THE INFLUENCE OF DIETARY FAT REPLACEMENT

WITH HERBS AND SPICES ON

OVERALL FOOD LIKING
Sarit Polsky, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Anschutz Medical Campus
University of Colorado
Background
Background
Reducing dietary calorie and saturated fat intake
remain key goals for Americans to meet the Dietary
Guidelines.
Consumers need practical strategies to accomplish
reducing calorie and saturated fat intake without
sacrificing flavor or convenience.
Substituting herbs and spices for fat may be a
promising strategy, but has not been systematically
studied.
Objective
Specific Aim: To test whether enhancing the flavor
of reduced fat/calorie food through the use of
spices can improve overall consumer liking.
Hypotheses:
1) A reduced fat meal with spices will be liked more
than a reduced fat meal without spices.
2) A reduced fat meal with spices will have a mean
liking rating similar to that of a full fat meal.

Approach
Two different test meal contexts
Lunch and Dinner
Meatloaf, Chicken (served with creamy pasta and
mixed vegetables)
Breakfast
French Toast (served with sausage)
The present report is for the first completed test:
Meatloaf entre
Design
Single blind, randomized, three period, within-
subjects crossover design
Three different test meals; full fat, reduced fat, and
reduced fat plus spice (reduced fat meals were iso-
caloric)
150 subjects; 6 groups of 25; all possible sequence
combinations of 3 treatments
IRB approved

Screening, Subjects, and FFQ
Inclusion: Male and Female, 18 65 years
Exclusion: taste and eating disorders, food
ingredient allergies, dietary restrictions (e.g.,
vegetarian), and dislike of the test meal items.
Informed consent

Subjects: N=148, 101 F, 47 M; Mean age 35.9 yr
Block food frequency questionnaire

Full Fat
Reduced Fat
No Spice
Reduced Fat
Plus Spice
FF Entre
FF
Veg
RF Entre
RF Entre
+ Spice
RF
Pasta
RF
P + S
Treatments
FF
Pasta
RF
Veg
RF
V + S
Impact of fat reduction on overall meal
Full Fat Reduced
Fat
Reduced
Fat + Spice
Reduction
from FF

Total calories

550

395

395

28%

Total fat (g)

31

12.5

12.5

60%

Total sat fat (g)

16.5

6

6

64%
Entre and Side Items

Meatloaf
FF RF RFS Reduction from
FF
Total calories 240 190 190 21%
Total fat 13 7 7 46%
Total sat fat 5 3 3 40%

Vegetables
Total calories 70 45 45 36%
Total fat 4 1.5 1.5 63%
Total sat fat 2.5 1 1 60%

Pasta
Total calories 240 160 160 33%
Total fat 14 4 4 71%
Total sat fat 9 2 2 78%
Meatloaf Nutrition Facts
Recipe Herbs and Spices
Food Base Spices Spices Added
Meatloaf
Salt, black pepper Basil, Oregano, McCormick
Perfect Pinch Garlic & Herb
Salt-Free Seasoning
Vegetables

Salt, black pepper Garlic Powder, Onion
Powder, Dill Weed

Pasta
Salt, black pepper Garlic Powder, Onion
Powder, McCormick Italian
Seasoning, Chervil, Chives

Study Procedures
Meals served 11-1, each subject served on same
day of three consecutive weeks
Subjects had 30 minutes to consume meal
12 ounces of water provided with meal
Liking measured on a 9-point Likert scale

Plates weighed and photographed before and
after meal consumption
Food liking assessment
Self-Reported BMI and Habitual Diet
Block FFQ
Variable N Mean SD Median
%
Kcal
BMI from FFQ 148 24.4 4.5 23.4
Total calories/day 148 1,632.8 691.7 1,570.5
Total fat/day 148 65.6 32.7 62.4 36
Total saturated fat/day 148 20.2 10.0 19 11.1
Overall Meal
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
FF RF S
Overall Meal Liking
FF
RF
S
* *
*Different symbols significantly different, p0.0001
Individual Item Scores
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
FF RF S
Meatloaf Liking
FF
RF
S
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
FF RF S
Pasta Liking
FF
RF
S
5.5
6
6.5
7
7.5
FF RF S
Vegetable Liking
FF
RF
S

*

*
*
*
Different symbols significantly
different, *p0.0001, p = 0.02,
p = 0.002.
*
Meal, entre and side dish liking
FF:RF

P Values
FF:S

RF:S

<0.0001 0.6026 <0.0001
0.0226 0.1093 0.0001
0.0023 0.4782 0.0002

<0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001
0.1137 0.4821 0.3757
Meal Item

FF


RF

S

Meatloaf meal

7.05 6.29 6.98
Meatloaf entre

6.51 6.15 6.76
Vegetable side dish 6.91 6.42 7.02

Pasta side dish

7.33 5.94 6.61
% meal eaten 85.9 83.7 84.9
Conclusions
Substituting spices for fat in meatloaf and
vegetables offset the reduction in liking from
lowering total and saturated fat.
Substituting spices for fat in creamy pasta only
partially restored liking but improved liking
significantly over fat reduction alone.
Using spices in place of fat may provide a practical
tool to help Americans meet the dietary guidelines.

Lunch, Dinner: Chicken Entre
Breakfast: French Toast
Whats Next?
Meatloaf Paper published in Appetite.
Second paper under review.
Longer term study under free living conditions.
Understand the food contexts in which spices have the
biggest impact.
Building a home cook resource guide on how to
eliminate fat/saturated fat and still have great tasting
foodusing all the tricks, including training on herbs
and spices.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to John Peters, Ph.D., Jim Hill, Ph.D.,
Rebecca Stark, BS, research assistants, and students
from Johnson and Wales University.
Thanks to our research participants!
Thanks to the amazing culinary support from
McCormick!
Funding provided in part by a research support gift
from the McCormick Science Institute.



Thank You!

Summary statistics of liking scores
label
Meal
taken
(FF
RF
S) N Mean
Standard
Deviation
Standard
Error Minimum 25%ile
the median,
meal_meat 75%ile Maximum
Rating for overall meatloaf meal FF 144 7.05 1.25 0.10 2.00 7.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
RF 146 6.29 1.40 0.12 2.00 6.00 7.00 7.00 8.00
S 146 6.98 1.14 0.09 2.00 7.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
Rating for meatloaf entree FF 144 6.50 1.74 0.15 1.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
RF 146 6.13 1.59 0.13 2.00 6.00 6.50 7.00 9.00
S 146 6.75 1.50 0.12 2.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
Rating for vegetable side dish (meatloaf) FF 144 6.92 1.47 0.12 1.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
RF 146 6.41 1.72 0.14 1.00 5.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
S 146 7.02 1.53 0.13 1.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
Rating for pasta side dish (meatloaf) FF 144 7.33 1.34 0.11 2.00 7.00 8.00 8.00 9.00
RF 146 5.94 1.63 0.14 1.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 9.00
S 146 6.60 1.60 0.13 1.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00
%meal ate [(pre wt - post wt)/pre wt]*100 FF 144 85.73 17.47 1.46 18.56 77.65 94.90 97.60 100.00
RF 146 83.66 18.99 1.57 14.12 75.15 93.31 98.20 100.00
S 146 84.84 18.40 1.52 10.37 78.11 91.89 97.65 100.00
Distribution of liking among
meals and sides
Favorite meal is that which
a participant gave the
highest rating score. If
there is a tie score, it is
classified as a combination.
For example, for overall
meal (i.e. left upper pie
chart), 22% participants
gave the highest score to
spice meatloaf meal while
12% of participants gave
the same score for all three
types of meat loaf meals.