Understanding and Combatting the Effects of Food Variety in the "Hypermodern" Food Environment.
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Human and Health Sciences
Abstract
The project will develop and evaluate social-psychological interventions to combat the health effects of consuming highly varied food products. Constrasting the empirical approach with public health guidelines on, for instance, portion size, the project will identify ways in which food variety interacts with food related cognitions, food intake and body weight. Quantitative analyses will be supported by secondary data linkages with large datasets such as the UK Biobank to identify factors associated with dietary variety and health outcomes of the population. Consistent with contemporary open science initiatives for the social sciences, all studies will be pre-registered and resulting data shared.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Michelle Lee (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Rochelle Embling (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P00069X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 1947139 | Studentship | ES/P00069X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2021 | Rochelle Embling |
| Description | At the current stage of my PhD, I have completed two qualitative research studies on the consumer understanding of 'food variety', a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of food variety on food intake, validated the use of an online measure of portion size selection that can be used in questionnaire-based eating behaviour research (pilot work), explored effects of variety within 'multicomponent' foods on portion size selection, and explored effects of dietary variety in the overall diet as a predictor of portion size and body weight (UK Biobank research). The term 'food variety' is often present in guidelines around the world. On the one hand, eating a variety of foods is important to help individuals maintain a high quality, nutritious diet. On the other hand, eating a variety of foods has been shown to increase food intake within meals, potentially increasing the risk of overconsumption. Despite this, little is known about the consumer understanding of the term (I.e. what makes foods 'different', the different contexts in which we can have a variety of foods), the size of the effect of variety on food intake remains unclear, and research on potential longer-term effects of dietary variety on body weight has produced inconsistent results in the literature. Results of the studies presented in this PhD suggest the following; 1) that food variety is a robust driver of food intake within and across meals, 2) that consumers have a 'limited' understanding of variety as a concept, as they directly define variety as consuming different foods across food groups, but may underestimate the importance of considering 'sensory' variety within meals (i.e., that meals/ foods consist of different flavours, colours, and textures that may increase food intake), 3) it is important to consider both diet quality and potential effects of variety on overconsumption in relation to body weight. Therefore, my results emphasise the importance of considering food variety as an external influence on eating behaviour and food intake. This could have future implications for research and policy, as improving the consumer understanding of variety has the potential to increase the efficacy of dietary guidelines and strategies that remain focussed on variety, particularly those that ask consumers to directly manage their own food intake. By conducting this research, I have gained further experience of using qualitative methods to collect data (both focus groups and an online survey). I have also learned new methods to analyse qualitative data (directed qualitative content analysis) and quantitative data (meta-analysis, mediated moderation analyses, Bayesian statistics), and used a range of data management/ analysis softwares (e.g. Covidence, Comprehensive meta-analysis, PROCESS, Stata, Jasp, SPSS, Qualtrics). Overall, conducting this research has greatly improved my skills as a qualitative and quantitative researcher. |
| Exploitation Route | To increase academic impact and facilitate future research on this topic, 4 peer-reviewed papers have been published open-access in high impact journals, reporting on the results of 1) two qualitative studies, 2) systematic review and meta-analysis of the variety effect, 3) pilot study validating the online portion size tool, & 4) UK biobank data modelling effects of food variety on body weight at a population level. Throughout my PhD, I have consistently practiced open science, and where applicable, all generated datasets and materials have been made open access to facilitate future use and encourage knowledge exchange. Results have also been presented at several conferences both within and outside of the University including the College of Human and Health Sciences PGR conference, the British Food and Drinking Group Annual Meeting, ECO conference, and UKSBM. I have participated in public engagement activities with the aim of educating consumers about the potential impact of food variety on health, providing information about how we can use food variety to manage our intake of healthy and unhealthy foods. To date, activities include Pint of Science and Swansea Science Festival. I have also worked with The Brilliant Club to design a course on the topic of my PhD research that has been delivered to several cohorts of pupils from KS3 - KS5. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare |
