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Completed

NCT Number: NCT04427852

Nutrition, Vision, and Cognition in Sport Study: Beef

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a 30 day beef intervention can improve peak cognitive performance in young, normally menstruating adult women. The control group will consume a daily portion of macronutrient equivalent vegetable source of protein.

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Key information

Conditions

Cognitive Change Behavior Diet, Healthy Diet; Deficiency Dietary B12 Deficiency Dietary Deficiency Dietary Deficiency of Selenium and Vitamin E Dietary Vitamin B12 Deficiency Anemia Dietary Zinc Deficiency Malnutrition Nutrient Deficiency Nutrition Disorders Nutritional Anemia Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Spatial Behavior Spatial Processing Visual Spatial Processing

Age range

18 year–40 year

Sex eligibility

Female

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas, 77845, United States

About this study

The purpose of the Nutrition, Vision, and Cognition in Health Sport: Beef (IONSport-Beef) study is to conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate beef as a nutritional intervention to optimize visual cognitive training performance in generally healthy, normally menstruating women. Female subjects of reproductive age (18-40) will be randomly placed in one of two dietary treatment groups: one serving of beef per day for 30 days or a non-meat protein replacement control. Cognitive performance will be measured in 15 training sessions over 10 days using the sophisticated NeuroTracker™ CORE (NT) 3-Dimensional (3D) software program. It is hypothesized that women consuming 1 serving of beef per day for 30 days will have the highest plasma levels of the beef rich nutrients and demonstrate the highest visual cognitive performance and improvement as compared to the no beef control.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • 18-40 year old female
  • Eumenorrheic

Exclusion criteria

  • Neuroactive medications such as Ritalin, Adderall, antidepressants etc
  • Dietary supplements
  • Iron intake above 15mg/day
  • Protein intake above 1.5 g/kg/day
  • More than 1 mild concussion lifetime or 1 mild concussion within the last 12 months
  • History of affective disorder
  • Visual impairments uncorrected by glasses
  • Amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea
  • Currently being treated for anemia
  • >3 servings of beef per week
  • <20 BMI or BMI >35
  • Consume >100mg caffeine/day (>1 cup of coffee or soda)
  • <1 hour/week physical activity, >4 hours/week vigorous activity
  • Depression score >18 (Beck Depression Inventory)
  • <20 Kcal/kg/day

Treatment and study plan

30 day Daily consumption of 1 serving of beef

Dietary Supplement

Beef patty will replace one of the participants protein servings each day for 30 days. Each serving is 114 grams of 90% lean ground sirloin given to participants as an uncooked frozen patty.

30 day Daily consumption of 1 serving of the vegatable protein source

Dietary Supplement

Veggie patty will replace one of the participants protein servings each day for 30 days. No beef will be consumed during this period. The veggie patty is commercially available Morningstar veggie burger and is given to participants in commercial packaging as a frozen precooked patty.

Primary outcomes

  1. Mean NeuroTracker Speed Threshold over 300 trials

    Time frame: 15 sessions (300 trials) over 10 days at the end of the nutritional intervention

    Cognitive Performance on the Neurotracker 3D software program that includes 20 trials in each session. Particpants will track 4 of 8 balls with increasing speed if successful and slower if unsuccessful.The speed threshold is optimized performance for that session. Across the 15 sessions, mean speed threshold is defined as the average speed threshold for the 15 sessions.

  2. Maximal NeuroTracker Speed Threshold over 300 trials

    Time frame: 15 sessions (300 trials) over 10 days at the end of the nutritional intervention

    Cognitive Performance on the Neurotracker 3D software program that includes 20 trials in each session. Particpants will track 4 of 8 balls with increasing speed if successful and slower if unsuccessful. The speed threshold is optimized performance for that session. Across the 15 sessions, maximal speed threshold is defined as the highest speed threshold.

  3. Change in NeuroTracker Speed Threshold over 300 trials

    Time frame: 15 sessions (300 trials) over 10 days at the end of the nutritional intervention

    Cognitive Performance on the Neurotracker 3D software program that includes 20 trials in each session. Particpants will track 4 of 8 balls with increasing speed if successful and slower if unsuccessful. The speed threshold is optimized performance for that session. Across the 15 sessions, change in speed threshold is defined as the difference between the mean of the first three sessions and the mean of the last three sessions.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Blood Markers of anemia

    Time frame: Day 1 and Day 30 of the intervention

    blood levels of B12, iron, CBCs, ferritin, hepcidin

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Texas A&M University

Other

Registry information

Acronym: IONSport:Beef

Important dates

Study start
2020
Primary completion
2020
Study completion
2021
First posted
Jun 11, 2020
Registry last updated
Sep 29, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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