Clinical trial NCT02744001: The Reinforcing Value of Added Sugars
Official title: Diet Study: The Reinforcing Value of Added Sugars
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obesity
Lead sponsor: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
Sponsor class: FED
First posted: 2016-04-19
Enrollment: 44
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 39
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: OTHER

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

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in relative reinforcing value (RRV) of snacks as assessed by indicator
timeFrame: Baseline and 1 week
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Grand Forks
country: United States
facility: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
state: North Dakota
Study officials:
affiliation: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
name: James Roemmich, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Flack KD, Ufholz K, Casperson S, Jahns L, Johnson L, Roemmich JN. Decreasing the Consumption of Foods with Sugar Increases Their Reinforcing Value: A Potential Barrier for Dietary Behavior Change. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2019 Jul;119(7):1099-1108. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2018.12.016. Epub 2019 Apr 6.