Appetite
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The aim of this study was to further evaluate the validity and clinical meaningfulness of appetite sensations to predict overall energy intake as well as body weight loss. ⋯ These results demonstrate that appetite sensations are relatively useful predictors of spontaneous energy intake, free-living total energy intake and body weight loss. They also confirm that SQ for fullness predicts energy intake, at least in women.
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There is concern about the extent to which consumers will accept genetically modified (GM) foods if they are commercialized in China. The evidence from the existing literature is mixed and sometimes confusing. The objective of this study is to conduct a large in-depth face-to-face in-house survey that examines the consumers' awareness, acceptance of and willingness to buy GM foods in China. ⋯ Chinese consumers also demonstrated great variance in their acceptance of different GM foods. Information and prices of GM foods were two important factors affecting consumers' attitudes toward GM foods. Based on the findings of this study and given that our sample is in the more developed eastern Urban China, we conclude that the commercialization of GM foods is not likely to receive great resistance from the consumers in China.
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Lack of access to affordable healthy foods has been suggested to be a contributory factor to poor diet. This study investigated associations between diet and access to supermarkets, transport, fruit and vegetable price and deprivation, in a region divergent in geography and socio-economic indices. A postal survey of 1000 addresses (response rate 42%) gathered information on family demographics, supermarket and shop use, car ownership, mobility and previous day's fruit and vegetable intake. ⋯ Deprivation, supermarket fruit and vegetable price, distance to nearest supermarket and potential difficulties with grocery shopping were not significantly associated with either fruit or vegetable consumption. These data suggest that the three key elements of a food desert, fruit and vegetable price, socio-economic deprivation and a lack of locally available supermarkets, were not factors influencing fruit or vegetable intake. We suggest that food policies aimed at improving diet should be orientated towards changing socio-cultural attitudes towards food.
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Recent research has indicated that craving for food can be elicited by exposure to food cues, suggesting that exposure to food cues may represent a useful experimental paradigm to investigate mechanisms related to binge eating. The first objective of the present research was to replicate previous reports that exposure to food cues elicits craving for food. In addition, this investigation was designed to extend the extant literature by testing the effects of 'priming' portions of food, by examining the association between reactivity to food cues and indicators of binge eating, and to examine the role of a putative genetic factor previously found to be associated with cue-elicited craving for alcohol and tobacco. ⋯ The results suggested that food cues reliably elicited craving, increased attention to the cues, and decreased positive affect in both samples, although reactivity was greater among the sample with greater eating pathology. Correlational analyses suggested that reactivity to food cues was correlated with binge eating and body mass index among women but not men. Results also suggest that the DRD4 VNTR polymorphism influences cue-elicited craving for food, although the influence of the DRD4 may depend on the population under study.
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Previous research has shown that exposure to food cues increases eating, especially in restrained eaters. The present study attempted to determine whether this elevated consumption reflects a general desire to eat in response to food cues, or specific desire/craving for the cued food. Restrained and unrestrained eaters were exposed to the smell of either pizza, cookies, or no smell for 10 minutes, were asked to write their thoughts (corresponding to the smell cue) about pizza, cookies or in general, and were then presented with either pizza or cookies to 'taste and rate'. ⋯ Self-reported desire to eat, liking, and craving for a particular food increased somewhat for restrained eaters after exposure to the smell and thought of that food. Restrained eaters' intake of a food that differed from the pre-eating food cues did not differ from their intake following no prior exposure to food cues. Restrained eaters thus showed a highly specific response to exposure to food cues.