Shifting Salty Taste Preferences in Children

Salty Taste: Assessing a Strategy to Reduce Children's Preference

The goals of the proposed research are to determine whether repeated exposure to a low sodium food will result in reduced preference for salt in that food among children; and to determine whether such reductions in preference are related to dietary intake of salt, taste receptor genotype, and anthropometric and physiological measures.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Development
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Low Sodium Group

Detailed Description

This is a within- and between-subjects randomized controlled trial on children consuming either a low sodium or a higher sodium cereal over a 2-month period to determine if repeated exposure to the low sodium cereal is effective for reducing preference for salt in that food. Children will be genotyped for markers related to taste, dietary intake will be recorded, and anthropometric and physiological measures will be collected at baseline.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 39
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • Monell Chemical Senses Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 7 years to 65 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy
• Willingness to consume no other cereals during intervention

Exclusion Criteria:

• Allergies and/or taking medication that affects taste

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group; Children will receive regularly salted cereal to consume 4 times per week over a 2-month period.
Experimental: Low Sodium Group; Intervention: Children will receive low sodium cereal to consume 4 times per week over a 2-month period.	Other: Low Sodium Group; Breakfast Cereal

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Most Preferred Level of Salt Taste	Children were presented with pairs of broths with varying concentrations of added salt (0.16, 0.24, 0.38, 0.61, 1.05 M) (17) . The first pair of broths (0.24 and 0.61 M salt) presented were from the middle range of concentrations. Children were instructed to taste each sample within a pair for 5 seconds, to rinse between tastings, and then to point to the sample they liked better. Each subsequent pair of samples contained the concentration selected by the participant paired with an adjacent stimulus concentration. This pattern continued until the child either chose the same concentration when paired with both a lower and higher concentration in two consecutive pairs or chose either the highest or the lowest concentration twice consecutively. The entire task was repeated a, with stimulus pairs presented in reverse order. The geometric mean of the two concentrations chosen in the first and second series was calculated to determine most preferred levels of salt.	Baseline (time 0) and after 8-week intervention
Relative Preference for Regular vs Low Sodium Cereal	The number of children who preferred the taste of the low salt cereal when compared to the regular sodium cereal	At baseline and after 8-week intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Salt Taste Detection Thresholds	Detection thresholds (the lowest level of salt detect by taste) were measured via a two-alternative forced-choice procedure	Baseline and after 8-week intervention
Most Preferred Level of Sucrose	Children were presented with pairs of sucrose solutions of varying concentrations (0.09, 0.18, 0.35, 0.70, 1.05 M). The first pair presented were from the middle range of concentrations. Children tasted each sample and then pointed to the sample they liked better. Each subsequent pair of samples presented contained the concentration selected by the child paired with an adjacent stimulus concentration. This pattern continued until the child either chose the same concentration when paired with both a lower and higher concentration in two consecutive pairs or chose either the highest or the lowest concentration twice consecutively. The entire task was repeated after a 3-minute break, with stimulus pairs presented in reverse order. The geometric mean of the two concentrations chosen in the first and second series was calculated to determine the most preferred levels of sucrose.	At baseline and after 8-week intervention
Intake of Cereal During Intervention Period	Mothers recorded the amount of cereal their children ingested during 28 days of the 8-week, at-home intervention period.	28 days
Blood Pressure	Blood pressure (mmHg) was measured by using an automatic blood pressure machine with pediatric cuff. Blood pressure will be measured at baseline (time 0). There were no a priori hypothesis but were collected as baseline characteristic to ensure no differences between the groups.	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Monell Chemical Senses Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Bobowski N, Mennella JA. Repeated Exposure to Low-Sodium Cereal Affects Acceptance but Does not Shift Taste Preferences or Detection Thresholds of Children in a Randomized Clinical Trial. J Nutr. 2019 May 1;149(5):870-876. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxz014.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 1, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 19, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): September 21, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 30, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 6, 2019
• Last Verified: September 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Genetics; Diet; Age; Psychophysics; Salty taste
• Other Study ID Numbers: 823281

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No