Personalized Nutrition Advice: Preferred Ways of Receiving Information Related to Psychological Characteristics

The primary goal of this study is to be able to discern specific types of consumers in terms of their psychosocial characteristics who may need different ways of receiving dietary advice. Knowing these types will enable a better fit of advice to consumers’ psychosocial characteristics, hereby stimulating healthy eating as the probability of compliance to the advice can potentially increase. The study draws upon several psychological theories to distinguish unique underlying factors that can subsequently be used to personalize nutrition information for consumers. A number of general psychological scales (self-regulation, action and coping self-efficacy, social comparison, intrinsic motivation, health info processing, need for cognition and for affect, and regulatory focus) are filled out by 988 respondents, including their preferences for receiving personalized forms of nutrition advice. The set of joint items from various psychological constructs is analyzed using a Principal Component Analysis to find underlying psychological characteristics. The PCA produces four components (explaining 51% of variation), that could be interpreted as ‘intrinsic interest and capabilities for healthy eating,’ ‘perceived difficulty to eat healthily,’ ‘self-worth insecurity,’ and ‘seeking positive challenges,’ respectively. By means of a Logistic Regression these components are able to predict preferences for different forms of receiving nutrition advice. This first component shows that a mind set for maintaining a healthy diet goes together with an interest in receiving an advice on what do to and on how that will affect one’s health. The second component predicts a preference for a fixed moment to receive information/advice. This may be a strategy of those that perceive difficulties to eat healthily, to help them control their healthy food intake. The insecurity that the third component models seems to lead to a wish for receiving specific advice about their health situation at fixed moments in time. The fourth component is a small component, therefore its prediction of a wish for an advice focussing on prevention of negative consequences is probably not a strong result. The study does point out that there appear different psychosocial types of consumers, that may benefit by being addressed according to their preference for receiving nutrition advice on specific moments, of a specific level of detail or pointing at the type of consequences the advice has. A better fit of the advice to the psychosocial characteristics of the recipient, captured in the identified components in the current study, may lead to an increase in compliance, although that will have to be further investigated in subsequent work

Satiating Capacity of Plant-Based Meat in Realistic Meal Contexts at Home

Plant-based meat substitutes replacing animal meat can potentially support the transition towards more sustainable diets. To enable the required transition, consumer acceptance of plant-based meat is essential. An important aspect of this is the feeling of satiety or being full after eating. This study determined the satiating capacity of both plant-based meat and animal meat in 60 adults under real-life in-home conditions. Participants consumed four fixed ready-to eat meals for lunch at home once per week. Two types of Indian curry with ‘chicken’ were investigated as well as two types of pasta Bolognese with ‘minced meat’. The two ‘chicken’ dishes and the two ‘minced meat’ dishes had the same recipe except for a gram-for-gram swap (125 g each) of either animal meat (chicken breast and minced meat) or plant-based (soy) meat. Results showed no difference in the satiating power of an animal meat dish and a plant-based meat dish when these were eaten as part of a full lunch meal at home. In addition, the meals did not result in energy nor macronutrient compensation during the rest of the day after consuming the meals. This occurred despite the caloric differences of the meals as a result of the real-life conditions (i.e., a lower energy content of the pasta with plant-based meat compared to the other meals). We conclude that meals with plant-based meat can be as satiating as meals with animal meat

Procrustes problems

First systematic overview of Procrustean methods in one volume Multi-disciplinary - these matching methods are used in many fields involving data analysis at research level Contains new algorithms Presents a unifying ANOVA framework Procrustean methods are used to transform one set of data to represent another set of data as closely as possible. The name derives from the Greek myth where Procrustes invited passers-by in for a pleasant meal and a night's rest on a magical bed that would exactly fit any guest. He then either stretched the guest on the rack or cut off their legs to make them fit perfectly into the bed. Theseus turned the tables on Procrustes, fatally adjusting him to fit his own bed. This text, the first monograph on Procrustes methods, unifies several strands in the literature and contains much new material. It focuses on matching two or more configurations by using orthogonal, projection and oblique axes transformations. Group-average summaries play an important part and links with other group-average methods are discussed. This is the latest in the well-established and authoritative Oxford Statistical Science Series, which includes texts and monographs covering many topics of current research interest in pure and applied statistics. Each title has an original slant even if the material included is not specifically original. The authors are leading researchers and the topics covered will be of interest to all professional statisticians, whether they be in industry, government department or research institute. Other books in the series include 23. W.J.Krzanowski: Principles of multivariate analysis: a user's perspective updated edition 24. J.Durbin and S.J.Koopman: Time series analysis by State Space Models 25. Peter J. Diggle, Patrick Heagerty, Kung-Yee Liang, Scott L. Zeger: Analysis of Longitudinal Data 2/e 26. J.K. Lindsey: Nonlinear Models in Medical Statistics 27. Peter J. Green, Nils L. Hjort & Sylvia Richardson: Highly Structured Stochastic Systems 28. Margaret S. Pepe: The Statistical Evaluation of Medical Tests for Classification and Prediction 29. Christopher G. Small and Jinfang Wang: Numerical Methods for Nonlinear Estimating Equations

