Encouraging online consumers into making better food choices: The power of nature exposure on healthy food choices.

Background: online environments can influence food desire and choices. We tested if online calming nature and stressful street environments can affect desire for healthy and unhealthy foods.

Method: we asked 238 participants (40 ± 14 yrs) to rate their desire (100 mm VAS) for 7 low calorie nutrient rich foods (Healthy) and 7 high calorie nutrient poor foods (Unhealthy), and perceived stress (state anxiety in STAI), before and after imagining themselves in a control, nature park, or busy street condition.

Evoked sensory stimulation of the eating environment, impacts feeling of presence and food desires in an online environment.

Online food choices are often made outside a regular food environment and suffer from sensory deprivation. The present study investigated if evoked multi-sensory stimulation can drive context specific food desires in an online environment. In a randomised between subject design, participants expressed their food desire on a visual analogue scale and feeling of presence (e.

Oral Exposure to Sodium Chloride without Subsequent Consumption Does Not Alter Salt Taste Function in Adults: A Cross-Over Intervention Study.

Background: Reduction in dietary sodium increases salt taste sensitivity; however, non-oral sodium supplementation does not, suggesting that oral exposure is more important for modulating taste perception than consumption without tasting.

Objective: Using psychophysical methods, we assessed the effect of a two-week intervention involving oral exposure to a tastant without consumption on modulating taste function.

Methods: In a cross-over intervention study, n = 42 adults (age, mean ± SD: 29.

Glutamate-Sodium Discrimination Status in Adults Is Associated with Salt Recognition Threshold and Habitual Intake of Discretionary Food and Meat: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Umami non-discriminators (NDs) are a sub-group of the population with a reduced ability to discriminate between monosodium glutamate (MSG) and sodium chloride (NaCl) compared to umami discriminators (UDs). No research has investigated umami and salty taste perception associations across detection threshold (DT), recognition threshold (RT), and suprathreshold intensity perception (ST) or the habitual dietary intake of ND. Adults ( = 61, mean age of 30 ± 8 years, = 40 females) completed taste assessments measuring their DT, RT, and ST for salty, umami (MSG and monopotassium glutamate (MPG)), and sweet tastes.

Assessment of the triangle test methodology for determining umami discrimination status.

The prototypical stimuli for umami taste is monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is the sodium salt form of glutamic acid. A proportion of the population has a reduced or complete inability to taste l-glutamate independent to the sodium ion. To determine individuals' umami discrimination status, many studies use a series of triangle tests containing isomolar (29 mM) sodium chloride (NaCl) and MSG, requiring participants to correctly identify the odd sample.

Consumer Acceptance of Brown and White Rice Varieties.

Rice is consumed as a staple food by more than half of the world's population. Due to a higher fibre and micronutrient content, brown rice is more nutritious than white rice, but the consumption of brown rice is significantly lower than that of white rice, primarily due to sensory attributes. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify the sensory attributes which drive liking of Australian-grown brown and white rice varieties.

Identifying ideal product composition of chocolate-flavored milk using preference mapping.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends cutting down added sugar in processed foods and beverages. There is a growing concern for increased calorie intake from added sugar in flavored milk. To understand how to effectively reduce added sugar in flavored milk, the influence of other nutritional components such as percentage of fat, protein, and salt need to be accounted for as they are the determinants for color, flavor and mouthfeel attributes that ultimately influence consumer liking.

Identifying opportunities for strengthening advice to enhance vegetable liking in the early years of life: qualitative consensus and triangulation methods.

Objective: To prioritise and refine a set of evidence-informed statements into advice messages to promote vegetable liking in early childhood, and to determine applicability for dissemination of advice to relevant audiences.

Design: A nominal group technique (NGT) workshop and a Delphi survey were conducted to prioritise and achieve consensus (≥70 % agreement) on thirty evidence-informed maternal (perinatal and lactation stage), infant (complementary feeding stage) and early years (family diet stage) vegetable-related advice messages. Messages were validated via triangulation analysis against the strength of evidence from an Umbrella review of strategies to increase children's vegetable liking, and gaps in advice from a Desktop review of vegetable feeding advice.

Addition of a visual cue to rice increases perceived flavour intensity but not liking.

Rice is a common staple for about 50% of the world population. Sodium based ingredients such as table salt (NaCl) and mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) are often added to rice to increase flavour intensity and subsequent liking. Due to negative health consequences of excessive NaCl consumption and negative consumer perception of MSG, alternative strategies to increase perceived flavour intensity of rice are needed.

Sugar Reduction in Dairy Food: An Overview with Flavoured Milk as an Example.

Owing to the public health concern associated with the consumption of added sugar, the World Health Organization recommends cutting down sugar in processed foods. Furthermore, due to the growing concern of increased calorie intake from added sugar in sweetened dairy foods, the present review provides an overview of different types and functions of sugar, various sugar reduction strategies, and current trends in the use of sweeteners for sugar reduction in dairy food, taking flavoured milk as a central theme where possible to explore the aforementioned aspects. The strength and uniqueness of this review are that it brings together all the information on the available types of sugar and sugar reduction strategies and explores the current trends that could be applied for reducing sugar in dairy foods without much impact on consumer acceptance.

Association between food liking and the dietary quality in Australian young adults.

Background And Objectives: An individual's liking for food maybe associated with food consumption. This study investigates the association between food liking and dietary quality in Australian young adults.

