Influence of Episodic Memory on Healthy Eating

Episodic Memory Influence on Fruit/Vegetable Consumption in Young Adults With Healthy or Unhealthy Weight

The present research project investigates if recall of recent eating episodes enhances consumption of fruits and vegetables

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Eating Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Eating recall condition; Behavioral: Non-eating recall condition

Detailed Description

Episodic memory is the capacity to remember past autobiographic events, including eating episodes. Recalling a previous meal decreases the amount eaten in a subsequent snack occasion.

Recall of recent eating episodes could alert individuals about the relationship between their eating behaviour and wellbeing. This is supported by the observation in slimming trials that participants who keep a food diary lose more weight than those who do not record their intake.

Lab experiments have focused on the effect of eating episodic memory on later intake of unhealthy food. However, less is known about the effect on intake of healthy food. Increasing consumption of food that contains nutritious elements like fruit could protect against chronic disease. If eating episodic memory would increase intake of healthy food, this would benefit individuals' health.

The aim of the present between-subjects experiment is to test the influence of memory of recent eating episodes on fruit and vegetable consumption. The interest is to assess differences in amount of fruit/vegetables eaten in each of two conditions: (i) after a recall of eating episodes of the day before and (ii) after recall of activities of the day before excluding eating episodes. The hypothesis is that fruit/vegetable consumption after recalling eating episodes would be higher than after recalling non-eating related activities.

The project will consist of four individual studies varying weight status of participants and test food: i) Female with healthy weight, and fruit as test food; ii) Female with healthy weight, and vegetable as test food; iii) Female with unhealthy weight, and fruit as test food; and iv) Female with unhealthy weight, and vegetable as test food.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Mexico
  • Estado De Mexico
    • Toluca, Estado De Mexico, Mexico, 50130
      • Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Médicas

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 25 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion criteria:

• Age 18-25 years old
• Body mass index within ranges of healthy weight and overweight or slight obesity (18.5 to 24.9 and 25.0 to 34.9 kilograms divided by squared height)

Exclusion criteria:

• Fruit hypersensibility
• Vegetable hypersensibility
• Chronic ill health

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Eating recall condition; Participants receive a questionnaire asking them to write down what they ate the day before at breakfast, between breakfasts and lunch, at lunch, between lunch and dinner, at dinner, and after dinner, reporting for each episode the foods and drinks consumed, place, time of the day and people present (10).	Behavioral: Eating recall condition; Recall of eating episodes would increase subsequent intake of fruit or vegetable items; Other Names: Cognitive approaches for eating behaviour
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Non-eating recall condition; Participants receive a questionnaire asking them to write down their school, homework (assignment), study, or work-related activities, two at morning, two at afternoon and two at night, of the day before reporting the name of each activity, place, time of the day and people present.	Behavioral: Non-eating recall condition; Recall of non-eating episodes would not influence subsequent intake of fruit or vegetable items

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fruit or vegetable intake	Amount eaten in grams	One-session intervention, an average of 30 min.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Antonio Laguna Camacho, PhD, CICMED. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): August 20, 2018
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): October 5, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): July 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 4, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 8, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): October 9, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): August 30, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2022
• Last Verified: August 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Episodic memory; Eating episodes; Fruit and vegetable intake
• Other Study ID Numbers: COFEPRIS 15CI1506014 2018/06

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Information about the study is available at the OSF platform
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: 28 November 2018

Drug and device information, study documents

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