Center investigator Diane Gilbert-Diamond has received an R01 to investigate the relation of genetic factors, food cues, and self-regulation with excess consumption and adiposity in children. The overarching hypothesis of the present study is that some children are genetically predisposed to eating in the absence of hunger in response to environmental food cues, and further that self-regulatory capacity can protect children from this reward-driven overeating. The study findings will have important implications for individualized child obesity intervention and prevention programs, and will also impact the public policy discourse on TV and Internet advertising of unhealthy foods to children.
NIH Reporter