The Effect of Dietary Sugar Consumption on Sweet Taste Perception

The purpose of the study is to determine how reducing the amount of simple sugars in the diet affects sweet taste perception. Healthy adult subjects will be assigned to either follow their usual diet, or to replace sugar calories with fats or starch.

The investigators hypothesize that eating less sugar will:

1. cause foods and drinks with a given amount of sugar to taste sweeter
2. cause people to prefer lower levels of sugar in foods and drinks

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sweet Taste Perception
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Sham diet manipulation; Other: Low sugar diet

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19014
      • Monell Chemical Senses Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Good general heath (by self report)
• Consume at least 2 sugar-containing soft drinks/day on average)
• Able to control diet (select their own foods)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Major illness of any kind within the last six months, or any chronic illness
• Daily use of medication, except for birth control, vitamins, and aspirin
• Regularly consume non-nutritive sweeteners
• Pregnant women
• Gained or lost 10% or more of their body weight in the last 3 months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: No change in dietary sugar levels; Group met with a dietician as often as the control group to discuss diet, but the dietician gave them advice geared toward no change in dietary sugar levels	Other: Sham diet manipulation; Subjects in the control group will meet with a dietician and discuss diet records, but the dietician will not instruct the control subjects to reduce the number of calories from simple sugars in the diet
Experimental: Low sugar group; Subjects met with a dietician who discussed diet records. After the first month (baseline, regular diet), the dietician made suggestions geared toward reducing calories from simple sugars by 40%. This will be achieved by replacing sugar calories with complex carbohydrates and fats, while maintaining energy balance (same number of calories as the baseline month).	Other: Low sugar diet; All subjects followed their usual diet during month 1. For months 2-4: sham diet intervention for the control group, 40% reduction in sugar calories for the experimental group. All subjects were allowed to chose any diet they wished during month 5.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Sweet Taste Intensity over Five Months	Subjects rated the sweetness of pudding and beverage samples that varied in sucrose concentration during each study month to determine how perception changes over time with diet manipulations	Monthly (for five months)
Change in Pleasantness Over Five Months	Subjects rated hedonic value (degree to which the sample was pleasant) for model pudding and beverages that differed in concentration of sucrose once each month over five months to determine how perception changed over time with the diet manipulation	Monthly (five month participation duration total)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sucrose detection thresholds	Test of the minimum concentration of sucrose solution that subjects can discriminate from water. Forced-choice, ascending concentration method.	Every month (for five months)
Body mass index	BMI, calculated based on weight and height. This was measured both to balance treatment groups and to ensure that assigned diets maintained adequate energy balance (no change in BMI over the study was the ideal outcome for all groups)	Every month (five months total)
Diet records	Subject reported in detail the types and quantities of the foods and beverages they ate.	Every month (five month total)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Monell Chemical Senses Center
• Collaborators: PepsiCo Global R&D

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Wise PM, Nattress L, Flammer LJ, Beauchamp GK. Reduced dietary intake of simple sugars alters perceived sweet taste intensity but not perceived pleasantness. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Jan;103(1):50-60. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.115.112300. Epub 2015 Nov 25.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 13, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 14, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): March 18, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): March 18, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 14, 2014
• Last Verified: March 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: IND039A01WISE