Influence of Episodic Memory on Healthy Eating

Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico

Status: Completed

Conditions: Eating Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Non-eating recall condition; Behavioral: Eating recall condition

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03700931

COFEPRIS 15CI1506014 2018/06

Details and patient eligibility

About

The present research project investigates if recall of recent eating episodes enhances consumption of fruits and vegetables

Full description

Episodic memory is the capacity to remember past autobiographic events, including eating episodes. Recalling a previous meal decreases the amount eaten in a subsequent snack occasion.

Recall of recent eating episodes could alert individuals about the relationship between their eating behaviour and wellbeing. This is supported by the observation in slimming trials that participants who keep a food diary lose more weight than those who do not record their intake.

Lab experiments have focused on the effect of eating episodic memory on later intake of unhealthy food. However, less is known about the effect on intake of healthy food. Increasing consumption of food that contains nutritious elements like fruit could protect against chronic disease. If eating episodic memory would increase intake of healthy food, this would benefit individuals' health.

The aim of the present between-subjects experiment is to test the influence of memory of recent eating episodes on fruit and vegetable consumption. The interest is to assess differences in amount of fruit/vegetables eaten in each of two conditions: (i) after a recall of eating episodes of the day before and (ii) after recall of activities of the day before excluding eating episodes. The hypothesis is that fruit/vegetable consumption after recalling eating episodes would be higher than after recalling non-eating related activities.

The project will consist of four individual studies varying weight status of participants and test food: i) Female with healthy weight, and fruit as test food; ii) Female with healthy weight, and vegetable as test food; iii) Female with unhealthy weight, and fruit as test food; and iv) Female with unhealthy weight, and vegetable as test food.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18-25 years old
• Body mass index within ranges of healthy weight and overweight or slight obesity (18.5 to 24.9 and 25.0 to 34.9 kilograms divided by squared height)

Exclusion criteria

• Fruit hypersensibility
• Vegetable hypersensibility
• Chronic ill health

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

Eating recall condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants receive a questionnaire asking them to write down what they ate the day before at breakfast, between breakfasts and lunch, at lunch, between lunch and dinner, at dinner, and after dinner, reporting for each episode the foods and drinks consumed, place, time of the day and people present (10).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Eating recall condition

Non-eating recall condition

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants receive a questionnaire asking them to write down their school, homework (assignment), study, or work-related activities, two at morning, two at afternoon and two at night, of the day before reporting the name of each activity, place, time of the day and people present.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Non-eating recall condition