The Reinforcing Value of Added Sugars

USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Other: Low Added Sugar Diet

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT02744001

GFHNRC148

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine how daily diet relates to eating choices.

Full description

Despite the long-term emphasis on reducing intake of and added sugar, this behavioral change has been hard to instill amongst most of the population. Foods with added sugars are highly reinforcing and, as such, reducing their consumption in order to adhere to the dietary guidelines (DGA) may be difficult to maintain. Sugar produces effects similar to some drugs of abuse such as increased extracellular dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens shell resulting in a reinforcing effect. Reducing any reinforcing behavior can be challenging, but in terms of food, it is not known whether the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugar increases when access to these foods is reduced. If so, this would present a mechanistic barrier to meeting the DGA and making dietary changes in general. That the reinforcing value of a behavior (e.g., eating sugar) will be increased when the rate of that behavior is decreased has strong theoretical underpinnings in the "Disequilibrium Approach". This theory predicts that the circumstances of reinforcement are created or limited by changing baseline access. According to the Disequilibrium Approach, a response deficit will result in an increase in reinforcement. Applied to the proposed study, the Disequilibrium Approach would predict that lowering the consumption of dietary added sugar would increase the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugar. The Disequilibrium Approach has accurately predicted an increase in the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of snack foods among children. However, dietary changes would need to occur at the whole diet level for adults and children to meet the DGA for reducing added sugar intake. It is important to know if reducing added sugars at the whole-diet level results in increases in the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugars.

Enrollment: 44 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 39 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• BMI within 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 or BMI within 30.0-50.0 kg/m2
• Willing to consent to study conditions
• Habitually consume at least 10% of daily energy intake from added sugars

Exclusion criteria

• BMI 25.0-29.9 kg/m2
• Currently taking drugs that change hunger
• Have an eating disorder
• Current tobacco user
• Have diabetes or heart disease
• Pregnant, lactating or planning pregnancy
• Low liking of all available study test foods
• Allergy/aversion to any of the foods provided during the diet intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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44 participants in 1 patient group

Low Added Sugar Diet

Experimental group

Description:

Menu containing \<10% of total daily energy intake from added sugars.

Treatment:

Other: Low Added Sugar Diet