The individual environment, not the family is the most important influence on preferences for common non-alcoholic beverages in adolescence

What Should I Eat and Why? The Environmental, Genetic, and Behavioral Determinants of Food Choice: Summary from a Pennington Scientific Symposium

This review details the proceedings of a Pennington Biomedical scientific symposium titled, "What Should I Eat and Why? The Environmental, Genetic, and Behavioral Determinants of Food Choice." The symposium was designed to review the literature about energy homeostasis, particularly related to food choice and feeding behaviors, from psychology to physiology. This review discusses the intrinsic determinants of food choice, including biological mechanisms (genetics), peripheral and central signals, brain correlates, and the potential role of the microbiome. This review also address the extrinsic determinants (environment) of food choice within our physical and social environments. Finally, this review reports the current treatment practices for the clinical management of eating-induced overweight and obesity. An improved understanding of these determinants will inform best practices for the clinical treatment and prevention of obesity. Strategies paired with systemic shifts in our public health policies and changes in our "obesogenic" environment will be most effective at attenuating the obesity epidemic.

Production of low-calorie apricot nectar sweetened with stevia: Impact on qualitative, sensory, and nutritional profiles

This study aimed to develop a low-calorie apricot nectar by replacing sucrose with different amount of Stevia rebaudiana bertoni (Rebaudioside A, 98%). Stevia has become very popular as sweetener for the production of low-calorie products but its addition could be a challenge for industry, since it could modify sensory features of the product and consumers' acceptance. To this end, apricot nectars without sugar, with sucrose 10%, and with different amounts of stevia were produced and evaluated for microbiological quality using the pour-plate technique, and physicochemical (pH, TTA, and a w) and nutritional (moisture, fat, protein, carbohydrates, and ash) characteristics. Furthermore, a sensory analysis of the samples was performed by a panel of trained judges using quantitative descriptive analysis. The effect of stevia addiction on the consumers' acceptance was investigated by 102 consumers of fruit juices that evaluated the overall acceptability of the samples using a structured 9-point hedonic scale. Levels of microbial groups in nectars were under the detection limit confirming a good hygienic practice within the production. Nectars produced with stevia resulted in significant reduction in caloric value from 86 kcal (nectar with 10% sucrose) to 49 kcal (nectars with stevia), without altering its typicality. Different sensory profiles among samples were pointed out; all the products are liked, but with a different level of pleasantness. The study highlighted that the apricot nectars with 0.07% stevia are characterized for sweet and liquorice aroma notes and received the same level of consumer acceptability of nectars produced with 10% sucrose.

New insight into human sweet taste: a genome-wide association study of the perception and intake of sweet substances

BACKGROUND

Individual differences in human perception of sweetness are partly due to genetics; however, which genes are associated with the perception and the consumption of sweet substances remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to verify previous reported associations within genes involved in the peripheral receptor systems (i.e., TAS1R2, TAS1R3, and GNAT3) and reveal novel loci.

METHODS

We performed genome-wide association scans (GWASs) of the perceived intensity of 2 sugars (glucose and fructose) and 2 high-potency sweeteners (neohesperidin dihydrochalcone and aspartame) in an Australian adolescent twin sample (n = 1757), and the perceived intensity and sweetness and the liking of sucrose in a US adult twin sample (n = 686). We further performed GWASs of the intake of total sugars (i.e., total grams of all dietary mono- and disaccharides per day) and sweets (i.e., handfuls of candies per day) in the UK Biobank sample (n = ≤174,424 white-British individuals). All participants from the 3 independent samples were of European ancestry.

RESULTS

We found a strong association between the intake of total sugars and the single nucleotide polymorphism rs11642841 within the FTO gene on chromosome 16 (P = 3.8 × 10-8) and many suggestive associations (P < 1.0 × 10-5) for each of the sweet perception and intake phenotypes. We showed genetic evidence for the involvement of the brain in both sweet taste perception and sugar intake. There was limited support for the associations with TAS1R2, TAS1R3, and GNAT3 in all 3 European samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that genes additional to those involved in the peripheral receptor system are also associated with the sweet taste perception and intake of sweet-tasting foods. The functional potency of the genetic variants within TAS1R2, TAS1R3, and GNAT3 may be different between ethnic groups and this warrants further investigations.

Short-term changes in added sugar consumption by adolescents reflected in the carbon isotope ratio of fingerstick blood

BACKGROUND

Consumption of added sugars (AS) and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) may adversely affect adolescents' weight and cardiovascular disease risk. Reliance on self-reported dietary assessment methods is a common research limitation, which could be overcome by dietary intake biomarkers.

AIM

The investigation was a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the proposed carbon isotope ratio (δ¹³C) biomarker of AS intake in adolescents, using a controlled feeding design.

METHODS

Participants (n = 33, age 15.3 years, 53% female) underwent two seven-day controlled feeding periods in a randomly assigned order. Diets were matched in composition except for AS content (5% or 25% of total energy). Fasting fingerstick blood samples were collected daily during each diet period.

RESULTS

Fingerstick δ¹³C values changed from day 1 to 8 by -0.05 ± 0.071‰ on 5% AS, and +0.03 ± 0.083‰ on 25% AS (p ≤ 0.001). Reliability was demonstrated between day 7 and 8 δ¹³C values on the 5% (ICC = 0.996, p ≤ 0.001) and 25% (ICC = 0.997, p ≤ 0.001) AS diets.

CONCLUSIONS

Larger scale investigations are warranted to determine if this technique could be applied to population-level research in order to help assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the consumption of AS or SSB intake.