Ciaran G. Forde

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Division of Human Nutrition

Parental behaviours influence food acceptance in young children, but few studies have measured these behaviours using observational methods, especially among children with Down syndrome (CWDS). The overall goal of this study was to understand parent feeding practices used during snack time with young CWDS (N = 111, aged 11-58 months). A coding sche...

Eating behaviors develop in early life and refine during childhood, shaping long-term food choice and dietary habits, which underpin optimum growth and health. The development of Food Oral Processing (FOP) is of major importance in the establishment of eating behaviors at two scale levels: for the initial acceptance of food texture and for the long...

Food-based dietary guidelines have been the basis of public health recommendations for over half a century, but more recently, there has been a trend to classify the health properties of food not by its nutrient composition, but by the degree to which it has been processed. This concept has been supported by many association studies, narrative revi...

Ultra-processed food consumption has increased world-wide, yet little is known about the potential links with taste preference and sensitivity. This exploratory study aimed to (i) compare sweet and salty taste detection thresholds and preferences following consumption of ultra-processed and unprocessed diets, (ii) investigate whether sweet and salt...

Modifying food texture and eating slowly each reduce appetite and energy intake. No study has evaluated the effect of combining these measures to slow eating speed and determine the effect on appetite. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a combined effect of manipulating oral processing behaviours (OPBs) in this manner on self...

There is growing interest in the adoption of a more sustainable diet, and this has led to the development of plant-derived alternative products that are used as a substitute for products of animal origin. This is a promising way to improve the sustainability of the agricultural food industry; however, there are increasing concerns regarding the nut...

Background: A greater time spent with glucose above the normal range (TAR) has been associated with poorer glycaemic control amongst pre-diabetic individuals. Individual differences in oral processing behaviours and saliva amylase activity have been shown to influence glucose responses. Objective: The current study is a preliminary exploration of t...

The impact of trigeminal oral burn and pungency on taste, flavor, and mouth-feel perception of commercially available foods is underexplored. This study aimed to determine the effect of oral burn sensations evoked by the addition of chili powder to tomato soup, beef burger patties, and curried rice on taste, flavor, and mouth-feel perception. Chili...

Background Longitudinal assessment of the determinants of obesogenic growth trajectories in childhood can suggest appropriate developmental windows for intervention. Methods Latent class growth mixture modelling was used to identify body mass index (BMI) z-score trajectories from birth to age 6 years in 994 children from a prospective mother–offsp...

Background: Food texture can moderate eating rate and ad-libitum energy intake. Many foods are combined with condiments when consumed and the texture and eating properties differ considerably between condiments and carrier foods. Little is known about how combinations of textures impact oral processing or whether these differences are affected by i...

Numerous association studies and findings from a controlled feeding trial have led to the suggestion that “processed” foods are bad for health. Processing technologies and food formulation are essential for food preservation and provide access to safe, nutritious, affordable, appealing and sustainable foods for millions globally. However, food proc...

Purpose Oral processing behaviour may contribute to individual differences in glycaemic response to foods, especially in plant tissue where chewing behaviour can modulate release of starch from the cellular matrix. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of chewing time of two starch based foods (brown rice and chickpeas) on bolus properties...

Purpose To evaluate bioavailability of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) from foods enriched with novel vegetable-based encapsulated algal oil across Australian and Singaporean populations. Methods 27 men ( n = 12 Australian European; n = 15 Singaporean Chinese), 21–50 yr; 18–27.5 kg/m ² , with low habitual intake of omega-3...

Purpose of Review Nutrition often focuses on food composition, yet differences in food form, texture, and matrix influence energy intake and metabolism. This review outlines how these attributes of food impact oral processing, energy intake, and metabolism. Recent Findings Food form has a well-established impact on intake, where liquids are consum...

Consumer interest in Grass-Fed dairy products is increasing with some consumer groups willing to pay a premium for dairy labelled as Grass-Fed. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the term Grass-Fed on a label in combination with claims on fat content, on consumer perceptions of Cheddar cheese in Irish and US participants. Consumers...