Dynamic methods of sensory analysis

Human perception systems are generally geared towards detecting change. Constant stimulation is of low survival value, hence uninteresting. Most sensory methods focus on static judgements, but there is a class of methods especially adapted to measuring perceived change in stimulation from food. Most processes involved in eating, e.g. mastication and salivation, are dynamic processes, so methods acknowledging dynamic properties of eating are likely to produce results more valid than static methods. Food components as texturing agents, flavour systems, etc., have an impact on the dynamics of food breakdown and flavour release. Both from a fundamental - food perception and appreciation - and, from an applied - product development - viewpoint, dynamic sensory methods are worthwhile studying and employing.</p

Sensory measurement of dynamic flavour intensity in ice cream with different fat levels and flavourings

Flavour compounds vary in physicochemical properties and therefore behave differently in foods with different fat content. The objective was to investigate differences in dynamic flavour intensity in a realistic food system and relate them to two relevant molecular descriptors for flavour compounds. Ice creams with different fat levels (3%, 6% and 12% milk fat) and flavouring (β-ionone (berry), δ-nonalactone (coconut), isopentyl acetate (banana), vanillin (vanilla)) were examined. Approximately iso-intense concentrations (in 12% fat) were selected. Samples were analysed with time-intensity methodology, evaluating perceived melt rate and flavour intensity (trained panel N=12, 3 replicates). Data were analysed by ANOVA, principal component analysis (PCA) and ANOVA partial least squares regression (APLSR). Analyses of data showed faster perceived melt rates and faster increases and decreases in dynamic flavour perception with lower fat levels. Individual flavour compounds were not affected similarly by changes in fat level. Increase and decrease rates of dynamic flavour perception were related to boiling points and hydrophobicity of the flavour compounds. Isopentyl acetate with the lowest boiling point had the fastest increase rate and the slowest decrease rate in intensity. Vanillin with the lowest hydrophobicity index (logP) had the fastest decrease rate. δ-nonalactone and β-ionone with high boiling points and high logP had similar increase rates as vanillin, but had a slower decrease rate in flavour intensity.</p

Gender and handedness effects on hedonicity of laterally presented odours

The effect of lateral presentation of odours on the hedonic evaluation is reported using a range of different substances. The hypothesis that hedonic evaluation of odours depends on stimulated nostril and on gender and handedness is tested using psychophysical methodology. A total of 51 untrained subjects evaluated 16 substances with different hedonic valences. Each odour substance was presented to the subjects four times, twice at each nostril using a balanced experimental design. Effects of gender and handedness, and interactions, are observed. Some parallels with the perception of visual emotional stimuli are suggested. Hedonic processing of odour stimuli is concluded to be an emotional, rather than an analytical task.</p

Situating desire: Situational cues affect desire for food through eating simulations

How do situations influence food desire? Although eating typically occurs in rich background situations, research on food desire often focuses on the properties of foods and consumers, rather than on the situations in which eating takes place. Here, we take a grounded cognition perspective and suggest that a situation that is congruent with consuming a food increases simulations of eating it, which, in turn, affect desire, and the expected and actual liking of the food. We tested this idea in four pre-registered experiments (N = 524). Participants processed an image of a food presented in a congruent situation, an incongruent situation, or no background situation. Compared to the incongruent situation, the congruent situation increased expected liking of the food and desire, and this was partially or fully mediated by eating simulations. The congruent situation also increased salivation, a physiological indicator of preparing to eat. However, there was only weak and indirect evidence for congruence effects on actual liking of the food when tasted. These findings show that situational cues can affect desire for food through eating simulations. Thus, background situations play an important but understudied role in human food desires. We address implications for research using food images, and for applications to promote healthy and sustainable eating behaviour

Expected taste intensity affects response to sweet drinks in primary taste cortex

Expectations about a food can impact on its taste, but this may represent a perceptual change or a bias in response at the decision-making stage. We hypothesised that expectation of taste intensity should be underpinned by modulation of activity in primary taste cortex. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that expecting a very sweet drink, but receiving a less sweet drink, enhanced the reported sweetness and bolstered activity in taste cortex, relative to a less sweet drink without this expectation. The activation overlapped with primary taste cortex activation found in 11 recent taste studies. Our findings provide evidence that taste expectation modulates activity in an area consistently reported as primary taste cortex, implying that expectation effects do indeed impact on taste perception

Situating desire: situational cues affect desire for food through eating simulations

How do situations influence food desire? Although eating typically occurs in rich background situations, research on food desire often focuses on the properties of foods and consumers, rather than on the situations in which eating takes place. Here, we take a grounded cognition perspective and suggest that a situation that is congruent with consuming a food increases simulations of eating it, which, in turn, affect desire, and the expected and actual liking of the food. We tested this idea in four pre-registered experiments (N = 524). Participants processed an image of a food presented in a congruent situation, an incongruent situation, or no background situation. Compared to the incongruent situation, the congruent situation increased expected liking of the food and desire, and this was partially or fully mediated by eating simulations. The congruent situation also increased salivation, a physiological indicator of preparing to eat. However, there was only weak and indirect evidence for congruence effects on actual liking of the food when tasted. These findings show that situational cues can affect desire for food through eating simulations. Thus, background situations play an important but understudied role in human food desires. We address implications for research using food images, and for applications to promote healthy and sustainable eating behaviour