Sprouts: Development of Eating Behaviors in Early Childhood

在美国和其他发达国家，导致肥胖的食品环境主要是经过深度加工的、高能量、美味、可获得、负担得起的、高度营销的营养价值最低的食品(即非必需食品)，这些产品很容易鼓励超过能量需求的摄入量。食物奖赏敏感性，即对食物刺激的神经奖赏反应，已经成为一种个体特征，可能会驱动享乐动机的食物摄入，从而影响对环境影响的敏感性，从而影响饮食摄入量和相关的健康结果。关于儿童早期出于享乐动机的食物摄入量的发展以及父母对食物奖励敏感的作用、接触高回报食物的程度以及塑造儿童食物环境的其他可改变的家庭喂养做法，仍然存在严重的知识差距。更好地了解食物奖励敏感性的影响及其对儿童饮食和生长的影响，将有助于阐明个体和环境因素对饮食行为和相关健康指标的相对重要性，并为指导未来的干预措施促进健康饮食习惯的发展提供关键知识。 这项研究的总体目标是从3岁到5岁的儿童跟踪PEAS(妊娠饮食属性研究)队列，以调查儿童饮食行为和对食物的神经行为反应(例如，在没有饥饿的情况下吃饭、对食物提示的注意偏差、食物强化价值、自我调节)与母亲饮食摄入量和食物奖励相关特征、婴儿喂养习惯和饮食行为以及早期接触可自由支配食物的关系。Sprouts从2019年3月开始招募，数据收集将于2024年春季完成。

In the U.S. and other developed countries, the obesogenic food environment is dominated by highly processed, energy-dense, palatable, accessible, affordable, and highly-marketed food products of minimal nutritional value (i.e., discretionary foods), which readily encourage intake in excess of energetic needs. Food reward sensitivity, the neurologic reward response to food stimuli, has emerged as an individual trait that may drive hedonically-motivated food intake, thereby impacting susceptibility to environmental influences on dietary intake and associated health outcomes. Critical knowledge gaps remain regarding the development of hedonically-motivated food intake in early childhood and the roles of parental food reward sensitivity, the degree of exposure to highly rewarding foods, and other modifiable family feeding practices that shape the childs food environment. Better understanding of the influences on food reward sensitivity and its impact on child diet and growth will elucidate the relative importance of individual and environmental factors on eating behaviors and related health indicators and provide critical knowledge to guide future intervention to advance the development of healthful eating habits. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to follow the PEAS (Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study) cohort from child age 3 to 5 years to investigate relationships of child eating behaviors and neuro-behavioral responses to food (e.g., eating in the absence of hunger, attentional bias to food cues, food reinforcement value, self-regulation) with maternal dietary intake and food reward-related characteristics, infant feeding practices and eating behaviors, and early life exposure to discretionary foods. Recruitment for Sprouts began in March 2019, with data collection to be completed by spring, 2024.