The current chapter provides an update on what is known about the role of sensory cues in driving choice and intake behavior. We begin by discussing the role of each sense modality in food choice and intake, focusing on odor, taste, and texture. Recent years have seen progress in our understanding of the role of the senses in ingestive behavior and...

Background Consumption of ultra-processed foods has been linked with higher energy intakes. Food texture is known to influence eating rate (ER) and energy intake to satiation, yet it remains unclear whether food texture influences energy intakes from minimally-processed and ultra-processed meals. Objectives We examined the independent and combined...

Sensory properties inform likes and dislikes, but also play an important functional role in guiding food choice and intake behavior. Odors direct food choice and stimulate sensory-specific appetites and taste helps to anticipate calorie and nutrient content of food. Food textures moderate eating rate and the energy consumed to satiation and post-in...

This is the first book for some years that provides a comprehensive overview of food oral processing. It includes fundamental chapters at the beginning of each section to aid the understanding of the later more specific oral processing chapters. The field is rapidly developing, and the systems researched in the context of food oral processing becom...

Existing highly processed food (HPF) classification systems show large differences in the impact of these foods on biochemical risk factors for disease. If public health nutrition is to consider the degree of food processing as an important element of the link between food and health, certain gaps in research must be acknowledged. Quantifying the f...

Foods and beverages comprise complex mixtures of volatile, nonvolatile, visual, structural, and irritant information that is detected by independent sensory systems and integrated into a single perceptual impression that informs food palatability and intake behavior. Sensory properties are operational before and during food intake, and have an earl...

Several studies have demonstrated food texture manipulation on oral processing behaviour (OPB). We explored the effect of texture-differences of equivalent carbohydrate load on OPB, bolus properties and postprandial glycaemic responses (PPG). In a randomised cross-over, within-subjects, non-blinded design, healthy male participants (N = 39) consume...

Experimental design and analysis has evolved substantially over the last 100 years, driven to a large extent by the power and availability of the computer. To demonstrate this development and encourage the use of experimental design in practice, three experiments from different research areas are presented. In these examples multiple blocking facto...

Complementary foods provide many nutritional benefits to infants as they transition from a milk-based to solid-food diet. The appropriate introduction of solid and semi-solid foods exposes infants to a variety of tastes and textures, aids the development of oral processing skills and promotes acceptance of a diverse diet in later childhood. While c...

Sudden loss of smell and/or taste has been identified as an early symptom of SARS-CoV-2 2019 (COVID-19) infection, and presents an effective target for prompt self-isolation and reducing community spread. The current study sought to develop and test a novel, rapid, self-administered test to objectively measure smell and taste losses associated with...

Background: Both fresh and processed foods are available in the modern food environment where taste can signal presence of nutrients. However, whether these taste–nutrient relationships are maintained across different degrees of food processing is not well understood, and less is known about the relative contribution of different taste qualities to...

Children and adolescents have high nutritional requirements relative to their size in order to meet demands for growth, development and physical activity. Dietary patterns and habits established early in life will influence health in the short and longer term. Good nutritional status and good oral health are interconnected; good nutrition is essent...

Purpose Variations in specific oral processing behaviours may contribute to differences in glucose, insulin and satiety responses to a standardised test meal. This study tested how natural variations in oral processing between slower and faster eaters contribute to differences in post-prandial glucose (PP glucose), insulin response (PP insulin) and...

Consumers are shifting towards plant-based diets, driven by both environmental and health reasons. This has led to the development of new plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) that are marketed as being sustainable and good for health. However, it remains unclear whether these novel PBMAs to replace animal foods carry the same established nutrition...

Food reward is defined as the momentary value of a food to the individual at the time of ingestion and is characterised by two psychological processes-"liking" and "wanting". We aimed to validate an age-appropriate food reward task to quantify implicit wanting of children from the GUSTO cohort (n = 430). At age 5 years, child appetitive traits and...

Background Parents are frequently concerned that their child’s mastication may be compromised after comprehensive dental treatment. Aim To evaluate changes in masticatory function and food preferences after dental treatment in children with early childhood caries. Design This prospective study assessed masticatory function by the (1) mixing abili...

Purpose Modifying food texture has been shown to influence oral processing behaviour. We explored the impact of food texture on oral processing, bolus formation and post-prandial glucose responses (PPG) among fast and slow eaters. Methods Male participants (N=39) were split into fast or slow eaters based on natural differences in eating rate when...

