Comparison of sensory-specific satiety between normal weight and overweight children

Highlights

• All children displayed SSS independent of BMI z-score.

• All children displayed declines in wanting independent of BMI z-score.

• The perception of fat foods may be dependent on BMI z-score.

• The overweight children reported a faster intake pace compared to the normal weight children.

Abstract

Sensory properties of some foods may be of importance to energy consumption and thus the development and maintenance of childhood obesity. This study compares selected food related qualities in overweight and normal weight children. Ninety-two participants were included; 55 were overweight with a mean age of 11.6 years (range 6–18 years) and a mean BMI z-score of 2.71 (range 1.29–4.60). The 37 normal weight children had a mean age of 13.0 years (range 6–19 years) and a mean BMI z-score of 0.16 (range −1.71 to 1.24). All children completed a half-hour long meal test consisting of alternation between consumption of foods and answering of questionnaires. Compared to the normal weight, the overweight children displayed lower self-reported intake paces (χ²(2) = 6.3, p = 0.04), higher changes in liking for mozzarella (F(1,63) = 9.55, p = 0.003) and pretzels (F(1,87) = 5.27, p = 0.024), and declines in wanting for something fat, of which the normal weight children displayed an increase (F(1,83) = 4,10, p = 0.046). No differences were found for sensory-specific satiety, wanting for the main food yoghurt, hunger, or satiety. In conclusion, overweight children did not differ from normal weight children in terms of sensory-specific satiety, hunger, or satiety. However, overweight children had lower intake paces and appeared to differ from normal weight children regarding foods with a fatty taste.

Introduction

During the last decade, the prevalence of overweight and obese children and adolescents generally appear to have reached a plateau in Western countries; however, increases in the degree of obesity has recently been documented in the US, and taken together a large number of children are affected with obesity (Ogden et al., 2014, Olds et al., 2011, Schmidt Morgen et al., 2013, Skinner et al., 2016). Apart from the enormous health economic consequences related to obesity on a societal level, the consequences on an individual level are severe as well (Anis et al., 2010, Colagiuri et al., 2008). In children, obesity may induce the development of metabolic complications such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, prediabetes, and hepatic steatosis, as well as severe psychosocial complications, which e.g. are primarily due to stigmatization and body dissatisfaction (Neef, Weise, & Adler, 2013).

The etiology of childhood obesity constitutes a highly complex interplay between several factors and may to some extent involve an unfavorable diet and or eating patterns. Multiple factors influence food consumption where an important factor is external eating, which describes how easily one is tempted to eat due to external stimuli such as the smell and sight of foods (van Strien, Frijters, Bergers, & Defares, 1986). In the experiment reported in this paper, we investigated whether external eating, intake pace, sensory specific satiety, wanting, transfer effects and induced food desires differ between obese and normal weight children. Sensory specific satiety (SSS) is defined as a decline in pleasantness of a food during its consumption (E. T. Rolls & Rolls, 1997). Therefore, SSS is a mechanism that guides people to eat a varied diet, and imbalances in SSS could lead to inappropriate eating behavior. Furthermore, the decline in pleasantness simultaneously occurs for other foods, which share sensory properties with the eaten food. For example, stimulation with a sweet and crunchy biscuit will not only give rise to SSS for the biscuit, but also to other related food items, which either taste sweet and/or are crunchy (Guinard & Brun, 1998). This phenomenon is called a transfer effect (Griffioen-Roose, Finlayson, Mars, Blundell, & de Graaf, 2010; B. J. Rolls, Van Duijvenvoorde, & Rolls, 1984). However, this has not been tested in children and in general, only very few studies have approached an investigation of SSS and transfer effects and their possible contribution to obesity in children (Brondel et al., 2007, Olsen et al., 2011). Concurrently with SSS, a decline in wanting for a food is often observed during consumption (Berridge and Robinson, 2003, Berridge, 1996, Finlayson and Dalton, 2012, Havermans, 2011, Havermans, 2012, Møller, 2015). High(er) wanting (and induced desires) will produce larger food intake, increasing the risk of becoming obese. Wanting is often quantified by measuring how much effort participants are willing to apply to obtain a certain food, but since it was not possible to use such a procedure in the present experiment, we used the same method as (Olsen et al., 2011), who asked participants to report wanting by means of a visual analog scale.

Previous studies have shown associations between weight changes and intake pace in adults (Andrade et al., 2008, Otsuka et al., 2006, Tanihara et al., 2011). For an example, Otsuka et al. concluded that their results “among middle-aged men and women suggest that eating fast would lead to obesity”, while Andrade et al. concluded that their “data suggest that eating slowly may help to maximize satiation and reduce energy intake within meals”(Otsuka et al., 2006, Tanihara et al., 2011). Thus, as intake pace may act as a contributing factor to or against obesity, this variable was examined as well.

The objective of the present study was to examine sensory specific satiety, wanting, external eating, intake pace, hunger, satiety, and transfer effects comparing normal weight and overweight children. We hypothesized that overweight children display reduced SSS compared to normal weight children, and that overweight children express higher wanting for foods, less decrease in hunger, and less increase in satiety while eating, as well as a higher intake pace. Furthermore, we hypothesized that overweight children score higher on an external eating questionnaire and thereby display a higher degree of temptation towards foods.