A Sensory Strategy to Cut Sugary Beverages in African/American and Latine Adolescents
NCT ID: NCT07223151
Last Updated: 2025-10-31
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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RECRUITING
NA
63 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2025-07-25
2027-06-30
Brief Summary
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* Does replacing sugary sodas with water change liking for sugary drinks, and water?
* Do shifts in liking for sweetness lead to improved diet quality and cardiometabolic health?
Researchers will compare replacing sugary sodas with one of three alternative beverages: unsweetened sparkling water, plain water, and beverages with gradually reduced sugar to determine which strategy is most effective.
Participants will:
* Replace sugary sodas with study drinks for 4 weeks
* Complete taste tests to measure their liking for and sensory experience of sweetness over 8-weeks
* Provide dietary recalls, body measurements, and blood samples over 8-weeks
Detailed Description
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63 adolescents who are classified as sweet-likers and meet additional inclusion criteria will be enrolled in a randomized 3-arm intervention for 4 weeks, with an additional 4-week follow-up period. Participants will be randomized into one of the following groups:
USW (Unsweetened Sparkling Water): Replaces sodas with flavored, unsweetened carbonated water.
PRS (Progressively Reduced Sugar): Replaces sodas with carbonated beverages with decreasing sugar concentrations, ending with unsweetened carbonated water.
PW (Plain Water - Control): Replaces sodas with still, plain water.
Participants will replace all typical sugary sodas with study beverages during the 4-week intervention. Study assessments include sensory testing for liking, sweetness intensity, and "just about right" level of sweetness in sparkling and plain water at baseline, week 2, week 4, and week 8. Additionally, dietary intake (via 24-hour dietary recalls), anthropometrics (height, weight, waist circumference), blood pressure, and blood biomarkers (fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides) will be measured at baseline, week 4, and week 8.
The primary hypothesis is that exposure to unsweetened beverages (especially in the USW and PRS groups) will reduce participants' liking for higher concentrations of sugar in beverages and increasing liking for lower concentrations of sugar in beverages. It is also hypothesized that these changes may correspond with improvements in cardiometabolic markers, particularly serum triglycerides. Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), blood pressure, and body weight will also be measured but are less likely to shift in the relatively short time period (8 weeks).
This trial addresses the persistent challenge of high SSB consumption in racial and ethnic minority adolescents-a group that faces disproportionate risk of obesity, prediabetes, and cardiometabolic disease. By integrating sensory science with behavior change, this intervention seeks to develop more effective strategies to support reduced sugar intake in adolescents who have strong preferences for sweetness.
Conditions
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Keywords
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Study Design
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RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
PREVENTION
NONE
Study Groups
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Unsweetened Sparkling Water (USW)
Participants in this group will replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with flavored, unsweetened sparkling waters for 4 weeks.
Unsweetened Sparkling Water Replacement
Participants replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with flavored, unsweetened sparkling waters for 4 weeks.
Progressively Reduced Sugar (PRS)
Participants in this group will replace sugar-sweetened sodas with carbonated beverages that contain decreasing levels of sugar each week over a 4-week period, ending with a fully unsweetened sparkling water.
Progressively Reduced Sugar Beverage Replacement
Participants replace sugary sodas with beverages containing gradually decreasing sugar concentrations (weekly), ending with unsweetened sparkling water.
Plain Water (PW)
Participants in this group will replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with plain, still water for 4 weeks. This arm serves as a control to compare outcomes against both the unsweetened sparkling water and gradually reduced sugar beverage interventions.
Plain Water Replacement
Participants replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with plain, still water for 4 weeks. This serves as a comparator to evaluate sensory and metabolic changes.
Interventions
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Unsweetened Sparkling Water Replacement
Participants replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with flavored, unsweetened sparkling waters for 4 weeks.
Progressively Reduced Sugar Beverage Replacement
Participants replace sugary sodas with beverages containing gradually decreasing sugar concentrations (weekly), ending with unsweetened sparkling water.
Plain Water Replacement
Participants replace all sugar-sweetened sodas with plain, still water for 4 weeks. This serves as a comparator to evaluate sensory and metabolic changes.
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* Have obesity (body mass index \[BMI\] \> 95%). During screening, subjects' height and weight will be measured to calculate BMI, and BMI will be balanced across study arms using stratified randomization.
* Adolescents must also indicate a willingness to drink study beverages; not currently dieting/changing diet.
Exclusion Criteria
* Participant is allergic or intolerant to the items we are testing.
* Adolescent with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (self-declared or detected at screening visit through fasting glucose)
* Currently consume unsweetened, sparkling water two or more times per week.
* Adolescent participant is pregnant, since pregnancy affects taste perception
* Participant is allergic or intolerant to the items we are testing.
* Allergic or intolerant to the items that we are testing.
12 Years
18 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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Purdue University
OTHER
Nana Gletsu Miller
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Nana Gletsu Miller
Associate Professor, Applied Health Science, Indiana University Bloomington
Locations
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Indiana University School of Public Health - Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Indiana University Hospital
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Countries
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Central Contacts
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Facility Contacts
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Nana Gletsu Miller, PhD
Role: primary
Nana Gletsu Miller, PhD
Role: primary
Cordelia Running, PhD
Role: primary
References
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Matsuda M, DeFronzo RA. Insulin sensitivity indices obtained from oral glucose tolerance testing: comparison with the euglycemic insulin clamp. Diabetes Care. 1999 Sep;22(9):1462-70. doi: 10.2337/diacare.22.9.1462.
Wang J, Light K, Henderson M, O'Loughlin J, Mathieu ME, Paradis G, Gray-Donald K. Consumption of added sugars from liquid but not solid sources predicts impaired glucose homeostasis and insulin resistance among youth at risk of obesity. J Nutr. 2014 Jan;144(1):81-6. doi: 10.3945/jn.113.182519. Epub 2013 Nov 6.
Boushey CJ, Kerr DA, Wright J, Lutes KD, Ebert DS, Delp EJ. Use of technology in children's dietary assessment. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Feb;63 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S50-7. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2008.65.
Bailey RL, Fulgoni VL, Cowan AE, Gaine PC. Sources of Added Sugars in Young Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Low and High Intakes of Added Sugars. Nutrients. 2018 Jan 17;10(1):102. doi: 10.3390/nu10010102.
Reedy J, Krebs-Smith SM. Dietary sources of energy, solid fats, and added sugars among children and adolescents in the United States. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Oct;110(10):1477-84. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2010.07.010.
Banfield EC, Liu Y, Davis JS, Chang S, Frazier-Wood AC. Poor Adherence to US Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Population. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016 Jan;116(1):21-27. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2015.08.010. Epub 2015 Sep 26.
Andes LJ, Cheng YJ, Rolka DB, Gregg EW, Imperatore G. Prevalence of Prediabetes Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States, 2005-2016. JAMA Pediatr. 2020 Feb 1;174(2):e194498. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.4498. Epub 2020 Feb 3.
Valicente V, Gletsu-Miller N, Running CA. Secondary Analysis of Sweetness Liking from Pilot Study Replacing Sugar Sweetened Soda with Flavored, Unsweetened Sparkling Water. J Am Nutr Assoc. 2025 Jan;44(1):1-13. doi: 10.1080/27697061.2024.2369819. Epub 2024 Jul 22.
Related Links
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All IN for Health Research Studies - Study Listing for "Trading Sugar for Sparkles"
Other Identifiers
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IRB#25860
Identifier Type: OTHER
Identifier Source: secondary_id
IRB#25860
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id