The carbohydrate–insulin model of obesity posits that high-carbohydrate diets lead to excess insulin secretion, thereby promoting fat accumulation and increasing energy intake. Thus, low-carbohydrate diets are predicted to reduce ad libitum energy intake as compared to low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. To test this hypothesis, 20 adults aged 29.9 ±...

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth,...

Alternative proteins are receiving increased global attention. This burgeoning interest in plants (especially plant-based meat alternatives), insects, algae, and cultured meat has been attributed to their reported health benefits, lower environmental impact and improved animal welfare compared to conventional animal-based meat. Food producers and t...

Background: Both high energy density and fast eating rates contribute to excess energy intakes. The energy intake rate (EIR; kcal/min) combines both the energy density (kcal/g) and eating rate (g/min) of a food to quantify the typical rate at which calories of different foods are ingested. Objectives: We describe the EIRs of diets in a multi-ethnic...

Eating more quickly and consuming foods with a higher energy-intake-rate (EIR: kcal/min) is associated with greater energy intake and adiposity. However, it remains unclear whether individuals who eat more quickly are more likely to consume foods with higher EIR. We investigated the overlap between self-reported eating rate (SRER) and the consumpti...

Dairy products contribute significantly to saturated fat (SFA) intake, providing 20% of population intakes, on average(Reference Feeney1). Due to the association with blood cholesterol level, SFA are regarded as a risk factor for CVD. Growing evidence suggests that the food source of the SFA moderates this risk, and cheese consumption in particular...

Background Many studies have shown that changes in food textures are able to reduce food intake via longer oral processing and slower eating rate, without a resultant decrease in food liking or post-meal fullness. Scope and approach The current paper consolidates findings from to date and summarizes current knowledge on (i) how specific food textu...

BACKGROUND Sudden smell and/or taste loss has been suggested to be an early marker of COVID-19 infection, with most findings based on self-report of sensory changes at a single time-point. OBJECTIVE To understand the onset, severity, and recovery of sensory changes with COVID-19 infection, this study will longitudinally track changes in chemosenso...

Background Sudden loss of smell and/or taste has been suggested to be an early marker of COVID-19 infection, with most findings based on self-reporting of sensory changes at a single time point. Objective To understand the onset, severity, and recovery of sensory changes associated with COVID-19 infection, this study will longitudinally track chan...

Taste preferences guide food choices and dietary behaviours, yet few studies have shown a relationship between sweet and savoury taste preference and differences in dietary intakes or energy consumed from different "taste clusters". We investigated differences in psycho-hedonic responses to sweet and savoury tastes and their association with energy...

A food’s sensory appeal can be affected when reformulation is focused on reducing calorie content. Savoury taste enhancers and kokumi compounds have been used to improve the sensory qualities of reduced-calorie foods, but less is known about how such enhancement influences foods’ expected calories and satiating properties. This study examined wheth...

Introduction Chewing a greater number of chews per bite has been shown to increase fullness, lower hunger levels and lead to a lower energy intake, when compared to chewing each bite fewer times. Increased levels of fullness and decreased levels of hunger have also been observed after consuming harder textured foods which require more chewing activ...

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased consumption of energy-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Recent findings suggest that the mere perception of having lower subjective SES (SSES) compared to others was sufficient to elicit heightened preferences and consumption of higher energy foods and meals. This increased driv...

To describe the rationale, design and methodology of a geographically-representative and population-based study investigating the epidemiology, impact, personal and economic burden of age-related eye diseases, declining visual and other sensory systems in Asians aged >60 years in Singapore.PIONEER (The PopulatION HEalth and Eye Disease PRofilE in E...

Competing models of obesity and its treatment often contrast the relative roles of dietary fat versus carbohydrate. Advocates of low-carbohydrate diets posit that intake of high glycemic carbohydrates leads to elevated postprandial insulin thereby promoting body fat accumulation while increasing hunger and energy intake according to the carbohydrat...

