Abstract P371: The Retrain Your Brain for Healthy Eating Study: Promising Results in Reducing Cravings and Supporting Healthier Eating Habits Among Diverse Patients With Obesity
Authors: Sandra Wittleder, Judith Wylie-Rosett, Allison P Squires, Azizi Seixas, Aravinda Chakravarti, Gina Angelotti, Morgan McManus, Emily Johnston, Souptik Barua, Nicholas Illenberger, Maliha Jeba, Omobolanle Ayo, Raya Balabanova, Christopher A Sanchez, Keisha Patel, Melanie Jay
Journal: Circulation (2024)

Introduction: Adopting healthy eating habits can improve cardiovascular health. However, following dietary guidelines can be challenging, partly due to neural pathways that influence cravings and appetite. While medications exist to reduce appetite and cravings, behavioral interventions targeting cravings are less common. The innovative Food Trainer mobile application, FoodT, employs a go no-go paradigm, where participants learn to respond to healthy foods presented in green circles (go-trials) and withhold their response to unhealthy foods presented in red circles (no-go trials). Growing evidence suggests that this training can reduce food cravings and energy intake. Nonetheless, its feasibility in clinical and at-home settings and among diverse populations remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the feasibility of the FoodT application for a diverse patient population with obesity. Hypothesis: Food response training is feasible to decrease food cravings (scores: 15-75) and energy intake (kcal). Methods: The Retrain Your Brain for Healthy Eating trial is a single-group feasibility study of participants with obesity from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants engage in a food response training intervention, with a video-conference introduction session, followed by a self-guided training regimen of three or more sessions weekly for 12 weeks. Study staff conduct weekly meetings to monitor adherence and offer support. Assessments include weekly food craving reports via a validated survey (Food Craving Questionnaire - State) and energy intake (kcal) via weekly self-guided ASA-24 dietary recalls. We averaged reports in cravings and kcal for Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3 and used linear mixed-effect models. Results: Of 17 participants, 87% self-identified as female, 42% as non-Hispanic Black, and 23% as Hispanic (age: 50.0±13.4, BMI: 36.53±4.59). On average, participants used FoodT 4.22±2.91 times per week. We observed significant reductions in cravings (Month 1: 37.59±10.42, Month 2: 32.43±10.22, Month 3: 31.36±9.80), P = .001, and kcal (Month 1: 1872.54 ±740.22, Month 2: 1818.05 ±724.43, Month 3: 1563.14 ±682.78), P = .046. Conclusion: Preliminary findings from this feasibility study suggest that FoodT has the potential to decrease food cravings and energy intake among a diverse population with obesity. However, this study is limited by a small sample size, gender imbalance, and reliance on self-reported data. This mobile app offers a low-cost scalable tool to support patients with obesity in adopting healthier diets, and improve cardiovascular health, needing further research to confirm these findings and assess its long-term sustainability and clinical implications.