Methods And Study Design: Food liking and food frequency data were collected via an online Food Liking Questionnaire (FLQ) and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ).

The Influence of Taste Liking on the Consumption of Nutrient Rich and Nutrient Poor Foods.

Repeated consumption of high-energy nutrient poor foods can lead to undesirable health outcomes such as obesity. Taste plays an important role in food choice, and a better understanding of the links between the taste of foods, individual taste preferences, food choices, and intakes will aid in our understanding of why some people might select and consume unhealthy foods. The present review focuses on three main questions: (1) do nutrient poor and nutrient rich foods significantly differ in taste profile? (2) are humans predisposed toward developing a liking or preference for certain taste profiles? (3) how are individual variations in liking of the basic taste qualities related to long term food intake and adverse health outcomes such as obesity? Results indicated that nutrient poor foods were likely to be sweet, salty and fatty mouthfeel, while the taste profiles of nutrient rich foods were diverse.

The relationship between culture, food liking, and body mass index in Australian and Thai young adults.

Background And Objectives: An individual's liking of food may be associated with Body Mass Index (BMI) due to its subsequent impact on food consumption. This study investigates the association between food liking and BMI in young adults from Australia and Thailand.

Methods And Study Design: Food liking data were collected via a validated online Food Liking Questionnaire (FLQ).

The Response of More Health Focused and Less Health Focused People to a Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent Label on Discretionary Snack Foods.

A Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent (PACE) label shows the minutes of physical activity required to burn off the caloric content of a particular food. This study investigated the influence of PACE labelling on liking and consumption of discretionary snack foods in a group of more health focused and less health focused consumers. Participants ( = 97) tasted and rated (i.

Salt Preference and Ability to Discriminate between Salt Content of Two Commercially Available Products of Australian Primary Schoolchildren.

Australian children consume too much salt, primarily from processed foods where salt is often used to enhance flavour. Few studies have assessed children's salt preference in commercially available foods. This study aims to assess (1) children's preference and ability to discriminate between salt levels in two commercially available foods and (2) if preference or ability to discriminate between salt levels changes after an education program.

Umami as an 'Alimentary' Taste. A New Perspective on Taste Classification.

Applied taste research is increasingly focusing on the relationship with diet and health, and understanding the role the sense of taste plays in encouraging or discouraging consumption. The concept of basic tastes dates as far back 3000 years, where perception dominated classification with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter consistently featuring on basic taste lists throughout history. Advances in molecular biology and the recent discovery of taste receptors and ligands has increased the basic taste list to include umami and fat taste.

Assessing Food Liking: Comparison of Food Liking Questionnaires and Direct Food Tasting in Two Cultures.

Food liking can be directly measured in specialised sensory testing facilities; however, this method is not feasible for large population samples. The aim of the study was to compare a Food Liking Questionnaire (FLQ) against lab-based sensory testing in two countries. The study was conducted with 70 Australian and Thai participants (35 Australian, 35 Thai, mean (SD) age 19 (3.

Cross-Sectional Study of 24-Hour Urinary Electrolyte Excretion and Associated Health Outcomes in a Convenience Sample of Australian Primary Schoolchildren: The Salt and Other Nutrients in Children (SONIC) Study Protocol.

Background: Dietary sodium and potassium are involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Data exploring the cardiovascular outcomes associated with these electrolytes within Australian children is sparse. Furthermore, an objective measure of sodium and potassium intake within this group is lacking.

Health labelling can influence taste perception and use of table salt for reduced-sodium products.

Objective: To investigate the effect of front-of-pack labels on taste perception and use of table salt for currently available and sodium-reduced soups.

Design: Within-subject design.

Setting: Sensory laboratory.

Reducing sodium in foods: the effect on flavor.

Sodium is an essential micronutrient and, via salt taste, appetitive. High consumption of sodium is, however, related to negative health effects such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and stroke. In industrialized countries, about 75% of sodium in the diet comes from manufactured foods and foods eaten away from home.

Prediction of children's flavour preferences. Effect of age and stability in reported preferences.

The present study investigated whether children were able to communicate stable flavour preferences and whether mothers' ability to correctly identify their child's flavour preferences is related to the stability of their child's flavour preferences. On 2 consecutive days, 75 girls and 77 boys (3-10 years, mean age=7.1+/-2.

Fruit consumption of boys (8--11 years) is related to preferences for sour taste.

The present study investigated whether the most preferred balance between sweet and sour taste of children (n=50, 9.2+/-0.9 yrs of age) are related to their consumption of fruit.

Sweet and sour preferences in young children and adults: role of repeated exposure.

We investigated the influence of repeated exposure to orangeades with added sucrose and different concentrations of citric acid, on the taste preferences of 6- to-11-year-old children and young adults. During an intervention study of 8 days, 59 children (9.2+/-0.

Sweet preferences and sugar consumption of 4- and 5-year-old children: role of parents.

We investigated the relationships in children between rules that restrict consumption of mono- and disaccharides (MDS), consumption of MDS and preferences for sucrose-containing orangeade. The background ideas of restriction rules we also investigated. To this end, 44 children (5.

Sour taste preferences of children relate to preference for novel and intense stimuli.

Previous research has suggested that some children have a preference for sour tastes. The origin of this preference remains unclear. We investigated whether preference for sour tastes is related to a difference in rated sour intensity due to physiological properties of saliva, or to an overall preference for intense and new stimuli.