| Description | To increase academic impact and facilitate future research on this topic, 3 peer-reviewed papers have been published open-access in high impact journals, reporting on the results of 1) two qualitative studies, 2) systematic review and meta-analysis of the variety effect, 3) pilot study validating the online portion size tool, & 4) UK biobank model of population effects of variety in relation to body weight. As a result of this work, some developments in the academic field have been noted; 1) variety within foods has been highlighted as a key area requiring further attention in future work (as this related to ultra processing and portion size of food products today), 2) the online portion size tool has been adopted by multiple working groups as an improved online methodology for measuring food intake/ portion size (including groups in the UK & USA). Throughout my PhD, I have consistently practiced open science, and where applicable, all generated datasets and materials have been made open access to facilitate future use and encourage knowledge exchange. Results have also been presented at several conferences both within and outside of the University including the College of Human and Health Sciences PGR conference, the British Food and Drinking Group Annual Meeting, ECO conference, and UKSBM. To support non-academic impacts, I have participated in public engagement activities with the aim of educating consumers about the potential impact of food variety on health, providing information about how we can use food variety to manage our intake of healthy and unhealthy foods. To date, activities include Pint of Science and Swansea Science Festival. I have also worked with The Brilliant Club to design a course on the topic of my PhD research that has been delivered to several cohorts of pupils from KS3 - KS5. As an indicator of impact, some of these events have led to a significant improvement or change in understanding, most notably when working with the Brilliant Club (by the end of a course, all pupils demonstrate an improved understanding of the topic including awareness of eating behaviour and obesity as a complex and multi-faceted health issue). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Education,Other |
| Title | Online ideal portion size tool - photograph-based measure |
| Description | An online photograph-based tool that can be used to measure ideal portion size within online surveys using open-access JS code. As part of my PhD, materials to enable tool development were created and we tested the validity and feasibility of using this approach for the first time. This tool encouraged engagement from senior academics both within and outside of the UK, and multiple working groups have reported using the tool in the UK & USA. Further adaptations of this tool have also been reported by other groups, with one publication under review. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This tool encouraged engagement from senior academics both within and outside of the UK, and multiple working groups have reported using the tool in the UK & USA. Further adaptations of this tool have also been reported by other groups, with one publication under review. |
| URL | https://osf.io/yq9fk/ |
| Title | Does having sensory variety within a food item influence ideal portion size? |
| Description | 1 open-access dataset including novel ideal portion size data and additional consumer demographics. Provides early feasibility data to support future power analyses and testing of complex study designs including variety within foods as a manipulated variable. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Within own working group, further informed development of ideas and methodologies to test variety within foods as a novel concept. |
| URL | https://osf.io/x9tps/ |
| Title | Effect of food variety on intake of a meal: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| Description | Open-access dataset supporting systematic review and meta-analysis of "variety effect" literature. Allows other working groups to access collated data and inform the development of future reviews and methodologies. Helps keep reviewed literature up to date. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Allows other working groups to access collated data and inform the development of future reviews and methodologies. Helps keep reviewed literature up to date. |
| URL | https://osf.io/ze6cr/ |
| Title | Testing an online measure of ideal portion size: A pilot study |
| Description | 2 open-access datasets including ideal portion size data for multiple different food products, as well as different consumer demographics. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Informed validity and feasibility of novel online tool. |
| URL | https://osf.io/yq9fk/ |
| Description | UK Biobank - secondary data analysis |
| Organisation | UK Biobank |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Conducting data analysis on population data, exploring the association between dietary variety and weight. This project has potential implications for health. Results of the project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, with myself as first author. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided access to large population data set for secondary data analysis. As this research forms part of my PhD research, the UK Biobank granted access to the data for a reduced fee. |
| Impact | Results of the project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, with myself as first author - the project is expected to be complete in 2021. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | UK Biobank - secondary data analysis |
| Organisation | UK Biobank |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Conducting data analysis on population data, exploring the association between dietary variety and weight. This project has potential implications for health. Results of the project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, with myself as first author. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided access to large population data set for secondary data analysis. As this research forms part of my PhD research, the UK Biobank granted access to the data for a reduced fee. |
| Impact | Results of the project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, with myself as first author - the project is expected to be complete in 2021. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | BFDG (BRITISH FEEDING AND DRINKING GROUP) ANNUAL MEETING |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attended the BFDG (BRITISH FEEDING AND DRINKING GROUP) Annual meeting. This was attended by leading researchers in the field of eating behaviour, appetite, and nutrition research. Presented a poster presentation that sparked questions/discussion with researchers and fellow postgraduate students Afterwards, it allowed me to develop my own research ideas with the insight gained from others. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://snacswansea.wordpress.com/events/ |
| Description | BFDG Annual Meeting 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation on systematic review and meta-analysis (recent publication), highlighting research findings to an academic audience. This presentation sparked questions from senior academics in the audience, and attendance at the conference also led to further discussions of this and related work with other conference attendees. Conversations helped support further consolidation of ideas, and thesis write up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://eu.eventscloud.com/ehome/200197169/programme/ |