Eating faster is associated with greater body mass index (BMI), but less is known about the relationships between eating rate, energy intake, body composition, and cardio-metabolic risk factors in different Asian ethnic groups. Using data from the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort (n = 7011; 21-75 y), we investigated associations between self-reported...

Background: Several risk factors in the first 1000 d are linked with increased obesity risk in later childhood. The role of potentially modifiable eating behaviors in this association is unclear. Objectives: This study examined whether the association between cumulated risk factors in the first 1000 d and adiposity at 6 y is moderated by eating...

Background: Recent observational data and a controlled in-patient crossover feeding trial show that consumption of "ultra-processed foods" (UPFs), as defined by the NOVA classification system, is associated with higher energy intake, adiposity, and at a population level, higher prevalence of obesity. A drawback of the NOVA classification is the la...

Growing health concerns have increased interest in reducing the consumption of added sugars, which can be achieved by substituting or replacing sugar with sweeteners to maintain sensory intensity and quality. The growing availability of sweeteners has increased the complexity of the perceptual landscape as sweeteners differ in the qualitative, inte...

Reformulation strategies to reduce the energy density of commonly consumed foods and beverages are intended to support weight management, but expectations generated by labelling these as ‘healthier’ alternatives can have unintended effects on the product’s sensory evaluations and consumption behaviours. We compared the impact of four different stra...

The modern food environment is often characterised by an increasingly assessable diet of inexpensive, energy-dense and highly palatable foods. Extensive evidence indicates the eating rate of foods (g/min or kcal/min) is associated with energy intake, body composition and the associated risk of food based non-communicable diseases. Moderating eating...

The underlying mechanisms that regulate energy homeostasis and food intake are not fully understood. Moreover, little research has been performed on the relation of body composition with habitual macronutrient intake among free-living populations. Since body composition and energy metabolism differ between males and females, we aimed to determine w...

Texture has long been considered an important attribute for food acceptance. However, which specific textural characteristics contribute to overall acceptance of a food is not well understood. It has been suggested that texture contrasts and combinations are a universal feature in giving foods a desirable texture, yet this notion is largely based u...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Rising obesity in Southeast Asia, one consequence of economic growth, has been linked to a rising consumption of energy from added sugars. This symposium, organized by ILSI Southeast Asia, explored regional issues related to dietary sugars and health and identified ways in which these issues could be addressed by regional...

Although there is considerable evidence for the portion-size effect and its potential impact on health, much of this has not been successfully applied to help consumers reduce portion sizes. The objective of this review is to provide an update on the strength of evidence supporting strategies with potential to reduce portion sizes across individual...

Front-of-Pack (FOP) health and nutrition labels are intended to help consumers make better food choices, but labels that infer a product is ‘healthier’ than it is have been linked to increased consumption. Three studies were set up to assess whether a product’s sensory characteristics counteract label-generated biases in calorie estimation and port...

Parents' feeding practices have been shown to be associated with children's food intake and weight status, but little is known about feeding practices in Asian countries. This study used behavioral observation to explore the feeding practices of 201 mothers of 4.5 year-old children in Singapore during an ad libitum buffet lunch. Feeding practices w...

Background: lower inhibitory control has been associated with obesity. One prediction is that lower inhibitory control underlies eating behaviours that promote increased energy intakes. This study examined the relationships between children’s inhibitory control measured using the Stop Signal Task (SST), body composition and eating behaviours, which...

Texture has long been considered an important attribute for food acceptance. However, which specific textural characteristics contribute to overall acceptance of a food is not well understood. It has been suggested that texture contrasts and combinations are a universal feature in giving foods a desirable texture, yet this notion is largely based u...

Wheat noodles with added native or denatured pea-protein isolate were characterised for their starch-protein interaction, degree of starch gelatinisation, starch digestibility, textural and sensory properties using light microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), in vitro digestion, textural profile analysis (TPA)and descriptive analysis...

We investigated whether ultra-processed foods affect energy intake in 20 weight-stable adults, aged (mean ± SE) 31.2 ± 1.6 years and BMI = 27 ± 1.5 kg/m2. Subjects were admitted to the NIH Clinical Center and randomized to receive either ultra-processed or unprocessed diets for 2 weeks immediately followed by the alternate diet for 2 weeks. Meals w...