Effect of Liking on Fruit Intake

Increased dietary variety has been shown to increase intake in animals, as well as humans, as compared to a diet or meal composed of one food. While most studies investigating dietary variety have focused on energy-dense foods (i.e., snack foods) and have emphasized the negative component that variety has on intake, very little research has been conducted with variety to determine if this food characteristic can be used to increase consumption of healthy foods (i.e., fruits). We hypothesize that increasing variety of fruits provided in an eating bout will lead to increased intake of these foods. Therefore, the aim of this investigation is to test the environmental factor of variety on fruit intake in males and females aged 18 to 45 years.