Satiety Responses and Oral Processing Characteristics of Commonly Consumed Meals

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Rationale: Oral processing behaviours (i.e. eating rate, bite size, chews per bite, oral exposure time etc.) play a major role in food ingestion and digestion, and potentially influence satiation and satiety responses . Experimental studies showed that a prolonged mastication or a slower eating rate is associated with decreased food intake , and increased satiety response per kcal consumed. Therefore, one possible approach to control the intake and appetite is to encourage eating behaviour that slow the rate of food intake and enhance the onset of satiety. Texture led changes to oral processing behaviours could offer an exciting opportunity to adapt an individual's response to structure properties of the food being consumed in a way that maintains the associated eating experience and satiety from food intake. However, no studies to date have investigated how differences in food processing influences food texture characteristics and oral processing behaviours, and subsequently impact on individuals' satiety responses and their subsequent food intake. The proposed study will examine the role of oral processing behaviours and/ or food processing (i.e. minimally processed, processed and ultra-processed) on satiety responses and the subsequent food intake Objectives: The objectives of the study are to characterise the differences in oral processing behaviours (i.e. eating rate, bite size, chew per bite, oral exposure time etc.) and satiety responses of meals that differ in their degree of processing, and to further investigate how texture-based differences in oral processing behaviours modified by degree of food processing influence the satiety responses (fullness over the time) and subsequent food intake. Study design: A total of 1 screening session (Session 1) and 4 test sessions (Sessions 2 to 5) and 2x2 randomised crossover design where participants receive 4 treatments (i.e. 4 test meals) over 4 test sessions Study population: Healthy males ( n=50), aged 21-50 years with BMI between 18-25 kg/m2 Intervention: Session 1 involves tasting of up to 16 food items and computer task to rate and evaluate their perception and health behaviour. Sessions 2 to 5 involve evaluation of sensory characteristics, video recording of participants eating, and wrist-worn accelerometer to track wrist movement while consuming the 4 test meals.

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