• community-based insects
• edible insects
• entomophagy
• food security
• nutrition security

• DEBQ
• DQI-I
• dietary behavior
• emotional eating
• external eating
• restrained eating

• Humans
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/psychology
• Female
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Feeding Behavior/psychology
• Aged
• Adult
• Diet, Healthy
• Diet
• Body Mass Index
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Emotions
• Glycated Hemoglobin/analysis
• Glycated Hemoglobin/metabolism

• chips preference
• consuming frequency
• dried vegetables
• organic vegetable
• respondents’ profile

• 2021-0031/14.07.2021 This work was supported by a grant of the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest within IPC 2021.

• Sluggish cognitive tempo
• daytime sleepiness
• eating habits
• obesity
• sluggish cognitive tempo

• Child
• Eating behaviour
• Feeding behaviour
• Infant
• Instrument
• Measurement
• Method
• Reliability and validity
• Reproducibility of results
• Tool

• expectations
• fMRI
• food attributes
• nutrition claims
• taste pleasantness perception
• valuation

• Motivation
• Food Labeling
• Brain/diagnostic imaging
• Brain/physiology
• Food
• Reward

• DietBB(01E1809B) Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
• nutriCARD(01E01001) Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
• enable(01EA1807G) Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
• IFB AdisposityDiseases

• eating behavior
• energy intake
• obesity

Our eating behaviors are highly influenced by those of individuals surrounding us and the groups we belong to. The first goal of this experiment was to determine how social norms that encourage (pro-) vs. discourage (anti-) unhealthy eating influence people’s intentions and motivations to eat unhealthily. Since these norms can be conveyed by one’s group in a manner that either promotes group members’ autonomy (i.e., collective autonomy support), or pressures them into eating certain foods (i.e., collective control), the experiment also tests which of these types of messages promotes the highest conformity to group norms. Hence, the second goal of this experiment was to investigate this synergetic effect of pro- vs anti-unhealthy eating norms and of collective autonomy support vs. collective control on participants’ unhealthy eating intentions and their motivations for unhealthy eating. An experimental study (N = 341) using a 2 (eating norm: pro-unhealthy eating norm vs. anti-unhealthy eating norm) x 3 (type of group support: collective autonomy support vs. collective control vs. no support) design was conducted. Results showed that pro-unhealthy eating norms increased participants’ intentions to eat salty and fatty food, but also their amotivation (i.e., lack of motivation) for unhealthy eating relative to anti-unhealthy eating norms. In addition, when pro-unhealthy eating was encouraged in a controlling (vs. in an autonomy supportive) manner, participants reported higher intentions to eat tofu tacos. Finally, when pro-unhealthy eating was promoted by supporting group members’ autonomy, participants reported higher integrated regulation, i.e., a highly internalized motivation, for unhealthy eating. These results demonstrate that eating norms do not impact all types of unhealthy food consumption in the same manner, and that collective control may be motivating in uncertain contexts; furthermore, when individuals’ autonomy is supported and promoted by other group members, they are more susceptible to integrate unhealthy eating in their life.

• Humans
• Social Norms
• Feeding Behavior
• Intention
• Social Behavior
• Motivation
• Eating

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture

Improving nutrition improves health outcomes. Eating in a catering system may provide an environment for promoting healthy dietary choices. To map the factors that shape the food choices of diners who routinely eat in catering systems, we collected and analyzed qualitative data about diners’ perceptions of their food choices in communal dining rooms in three kibbutzim in Israel. From May to July 2014, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 13 diners who ate at least three lunches per week in the kibbutz’s dining room. Data analysis followed thematic analysis principles. Two categories of themes emerged from the interviews. In the personal context category, the themes identified were eating as a task and attempts to control one’s eating. In the contextual aspects of eating in the catering system category, themes identified were eating in the dining room as a default, the characteristics of the food served, routine, and personal versus public aspects. The sub-theme of the diners’ freedom of choice emerged in the two categories of themes. Diners’ wishes of maintaining their freedom of choice may be an important contribution to the debate of whether catering systems should provide only healthy foods, which may jeopardize diners’ freedom of choice.

