Energy compensation in the real world: Good compensation for small portions of chocolate and biscuits over short time periods in complicit consumers using commercially available foods

While investigations using covert food manipulations tend to suggest that individuals are poor at adjusting for previous energy intake, in the real world adults rarely consume foods of which they are ill-informed. This study investigated the impact in fully complicit consumers of consuming commercially available dark chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet biscuits and fruit bars on subsequent appetite. Using a repeated measures design, participants received four small portions (4 × 10-11 g) of either dark chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet biscuits, fruit bars or no food throughout five separate study days (counterbalanced in order), and test meal intake, hunger, liking and acceptability were measured. Participants consumed significantly less at lunch following dark chocolate, milk chocolate and sweet biscuits compared to no food (smallest t(19) = 2.47, p = 0.02), demonstrating very good energy compensation (269-334%). No effects were found for fruit bars (t(19) = 1.76, p = 0.09), in evening meal intakes (F(4,72) = 0.62, p = 0.65) or in total intake (lunch + evening meal + food portions) (F(4,72) = 0.40, p = 0.69). No differences between conditions were found in measures of hunger (largest F(4,76) = 1.26, p = 0.29), but fruit bars were significantly less familiar than all other foods (smallest t(19) = 3.14, p = 0.01). These findings demonstrate good compensation over the short term for small portions of familiar foods in complicit consumers. Findings are most plausibly explained as a result of participant awareness and cognitions, although the nature of these cognitions cannot be discerned from this study. These findings however, also suggest that covert manipulations may have limited transfer to real world scenarios.

Beneficial effect of a polyphenol-rich diet on cardiovascular risk: a randomised control trial

OBJECTIVES: There is previous epidemiological evidence that intake of polyphenol-rich foods has been associated with reduced cardiovascular disease risk. We aimed to investigate the effect of increasing dietary polyphenol intake on microvascular function in hypertensive participants.

METHODS: All participants completed a 4-week run-in phase, consuming <2 portions of fruit and vegetables (F&V) daily and avoiding berries and dark chocolate. Subjects were then randomised to continue with the low-polyphenol diet for 8 weeks or to consume a high-polyphenol diet of six portions F&V (including one portion of berries/day and 50 g of dark chocolate). Endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine, ACh) and endothelium-independent (sodium nitroprusside) vasodilator responses were assessed by venous occlusion plethysmography. Compliance with the intervention was measured using food diaries and biochemical markers.

RESULTS: Final analysis of the primary endpoint was conducted on 92 participants. Between-group comparison of change in maximum % response to ACh revealed a significant improvement in the high-polyphenol group (p=0.02). There was a significantly larger increase in vitamin C, carotenoids and epicatechin in the high-polyphenol group (between-group difference p<0.001; p<0.001; p=0.008, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that increasing the polyphenol content of the diet via consumption of F&V, berries and dark chocolate results in a significant improvement in an established marker of cardiovascular risk in hypertensive participants.

'Chocolate makes you autism': impairment, disability and childhood identities

This paper discusses perceptions and experiences of impairment and disability from the perspectives of learning disabled children, their parents and their social workers. The author reports on findings from her doctoral study that adults often fail to take into account the views and experiences of learning disabled chidren. As a result, these children developed their own interpretations of impairment and disability based on their experiences and interactions with others. Whilst this indicates that they are active social interpreters, it also suggests that adults should make greater efforts to inform and consult learning disabled children. The author concludes by reflecting on the relevance of these findings to contemporary theories of disability and childhood.

The Dissociative Recombination of Protonated Acrylonitrile, CH2CHCNH+, with Implications for Nitrile Chemistry in Dark Molecular Clouds and the Upper Atmosphere of Titan

Measurements on the dissociative recombination (DR) of protonated acrylonitrile, CH2CHCNH+, have been performed at the heavy ion storage ring CRYRING located in the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been found that at~2meV relative kinetic energy about 50% of the DR events involve only ruptures of X–H bonds (where X=C or N)while the rest leads to the production of a pair of fragments each containing two heavy atoms (alongside H and/or H2). The absolute DR cross section has been investigated for relative kinetic energies ranging from ~1 meV to 1 eV. The thermal rate coefficient has been determined to follow the expression k(T) = 1.78 × 10-6 (T/300)-0.80 cm3 s-1 for electron temperatures ranging from ~10 to 1000 K. Gas-phase models of the nitrile chemistry in the dark molecular cloud TMC-1 have been run and results are compared with observations. Also, implications of the present results for the nitrile chemistry of Titan’s upper atmosphere are discussed.

The Effects of Molecular Anions on the Chemistry of Dark Clouds

We have investigated the role of molecular anion chemistry in pseudo-time-dependent chemical models of dark clouds. With oxygen-rich elemental abundances, the addition of anions results in a slight improvement in the overall agreement between model results and observations of molecular abundances in Taurus molecular cloud 1 (TMC-1 (CP)). More importantly, with the inclusion of anions, we see an enhanced production efficiency of unsaturated carbon-chain neutral molecules, especially in the longer members of the families C(n)H, C(n)H(2), and HC(n)N. The use of carbon-rich elemental abundances in models of TMC-1 (CP) with anion chemistry worsens the agreement with observations compared with model results obtained in the absence of anions.

Turbulent diffusion and mixing in interstellar dark clouds with adsorption onto grains

This paper reports the results of models of dark cloud chemistry incorporating a depth dependent density distribution with diffusive mixing and adsorption onto grains. The model is based on the approach taken by Xie et al. (1995), with the addition of grain accretion effects. Without diffusion, the central regions of the cloud freeze out in less than 10(7) years. Freeze-out time is dependent on density, so the diffuse outer region of the cloud remains abundant in gas for about an order of magnitude longer. We find that fairly small amounts of diffusive mixing can delay freeze-out at the centre of the model cloud for a time up to an order of magnitude greater than without diffusion, due to material diffusing inward from the edges of the cloud. The gas-phase lifetime of the cloud core can thus be increased by up to an order of magnitude or more by this process. We have run three different grain models with various diffusion coefficients to investigate the effects of changing the sticking parameters.