The Effect of Dietary Sugar Consumption on Sweet Taste Perception

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Sweet Taste Perception
• Interventions: Other: Low sugar diet; Other: Sham diet manipulation

• Registration Number: NCT02090478
• Lead Sponsor: Monell Chemical Senses Center

Brief Summary

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

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-10
• Primary Completion: 2011-06
• Status Verified: 2014-03
• Study First Submitted: 2014-03-13
• Study First Submitted QC: 2014-03-14
• Last Update Submitted: 2014-03-14
• Study First Posted: 2014-03-18
• Last Update Posted: 2014-03-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 50

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Low sugar group	Low sugar diet	Subjects met with a dietician who discussed diet records. After the first month (baseline, regular diet), the dietician made suggestions geared toward reducing calories from simple sugars by 40%. This will be achieved by replacing sugar calories with complex carbohydrates and fats, while maintaining energy balance (same number of calories as the baseline month).
No change in dietary sugar levels	Sham diet manipulation	Group met with a dietician as often as the control group to discuss diet, but the dietician gave them advice geared toward no change in dietary sugar levels

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Sweet Taste Intensity over Five Months	Monthly (for 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
Change in Pleasantness Over Five Months	Monthly (five month participation duration total)	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

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Sucrose detection thresholds	Every month (for five months)	Test of the minimum concentration of sucrose solution that subjects can discriminate from water. Forced-choice, ascending concentration method.
Body mass index	Every month (five months total)	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)
Diet records	Every month (five month total)	Subject reported in detail the types and quantities of the foods and beverages they ate.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Monell Chemical Senses Center; 🇺🇸 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States