• catering system
• diner’s food choices
• dining room buffet
• freedom of choice
• qualitative research

• Anthropometric indices
• crossover
• milk
• obesity
• overweight
• pistachio

Obesity is considered a primary contributing factor in the development of many diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses. Phytochemical-rich foods, associated to healthy gastrointestinal microbiota, have been shown to reduce obesity and associated comorbidities. In the present article, we describe the effects of the probiotic Lactobacillus johnsonii N6.2 and blueberry extracts (BB) on the gut microbiota and lipid profile of rats under a high-fat (HF) or low-calorie (LC) diet. L. johnsonii was found to increase the levels of long chain fatty acids (LCFA) in the serum of all animals under HF diet, while reduced LCFA concentrations were observed in the adipose tissue of animals under HF diet supplemented with BB extracts. All animals under HF diet also showed lower protein levels of SREBP1 and SCAP when treated with L. johnsonii. The gut microbiota diversity, β-diversity was significantly changed by L. johnsonii in the presence of BB. A significant reduction in α-diversity was observed in the ileum of animals under HF diet supplemented with L. johnsonii and BB, while increased α-diversity was observed in the ilium of animals under LC diet supplemented with L. johnsonii or BB. In summary, L. johnsonii and BB supplementation induced significant changes in gut microbiota diversity and lipid metabolism. The phospholipids pool was the lipidome component directly affected by the interventions. The ileum and colon microbiota showed clear differences depending on the diet and the treatments examined.

• Lactobacillus johnsonii N6.2
• blueberry
• lipidome
• mediterranean diet
• microbiome

Food preferences are among the most influential factors of food habits in the vulnerable period of adolescence; in addition, gender-dependent differences in food preferences are also observed. The aim of the present study was to analyze differences in food habits between individuals stratified based on their food preferences in a population-based sample of adolescents aged 15–20. The study was conducted within the Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study population in a group of 2419 secondary school students who were randomly chosen to participate in the study using a random quota sampling procedure. The food preferences were determined on the basis of a validated Food Preference Questionnaire (FPQ) (which enables assessing preference of vegetables, fruit, meat/fish, dairy, snacks, and starches), whereas food habits were determined on the basis of the Adolescents’ Food Habits Checklist (AFHC) (which enables assessing food purchase, preparation, and consumption habits). The analysis involved three homogenous clusters (‘low-preferring’, ‘hedonists’, and ‘high-preferring’), which were identified using the k-means algorithm. It was found that for a number of the assessed food purchase, preparation, and consumption habits, there were statistically significant differences between the ‘low-preferring’, ‘hedonists’, and ‘high-preferring’ clusters. Within food purchase habits, the food preference influenced frequency of buying pastries/cakes and frequency of eating takeaway meals for all the respondents, while for female respondents, it influenced also choice of desserts in restaurants, and for male respondents, it influenced choosing a low-fat lunch away from home (p < 0.05). Within food preparation habits, the food preference influenced the fat content in desserts at home, the frequency of eating at least one serving of vegetables/salad with an evening meal, the frequency of spreading butter/margarine on bread thinly, and the frequency of having cream on desserts for all the respondents; meanwhile, for female respondents, it also influenced the frequency of avoiding fried foods and the frequency of including chocolate/biscuits in their packed lunch (p < 0.05). Within food consumption habits, the food preference influenced the frequency of eating a dessert/pudding, eating at least one serving of fruit a day, eating at least one serving of vegetables/salad a day, avoiding sausages/burgers, trying to ensure they eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and frequency of choosing fruit as a snack for all the respondents; meanwhile, for male respondents, it also influenced the frequency of eating sweet snacks and eating at least three servings of fruit most days (p < 0.05). Taking into account that some improper food habits may be typical for the specific clusters, there is an urgent need to analyze and address them for the purposes of public health and to bear in mind that some of those habits are gender-dependent.

