obese females reported significantly higher EE scores compared to healthy weight females (35.7 ± 23.7 vs. 11.9 ± 15.6,
= 0.002). No such observation was observed among overweight and obese males (
> 0.05). EE, UE, and RE scores did not differ between males and females. While this study provides important information about the eating behaviors of Ghanaian university students and allows for comparison to students from other cultures, future work must develop culturally relevant tools for the Ghanaian population.
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