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Impact of Liquid Sugar Reduction on Behavioral and Brain Responses to Food Viewing
Author(s) -
Crézé Camille,
Bielser MarieLaure,
Knebel JeanFrançois,
Campos Vanessa,
Tappy Luc,
Murray Micah,
Toepel Ulrike
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.597.6
Subject(s) - calorie , added sugar , sugar , food science , food choice , obesity , taste , psychology , food preference , medicine , chemistry , endocrinology , pathology
Obesity is increasingly considered as a brain disease in which homeostatic mechanisms regulating food intake are overridden by hedonic drives towards consumption of foods high in fat and sugar. How added sugars from sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSBs) impact hedonic drives to foods, and whether artificial sweeteners have specific effects of their own remains unknown. We studied 14 high SSB consumers (8 men, 6 women) before and after 3 months of SSB replacement by artificially sweetened equivalents. Participants performed behavioral preference ratings on a 5‐point scale when presented with color images of solid foods differing in fat content (high‐ vs. low‐fat) and taste quality (savory vs. sweet). Moreover, the spatio‐temporal brain dynamics while viewing the food types were assessed using electroencephalography (EEG) and electrical neuroimaging analyses. Behavioral results show a significantly greater appreciation of savory foods, but decreased appreciation of sweet foods post‐SSB replacement. Brain responses reveal diet‐induced modulations in particular to low‐fat foods in areas involved in food valuation and cognitive control over food intake. That is, the replacement of liquid calories substantially influences responsiveness to solid calories, likely explaining changes in food intake behavior. Whether these effects are due to sugar reduction or to artificial sweeteners per se remains to be investigated. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.