• Adolescents’ Food Habits Checklist (AFHC)
• Food Preference Questionnaire (FPQ)
• PLACE-19 Study
• adolescents
• food habits
• food preferences
• national study
• population-based study

• health advice
• nutrition advice
• personalized nutrition and health advice
• psychological scales
• psychosocial characteristics

One of the factors influencing consumer food choices is food neophobia (FN), described as a reluctance to try novel or unknown food products. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of FN on food choices in young Polish respondents through a web-based choice experiment with Vietnamese restaurant menu. The choice experiment was conducted using a Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method in a sample of 601 young adults, while using a developed Vietnamese restaurant menu. For the dishes, neophobic potential for a Polish population was defined, based on content of ingredients not typical for Polish diet. The FN was assessed using the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) by Pliner and Hobden. The neophobic potential was the determinant of choice of dishes (p < 0.05). The participants characterized by a high FN level less commonly than others chosen dishes characterized by neophobic potential as: starter (Nem quõn—non-fried spring rolls with shrimps) (p = 0.0003), soup (Mién gà—soup with cellophane noodles and nam huong mushrooms) (p < 0.0001), main course (Phở xào bò—rice noodles with soy sauce and fish sauce) (p < 0.0001) and dessert (Chè thập cãm—dessert of golden gram, black eye beans, Azuki beans and tapioca) than other options (p = 0.0007). It was stated that FN in young respondents may reduce the frequency of choosing dishes containing unfamiliar ingredients and, as a result, it may cause lower diversity of consumed dishes. Taking into account that not properly balanced diets resulting from rejecting some types of products are becoming a growing problem, the FN should be taken into account in the general public health policy.

• Vietnamese cuisine
• choice
• consumer
• food neophobia scale
• ingredients
• menu

• community health
• diet education
• food insecurity
• food prescription program
• fresh produce
• health education
• healthy foods
• nutrition
• obesity
• social determinant

• Mexico
• body weight change
• breakfast
• longitudinal study
• meal frequency
• meal pattern

• CNS pathologies
• H3R pharmacophores
• Histamine H3 receptors
• Pitolistant
• dual-targeting ligands
• sigma-1 receptors

• Central Nervous System Diseases/drug therapy
• Histamine
• Humans
• Ligands
• Receptors, Histamine H3
• Receptors, sigma
• Sigma-1 Receptor

• eating behavior
• food culture
• obesity
• weight management

Children are vulnerable to adverse effects of food advertising. Food commercials are known to increase hedonic, taste-oriented, and unhealthy food decisions. The current study examined how promoting resilience to food commercials impacted susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making in children. To promote resilience to food commercials, we utilized the food advertising literacy intervention intended to enhance cognitive skepticism and critical thinking, and decrease positive attitudes toward commercials. Thirty-six children aged 8–12 years were randomly assigned to the food advertising literacy intervention or the control condition. Eighteen children received four brief intervention sessions via video over 1 week period. In each session, children watched six food commercials with interspersed embedded intervention narratives. While watching food commercials and narratives, children were encouraged to speak their thoughts out loud spontaneously (“think-aloud”), which provided children's attitudes toward commercials. Eighteen children in the control condition had four control sessions over 1 week, and watched the same food commercials without intervention narratives while thinking aloud. The first and last sessions were held in the laboratory, and the second and third sessions were held at the children's homes. Susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making was indicated by the decision weights of taste attributes, taste perception, food choices, ad libitum snacking, and cognitive and affective attitudes toward food commercials. As hypothesized, the intervention successfully decreased susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making evidenced by reduced decision weights of the taste in food decisions, decreased tasty perception of unhealthy foods, and increased cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward food commercials. In addition, as children's opinions assimilated to intervention narratives, their cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward commercials increased. The aforementioned results were not shown in the control condition. However, this brief intervention was not enough to change actual food choices or food consumption. Results of this study suggest that promoting resilience to food commercials by enhancing cognitive skepticism and critical thinking effectively reduced children's susceptibility to unhealthy food-decision making.

