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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Obesity and Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #291723
Title: Does mere exposure change implicit associations between whole grain foods and taste?

Author
item DE LEON, ANGELA - University Of California
item BURNETT, DUSTIN - University Of California
item Horn, William
item Keim, Nancy

Submitted to: FASEB Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/30/2014
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The health benefits of whole grain (WG) consumption are well documented. Current Dietary Guidelines recommend that individuals consume = 3 servings per day. Despite increased variety, availability, and promotion of WG products, less than 5% of Americans consume the recommended amounts. Healthy adults were provided weekly market baskets of a variety of WG products in recommended amounts for home use. We hypothesized that exposure to WG foods would change implicit associations between WG and taste. Intake was measured by calculating disappearance and verified by a daily log. Administered at baseline and at the end of the 6-week intervention, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a computerized paradigm that measures indirectly the strength of association between pairs of concepts: (a) two contrasted target categories (WG and refined grain (RG) food images) and (b) two contrasted attribute categories (pleasant words and unpleasant words relating to taste) via a classification task. Participants rapidly classify stimuli representing target and attribute into categories. Response time (milliseconds) was used to calculate IAT D scores. Paired t-tests showed that average D scores at the end of the study showed a significant positive shift in implicit attitude towards WG (p<0.05) in those who initially associated WG with negative taste. This suggests that mere exposure to WG products over an extended period of time in a free living situation can improve automatic attitudes toward WG and may result in increased consumption. Supported by USDA 5306-51530-019-00D.