Although American children snack more than ever before, the parental role in promoting snacking is not well understood. In 2012-2013 at baseline in an intervention study to prevent childhood obesity in low-income Massachusetts communities, n = 271 parents of children aged 2-12 years completed surveys regarding nutritive and non-nutritive reasons they offered children snacks, demographics, and d...

Evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption to weight gain and other negative health outcomes has prompted many individuals to resort to artificial, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) substitutes as a means of reducing SSB intake. However, there is a great deal of controversy regarding the biological consequences of NNS use, with accumulating evidence suggesting that NNS consumption ...

Adelphophagy occurs when encapsulated embryos complete development by feeding on their developing siblings, which are known as nutritive embryos. Nutritive embryos are found in a variety of animal groups, and are especially common in some groups of marine invertebrates. Although they have evolved numerous times independently in the calyptraeid gastropods, adelphophagic development with nutritiv...

The food and beverage industry has been increasingly replacing sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners in their sweetened products to control or reduce total calories. Research comparing the effect of nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners on emotional state of participants exposed to acute stressors is still limited. This study aimed to determine the effect of drinking tea sweetened with either a ...

Adverse health consequences of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages are frequently cited as an example of market failure, justifying government intervention in the marketplace, usually in the form of taxation. However, declining sales of sugar-sweetened beverages in Australia and a corresponding increase in sales of drinks containing non-nutritive sweeteners, in the absence of significant govern...

Acquiring enough food to meet energy expenditure is fundamental for all organisms. Thus, mechanisms have evolved to allow foods with high nutritional value to be readily detected, consumed, and remembered. Although taste is often involved in these processes, there is a wealth of evidence supporting the existence of taste-independent nutrient sensing. In particular, post-ingestive mechanisms ari...

AIMS To assess the effect of the type of feeding and non-nutritive sucking activity on occlusion in deciduous dentition. METHODS Retrospective study of 1130 preschool children (3-5 years of age) who had detailed infant feeding and non-nutritive sucking activity history collected by a structured questionnaire. They all had an oral examination by a dentist, blinded to different variables evalua...

Yeast biomass (Saccharomyces sp.) produced in local breweries as a by-product was utilized in this study. Percent proximate composition, amino acid composition, and protein nutritive value were determined for the yeast cell biomass (YC), a sodium perchlorate extracted and isoelectrically precipitated protein concentrate (P-PC), and a sodium trimetaphosphate treated extract followed by isoelectr...

There is ongoing debate concerning non-nutritive sweeteners, their usage, and their effects on metabolism. The association between non-nutritive sweeteners consumption, development of metabolic diseases, and changes in appetite-regulating hormones is not clear. The aim of this article is to present an overview of non-nutritive sweeteners and to examine the scientific evidence of their effects o...

The importance of sugar as the principal dietary substrate that drives the caries process has led to growing interest in sugar substitutes. Dynamic relation exists between sugars and oral health. Dental profession shares an interest in the search for safe, palatable sugar substitutes to prevent dental caries and have attempted to persuade their patients to adopt special dietary programs to limi...