• advertising literacy
• children
• eating behavior
• food commercials
• food decisions
• obesity

• consumer behavior
• context of choice
• decision making
• food system
• healthy and sustainable food choices

Increasing rates of obesity have fueled interest in the factors underlying food choice. While epidemiological studies report that disadvantaged social groups exhibit a higher incidence of obesity, causal evidence for an effect of social contexts on food choice remains scarce. To further our knowledge, we experimentally investigated the effect of disadvantageous social context on food choice in healthy, non-dieting participants. We used three established experimental methods to generate social contexts of different valence in controlled laboratory settings: (i) receiving varying amounts of money in a Dictator Game (DG; n = 40), (ii) being included or excluded in a Cyberball Game (CBG; n = 35), and (iii) performing well, average, or poorly in a response time ranking task (RTR; n = 81). Following exposure to a particular social context, participants made pairwise choices between food items that involved a conflict between perceived taste and health attributes. In line with previous research, stronger dispositional self-control (assessed via a questionnaire) was associated with healthier food choices. As expected, being treated unfairly in the DG, being excluded in the CBG, and performing poorly in the RTR led to negative emotions. However, we did not find an effect of the induced social context on food choice in any of the experiments, even when taking into account individual differences in participants’ responses to the social context. Our results suggest that—at least in controlled laboratory environments—the influence of disadvantageous social contexts on food choice is limited.

• Cyberball Game
• Dictator Game
• food choice
• performance ranking task
• social contexts

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Austria
• Decision Making
• Diet, Reducing/psychology
• Eating/psychology
• Female
• Food Preferences/psychology
• Humans
• Inhibition, Psychological
• Motivation
• Self-Control/psychology
• Young Adult

• I02130-B27 Austrian Science Fund
• ERC-StG-2014 639445 NewEat European Research Council
• 8371546 Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)

Many factors such as social and behavioral are related to appropriate weight gain during pregnancy, and there is much of importance to find them. The aim of the study was to explore the association of personality traits, with eating behaviors, food intake, maternal weight gain during pregnancy as well as the neonatal birth weight.

This is a longitudinal and cross-sectional study. Eating behaviors were assessed using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and the NEO personality inventory was used to assess personality in pregnant subjects. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to determine food intake. Three hundred and sixty pregnant subjects from Ahvaz (the capital city of Khuzestan province, Iran) were followed from the 20th week of pregnancy until delivery.

High neuroticism was associated with higher consumption of highly energetic foods (p < 0.05) and less consumption of vegetables (p < 0.01), also was related with lower weight gain during pregnancy and neonatal birth weight (p < 0.05). Openness to experience, extraversion and agreeableness were linked with higher consumption of vegetables (p < 0.05). Conscientiousness predicted lower neonatal weight (odds ratio: 1.20, confidence interval: 1.07–1.34, p < 0.01).

Identification of personality traits would help to change the lifestyle and improve management guidelines.

• Birth weight
• Eating behavior
• Food intake
• Gestational weight gain
• Personality traits
• Pregnancy

• Brain
• Fmri
• Graph theory
• Modularity
• Punishment
• Reward
• Taste

• digestion
• digestive well-being
• food ingestion
• satiety

• Affect/physiology
• Digestion/physiology
• Eating/physiology
• Feeding Behavior
• Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology
• Humans
• Postprandial Period/physiology
• Satiation/physiology
• Satiety Response