| Description | BFDG Annual Meeting 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation on UK biobank analysis results (recent publication), highlighting research findings to an academic audience. This poster session was busy and sparked multiple questions/ conversations from senior academics visiting the session, and attendance at the conference also led to further discussions of this and related work with other conference attendees via Twitter and email. Conversations helped support further consolidation of ideas, and thesis write up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2022.106178 |
| Description | ECO Online Conference 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at ECO 2021 online conference, presenting work on secondary data analysis with UK Biobank participants. Led to emailed comments on work, that were very positive and encouraging of preliminary workings. Attendance at the conference also helped with skill development and current knowledge (e.g. statistics workshop session). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://eco2021.com/docs/scientific-programme.pdf?p=1235 |
| Description | Loughborough ReproducibiliTea Invited Talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the Loughborough ReproducibiliTea Research Group, Loughborough University. Talk included introducing our version of new online tool to measure ideal portion size that was developed as a part of my PhD work and made open access. This talk resulted in further discussions around maintaining open access/ relevance of the tool and materials, and let to multiple academics exploring use of the tool within their own research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Nutrition and Behaviour Unit, University of Bristol Invited Talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk to present work on food variety with Dr Laura Wilkinson, at the NBU Bristol University. This is an academic group with eating behaviour and nutrition interests that are directly aligned with my PhD topic. This talk included a presentation of findings on a systematic review and meta-analysis, and audience questions prompted further discussion about potential underlying mechanisms of effects and future directions for research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/psychology/research/brain/nbu/superstars/ |
| Description | Pint of science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a talk about the effects of food variety on our eating behaviour with Dr. Laura Wilkinson at Pint of Science, Swansea. This sparked questions/discussions from the audience afterwards, and this seemed to encourage increased interest in eating behaviour research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://snacswansea.wordpress.com/events/ |
| Description | Postgraduate Research Conference, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings from study (PhD research) to fellow postgraduate students and staff member from the College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University. This encourages questions and discussion afterwards. This prompted me to consider limitations/methodological considerations for future research as part of my studies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Radio interview to comment on The Conversation article (topic: consumer understanding of food variety and dietary guidelines) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | 5-minute phone interview with a small radio station based in Edinburgh, with an international audience (Sputnik International, Edinburgh). This interview was the result of a media request for discussion in response to an article written for the The Conversation about the consumer understanding of food variety and dietary guidelines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | STUDY AND CULTURE TOUR - college visit, Swansea University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | International students attended for a university visit. The research group provided demonstrations of effects on eating behaviour, including the 'variety effect' (focus of my Phd research). This prompted questions/discussions afterwards, and the students provided positive feedback about the subject after their visit. The college requested further participation at future visits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://snacswansea.wordpress.com/events/ |
| Description | Swansea Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Provided demonstrations of effects on eating behaviour, including the 'variety effect' (focus of my PhD research), which prompted questions and discussions with families attending the event. This included providing advice to parents about how to use variety (and other factors) to encourage healthy eating. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://snacswansea.wordpress.com/events/ |
| Description | The Conversation article on consumer understanding of food variety and dietary guidelines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Published an article in The Conversation, reporting results of the qualitative research conducted as part of this PhD for a general audience (on the consumer understanding of food variety and dietary guidelines). In November 2020, the article currently has over 17000 reads, has reached readers in 10 countries (including the UK and Europe, US, Australia, India, and Singapore), and has been shared by 11 different media publishers and via social media platforms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/food-variety-is-important-for-our-health-but-the-definition-of-a-balance... |
| Description | Three Minute Thesis - Swansea University heats |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation on the effects of food variety on eating behaviour and an overview of my PhD research, given as part of Swansea University 3-Minute Thesis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | UKSBM Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation delivered at online conference with an academic audience. Talk highlighted key points from recent publication of research findings (qualitative research on the consumer understanding of food variety). Attendance at the conference helped further consolidate ideas, and supported development of further activities relating to this work (i.e. ideas for additional studies/ methods in light of COVID-19). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |