Tackling (Childhood) Obesity through a Voluntary Food Reformulation Policy: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study Investigating Nutritional Changes in the Out-of-Home Sector.

The Childhood Obesity Plan aimed to reduce sugar and energy in foods through a voluntary sugar-reduction programme. Our primary objective was to determine whether this implementation strategy had been successful, focusing on the out-of-home sector. We used a repeated cross-sectional design to evaluate nutritional changes in desserts served by leading chain restaurants. We extracted nutrition information from online menus in autumn/winter 2020, for comparison with baseline (2017) and interim (2018) values extracted from third-party datasets. We assessed compliance with the 20% sugar-reduction target and category-specific energy targets by product category and for pooled desserts. Overall, sugar/portion and energy/portion decreased by 11% and 4%, respectively. Policy targets were achieved in one of five categories (ice-cream: -38% sugar, p < 0.001; -30% energy, p < 0.001). Secondary outcomes were analysed for subgroups with the necessary data. Few chains significantly reduced sugar and/or energy across their dessert range. Energy/portion was positively associated with portion weight and sugar/portion but not with sugar/100 g. More than half of adults' desserts contained excessive sugar and/or saturated fat compared with dietary guidelines. Children's desserts less frequently exceeded guidelines. These results demonstrate that voluntary measures can drive substantial change when technical, commercial, and operational barriers can be overcome.

Evaluation of the independent and combined effects of xylitol and polydextrose consumed as a snack on hunger and energy intake over 10 d.

The study assessed the independent and combined effect of two specialty carbohydrates (polydextrose and xylitol) on appetite. Eight female and seven male lean volunteers were recruited from the University of Leeds campus. Using a repeated measures design, volunteers completed four conditions in a counterbalanced order. Each condition varied according to the yoghurt formulation administered: a control yoghurt (C, yoghurt+25 g sucrose) and three experimental yoghurts (X, yoghurt+25 g xylitol; P, yoghurt+25 g polydextrose; and XP, yoghurt+12.5 g xylitol and 12.5 g polydextrose). Each condition lasted for 10 d during which volunteers consumed 200 g yoghurt on each day. On days 1 and 10, the short- and medium-term effects of yoghurt consumption were assessed by measuring ad libitum lunch intake and subjective motivation to eat. The three experimental yoghurts (X, P and XP) induced a slight suppression of energy intake compared with the control (C) yoghurt, but the differences were not statistically significant. However, when the energy content of the yoghurt pre-loads were accounted for, there was a significant suppression of energy intake for P compared with C (P=0.002). The XP yoghurt induced a significantly stronger satiating effect (increase in subjective fullness) compared with C, both with (P=0.003) and without (P<0.001) the differential in energy content of the yoghurt pre-loads accounted for. The study demonstrated that pre-loads of xylitol and polydextrose caused a mild increase in satiety and suppression of energy intake, and that the effects persist after repeated daily administration. The effects exerted by the formulations containing xylitol and polydextrose did not arise from the differences in energy content of the yoghurt per se. Therefore, the usefulness of xylitol and polydextrose as ingredients in functional foods for appetite control are as a result of their lower energy content and suppression of appetite.