Impact of Different Breakfast Meals on Food Choices, Eating Behaviors and Brain Activation

University of Parma

Status: Completed

Conditions: Eating Behavior; Cognition; Regulation, Appetite

Treatments: Other: Blood tests; Other: Attention tests; Other: Food choices and energy intakes assessments; Other: Breakfast consumption; Other: fRMI tests

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02516956

BRNN-014

Details and patient eligibility

About

This project aims to demonstrate that the best breakfast meal is the one able to improve the best postprandial hunger, satiety and adiposity regulators profile as well as the best reward-related gratification, due to hedonistic parameters. To do this, 4 different breakfasts will be tested and blood tests, food choices, and attentional components will be analysed.

Full description

Although breakfast seems to be positively associated with healthy eating patterns and food choices later in the day, eating behaviours are a complex interaction of several factors. Nutritional requirements are not only affected by the body homeostasis, but also by environmental signals, as cultural and social habits, lifestyle, etc. These parameters evoke reward-related and motivational signals influencing our daily eating behaviour choices. Most of the theories on food regulation propose two parallel systems interacting with food consumption homeostatic and reward-related systems. For all these reasons, there is an increasing interest on motivational and decisional aspects of food choices, eating behaviours and how they are influenced by food characteristics. This project aims to explore the association between compositional and perceived characteristics of a breakfast meal with nutritional/biochemical/physiological variables. The approach will be the evaluation of appetite, food intake as well as metabolic and compensatory responses to foods consumed during the day. Volunteers (n=15) will be fed with 4 different breakfast meals (one control and three iso-caloric with different glycemic indexes) and several different parameters will be evaluated, as biological parameters linked to satiety, food choices during a free lunch buffet, psycho-physiological and biological mechanisms underlying the compensatory effect and attentional components in the postprandial period. The participants will complete, in randomized order, the four breakfast meals, on four different weeks, separated by at least one week.

Enrollment: 15 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 30 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• both gender
• age 19 - 29 y
• BMI 20-24 kg ⁄m2
• healthy
• no metabolic, psychological, or neurological diseases/conditions
• not currently/previously (in the past 6 months) on a weight loss/other special diet
• omnivorous
• chocolate eaters
• right-handed (necessary for the fMRI analyses)

Exclusion criteria

• BMI < 20 or BMI > 24 kg ⁄m2
• chronic health conditions
• use of medications
• significant change in body weight in the last 3 months
• currently on a diet/food restriction
• food allergy
• celiac disease
• lactose intolerance
• left-handed
• claustrophobic
• do not meet the fMRI criteria established by the MU-BIC (regarding metal implants, etc.)
• pregnant

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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15 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

Breakfast meal 1

Experimental group

Description:

Breakfast meal 1 is isocaloric (330 kcal) and similar for protein and fiber contents in relation to the other two experimental breakfasts. It has the same sugar and lipid profiles as Breakfast meal 2 and health-related cognitive perception as Breakfast meal 3. Breakfast consumption; Blood tests; Food choices and energy intakes assessments; Attention tests; fRMI tests.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI tests

Other: Food choices and energy intakes assessments

Other: Attention tests

Other: Breakfast consumption

Other: Blood tests

Breakfast meal 2

Experimental group

Description:

Breakfast meal 2 is isocaloric (330 kcal) and balanced for protein and fiber contents with regard to the other two experimental breakfasts. It has the same sugar and lipid profiles as Breakfast meal 1 but a higher health-related cognitive perception than the other two experimental breakfasts. Breakfast consumption; Blood tests; Food choices and energy intakes assessments; Attention tests; fRMI tests.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI tests

Other: Food choices and energy intakes assessments

Other: Attention tests

Other: Breakfast consumption

Other: Blood tests

Breakfast meal 3

Experimental group

Description:

Breakfast meal 3 is isocaloric (330 kcal) and similar for protein and fiber contents in relation to the other two experimental breakfasts. It has the same health-related cognitive perception as Breakfast meal 1 but lower lipid and higher sugar amounts than the other two experimental breakfasts. Breakfast consumption; Blood tests; Food choices and energy intakes assessments; Attention tests; fRMI tests.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI tests

Other: Food choices and energy intakes assessments

Other: Attention tests

Other: Breakfast consumption

Other: Blood tests

Breakfast meal 4

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Breakfast meal 4 is a non-caloric meal representing fasting condition (control arm). Breakfast consumption; Blood tests; Food choices and energy intakes assessments; Attention tests; fRMI tests.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI tests

Other: Food choices and energy intakes assessments

Other: Attention tests

Other: Breakfast consumption

Other: Blood tests