Location: Healthy Body Weight Research
Project Number: 3062-51000-057-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Oct 1, 2019
End Date: Sep 30, 2024
Objective:
Objective 1: Determine whether playing a newly developed EF training program “EFfect-food choices” for 8 weeks increases EF.
Objective 2: Determine whether playing “EFfect-food choices” for 8 weeks increases awareness of dietary choices, positive attitudes toward fruits and vegetables (FV), valuation of FV, consumption of FV, and lowers consumption of nutrient-poor foods and body weight.
Objective 3: Determine whether changes in self-consciousness of, attitudes towards, and valuation of FV predict change in dietary intake.
Objective 4: Determine the association of chronic stress with the efficacy of EF training and food valuation.
Approach:
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which include the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (PAGA), is the primary U.S. government resource for weight control. We propose that chronic, low-grade inflammation (CLGI) limits weight control by acting upon physiological and behavioral factors that moderate weight control. Diet and exercise reduce CLGI and provide weight control, but no one has investigated the efficacy of the DGA and PAGA to reduce CLGI, whether reduced CLGI promotes greater weight control, and the moderating roles of physiological and behavioral factors on the association of reduced CLGI with weight control.
This study will test DGA- and PAGA-induced changes in CLGI and weight control. We will also determine the relation of change in CLGI with changes in novel putative physiological (metabolic rate, cell signaling molecules) and behavioral (food and exercise reinforcement, executive function) factors on the association of reduced CLGI that moderate weight control efficacy.
To accomplish this, we will conduct a 9-month trial in 224 obese adults; a 3-month controlled feeding trial with four dietary treatment arms; 1) DGA with weight loss, 2) Western diet with weight loss, 3) DGA diet weight maintenance, 4) Western diet weight maintenance. Each dietary arm will have PAGA-recommended exercise and non-exercise arms. Post-trial is a 6-month weight maintenance period with participants randomized into executive function training intervention or control. The results will inform the DGA and PAGA; thereby helping clinicians, public health workers, and policymakers to improve the health of Americans.