What if consumers are getting obese because eating less calories is more difficult for persons that have a higher pleasure and desire towards food (Ikeda et al., 2005) and food companies do not help given only a two extreme option choice to satisfy their needs (i.e., low calories vs. high calories or healthy vs. unhealthy)? Reward systems are being described with a new conceptual approach where liking—the pleasure derived from eating a given food—and wanting—motivational value, desire, or craving—can be seen as the significant forces guiding eating behavior. Our work shows that pleasure (liking), desire (wanting), and the interaction between them influence and are good predictors of food choice and food intake. Reward responses to food are closely linked to food choice, inducing to caloric overconsumption. Based on the responses given to a self-administered questionnaire measuring liking and wanting attitudes, we found three different segments named ‘Reward lovers,’ ‘Half epicurious,’ and ‘Non indulgents’. Their behavior when choosing food is quite different. Results show differential effects on caloric consumption depending on segments. The introduction of more food choices that try to balance their content is a win-win strategy for consumers, companies, and society.

• bundles
• consumer choice
• food choice
• food reward
• health
• liking-wanting
• obesity
• self-control
• taste
• variety-seeking

The underlying mechanisms that regulate energy homeostasis and food intake are not fully understood. Moreover, little research has been performed on the relation of body composition with habitual macronutrient intake among free-living populations. Since body composition and energy metabolism differ between males and females, we aimed to determine whether the relationship between body composition and habitual macronutrient intakes is gender-dependent. In this cross-sectional study, 261 participants (99 males) were recruited from Singapore. Macronutrient intake was evaluated from a three-day self-reported dietary record. Body composition and basal metabolic rate (BMR) were determined by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and indirect calorimetry, respectively. Our results show that both BMR (p < 0.001) and lean body mass (LBM, p < 0.001) predicted daily energy intake (EI). LBM was positively associated with intakes of protein (PRO) and fat (FAT) in females, but not in males. This relationship persisted even after adjustment for fat mass (FM). On the other hand, no significant associations between FM and macronutrient intake were observed in both males and females. Therefore, the relationship between habitual macronutrient intake, LBM, and BMR is gender-dependent. Elucidating the gender differences in energy metabolism is important for understanding the factors that regulate energy homeostasis and can subsequently help better manage energy balance.

• basal metabolic rate
• body composition
• gender difference
• macronutrient intake

• Basal Metabolism
• Body Composition
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Feeding Behavior
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Nutrients
• Sex Factors

• assessment measures
• body mass index
• dietary restraint
• disinhibited eating
• food craving
• restrained eating

• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• European Research Council

• Communication
• Healthy eating
• Qualitative
• Social media

• Diet
• Discrimination
• Impulsive choice
• Incentive motivation
• Liking
• Preference

• Body composition
• dietary protein
• energy expenditure
• protein turnover

• digestive well-being
• gastronomy
• meal ingestion
• satiety

• cognitive bias
• dog
• food reward
• overweight
• personality

• János Bolyai Research Scholarship
• Országos Tudományos Kutatási Alapprogramok

MC4R represents a key player involved in melanocortin-mediated control of energy balance. Recently identified near MC4R variant rs17782313 (T > C) can serve as a contributing factor for obese phenotype but its association with obesity has never been sought in a sample of the Pakistani population. The role of genetic variants as causal factors varies across populations. Association studies in a specific population can help us to distinguish global from local gene–gene and gene–environment interactions. This is the first study that investigated the association of rs17782313 with obesity and various obesity-linked anthropometric, metabolic, physical, and behavioural traits in Pakistani subjects including 306 OW/OB (overweight and obese) and 300 NW (normal weight) individuals. The comparison of various aforementioned obesity-linked continuous and categorical variables between OW/OB and NW subjects revealed that almost all variables were found significantly aberrant (p < 0.05) in OW/OB subjects as compared to their age- and gender-matched NW controls indicating greater risk of developing various cardio-metabolic disorders. The genotyping of rs17782313 showed significant association of this variant with obesity and obesity-linked anthropometric traits in females suggesting the gender-specific effect of this variant in our population. The minor allele C increased the risk of obesity by 1.55 times (95% CI = 1.1–2.18, p = 0.01) whereas homozygous CC genotype increased the risk by 2.43 times (95% CI = 1.19–4.96, p = 0.015) in females. However, no association of rs17782313 was observed with any of the obesity-linked metabolic, physical, and behavioural traits except random eating timings. In conclusion, the current study significantly contributes to the knowledge of the genetic proneness to obesity in Pakistani females. This could also be helpful for forthcoming meta-analysis studies elucidating which variants are truly associated with the susceptibility to develop an obese phenotype.

