5-dose - Pairs Progressive Muscle Relaxation With Fruit 5 Consecutive Days, 7-dose Control - Progressive Muscle Relaxation Only, 7-dose - Pairs Progressive Muscle Relaxation With Fruit 7 Consecutive Days, 9-dose - Pairs Progressive Muscle Relaxation With Fruit 9 Consecutive Days
Conditions
Brief summary
Subjects will be enrolled in a stress-induced eating intervention with 5, 7, or 9 treatments or control. Treatment will comprise imagining a stressful event, engaging in a stress relief activity (Progressive Muscle Relaxation), and consuming a fruit once per day. There will be one lab visit at baseline in which participants undergo an acute laboratory stressor (i.e., speech and math tasks) and consume food from a buffet. There will be another lab visit at two weeks post-intervention. In the second (and final) lab visit, participants will repeat the acute laboratory stressor (i.e., speech and math tasks) and buffet, and additionally complete questionnaires about their experience in the study.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPavlovian Conditioning
Imagining a stressful event, engaging in progressive muscle relaxation, and eating fruit
Sponsors
University of California, Los Angeles
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* age 18 or older * fluent in English * access to an internet-connected device * reporting a neutral taste and moderate novelty for at least one fruit * reporting household size-adjusted income less than or equal to 200% of the federal poverty threshold * perceived stress scale score of 21.82 (1 SD above the national mean) * BMI 25 * scoring 3.23 on the Dutch Eating Behavior-Emotional Eating Questionnaire
Exclusion criteria
* on a diet that would compel them to refrain from eating food in the laboratory buffet * allergy to any foods presented in the buffet * selecting a fruit as one or more of top three choices of foods that would make them feel better if stressed
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy Eating Index | 14 days after last dose | The Healthy Eating Index was developed by the USDA to capture diet quality. The total score is able to capture both the healthiness of fruits and the unhealthiness of classic comfort foods that are high in calories, fat, and sugar. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Calorie intake | 14 days after last dose | Calorie intake will be recorded across all the foods that the participants choose to eat in the outcome assessment buffet. |
| Acceptability/Credibility | 14 days after last dose | The Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire is a validated measure to access issues of intervention acceptability, credibility, and expectancy. |
Outcome results
None listed