Dietary Habits of Children 0 - 23 Months in Rural Kansas: Early Life Diets of Rural Children.

Introduction: Children in rural areas face increased rates of obesity compared to their urban counterparts, and diet in early childhood may influence the development of diseases related to food intake. This study sought to determine current diet of children 0-23 months of age in rural Kansas. Methods: Medical students participating in 6-week, summer, rural clinical experiences offered the survey to caregivers of children 0-23 months, born at term as singletons without a specialized diet. The survey asked respondents to answer with the child's diet over the last seven days. The survey was in the style of a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire for infants with an image for estimating portion sizes. Diets were compared to guidelines set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. Results: Of 44 responses, 21 children were aged 0-5 months, 7 aged 6-11 months, and 16 aged 12-23 months. Breastfeeding rates were nearly double reported national averages. All children aged 0-5 months met guidelines. None of the children 6-11 months or 12-23 months met guidelines. In the 6-11 month group, four consumed food in addition to breastmilk or formula (complementary foods). In the 12-23 month group, protein and dairy foods were lower than, and whole grains and vegetables were higher than, reported national averages, respectively. Conclusions: Children may fall short of meeting dietary recommendations due to foods consumed in addition to breastmilk. There is a need for improved survey methods to capture the diets of young children in the rural United States.

The relationship between dietary fat intake, impulsive choice, and metabolic health.

Unhealthful foods are convenient, ubiquitous, and inexpensive. Overconsumption of unhealthful foods can result in disease states such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. In addition to the physiological consequences of unhealthful foods, research in rats has shown that diets high in processed fat and sugar induce impulsive choice behavior. Research in humans has demonstrated a link between metabolic health and impulsive choice, but most investigations have not included diet. We investigated how dietary fat intake interacts with body fat percentage, fasting glucose, insulin response, and systemic inflammation levels to predict impulsive choices in humans. Participants were split into either Control (<35% calories from fat) or High-Fat (≥40% calories from fat) groups based on self-reported dietary intake, completed an impulsive choice task, and underwent testing to determine their body fat, glucose, insulin response, and inflammation levels. High-fat diets were not predictive of impulsive choices, but added sugar was predictive. Body fat percentage was associated with impulsive choices only in the group who reported consuming high-fat diets. In addition, fasting glucose was associated with impulsive choices in the control group. Therefore, metabolic health and dietary fat intake interacted to predict impulsive choices. These findings indicate that knowledge of dietary patterns coupled with metabolic health markers may help us better understand impulsive choices, thereby improving our ability to target individuals who could benefit from interventions to reduce impulsive choice behavior, with the goal of promoting more self-controlled food choices.

Experience Matters: The Effects of Hypothetical versus Experiential Delays and Magnitudes on Impulsive Choice in Delay Discounting Tasks.

Impulsive choice in humans is typically measured using hypothetical delays and rewards. In two experiments, we determined how experiencing the delay and/or the reward affected impulsive choice behavior. Participants chose between two amounts of real or hypothetical candy (M&Ms) after a real or hypothetical delay (5-30 s), where choosing the shorter delay was the impulsive choice. Experiment 1 compared choice behavior on a real-delay, real-reward (RD/RR) task where participants received M&Ms after experiencing the delays versus a real-delay, hypothetical-reward (RD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after experiencing the delays. Experiment 2 compared the RD/HR task and a hypothetical-delay, hypothetical-reward (HD/HR) task where participants accumulated hypothetical M&Ms after hypothetical delays. The results indicated that choices did not differ between real and hypothetical M&Ms (Experiment 1), and participants were less sensitive to delay and more larger-later (LL)-preferring with hypothetical delays compared to real delays (Experiment 2). Experiencing delays to reward may be important for modeling real-world impulsive choices where delays are typically experienced. These novel experiential impulsive choice tasks may improve translational methods for comparison with animal models and may be improved procedures for predicting real-life choice behavior in humans.