The current study significantly contributes to the knowledge of the genetic proneness to obesity in Pakistani females and could also be helpful for forthcoming meta-analysis studies.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing food liking in a French-Canadian population. A questionnaire was developed, in which participants were asked to rate their degree of liking of 50 food items. An expert panel evaluated the content validity. For the validation study, 150 men and women completed the questionnaire twice. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to assess the number of subscales of the questionnaire. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the subscales were evaluated. Concurrent validity was assessed through correlations between liking scores and self-reported frequencies of consumption. Comments from the experts led to changes in the list of foods included in the questionnaire. The EFA revealed a two-factor structure for the questionnaire (i.e., savory and sweet foods) and led to the removal of nine items, resulting in a 32-item questionnaire. The two subscales revealed good internal consistency (Cronbach alphas: 0.85 and 0.89) and test-retest reliability (p = 0.84 and 0.86). The questionnaire demonstrated adequate concurrent validity, with moderate correlations between food liking and self-reported frequency of consumption (r = 0.19–0.39, ps < 0.05). This new Food Liking Questionnaire assessing liking of a variety of savory and sweet foods demonstrated good psychometric properties in every validation step. This questionnaire will be useful to explore the role of food liking and its interactions with other factors in predicting eating behaviors and energy intake.

• Canada
• French
• development
• food liking
• questionnaire
• validation

• Adult
• Aged
• Canada
• Data Collection
• Food Analysis
• Food Preferences
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Reproducibility of Results
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Young Adult

• BD-1063
• Food intake
• Naltrexone
• Overeating
• Palatable diet
• SR141716A

• Animals
• Body Weight
• Diet
• Energy Intake
• Feeding Behavior
• Male
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred C57BL
• Naltrexone/administration & dosage
• Piperazines/administration & dosage
• Piperidines/administration & dosage
• Pyrazoles/administration & dosage
• Rimonabant
• Taste

• F31 DA044664 NIDA NIH HHS
• R01 DA030425 NIDA NIH HHS
• R01 MH093650 NIMH NIH HHS

• Adult
• Antineoplastic Agents/adverse effects
• Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy
• Eating/drug effects
• Female
• Humans
• Middle Aged
• Perception
• Prospective Studies

• Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.
• Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais.
• Graduate Program in Health Sciences (Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil).

• Anxiety
• BMI
• Depression
• Food avoidance
• LMICs

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Anxiety/psychology
• Avoidance Learning/physiology
• Body Mass Index
• Body Weight
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Depression/psychology
• Feeding Behavior/psychology
• Female
• Food
• Health Behavior
• Humans
• Male
• Nutrition Surveys
• Students
• Universities
• Young Adult

• Adult
• Aged
• Choice Behavior
• Costs and Cost Analysis/statistics & numerical data
• Feeding Behavior/psychology
• Female
• Food/economics
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Models, Theoretical
• Nutrition Policy
• Nutrition Surveys
• Poverty/psychology
• Poverty/statistics & numerical data
• United States
• Young Adult

• R00 HD073327 NICHD NIH HHS
• U54 HD070725 NICHD NIH HHS
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

• Adolescent
• Body mass index
• Decision-making
• Eating behaviour
• Overeating
• Structural equation modelling