Cognition is now a key health target for supplements and functional food and beverage products, with the global brain health supplements market expected to be valued at $8.63 billion in 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 13.3% from 2023 to 2030.
Scientific demonstration of brain health benefits is crucial in promoting these products, but rarely does it take into account whether standardized cognitive tests in clinical trials align with outcomes of interest to consumers.
This knowledge gap poses a challenge to scientifically substantiating nutrition-based cognitive health benefits, says a recent study published in the journal Neuroscience. Nutrients.
“For the first time, we have documented how consumers perceive the potential benefits of nutrition for brain health,” the US-based researchers wrote. “We need to understand exactly what consumers want to get out of functional foods, beverages and supplements, particularly the everyday benefits, combined with clear, scientifically-substantiated information.”
She added that bridging the gap between science and consumers and fostering a co-creative approach to nutrition research is crucial for developing products and dietary recommendations that deliver cognitive benefits that benefit public health.
methodology
The researchers compared qualitative research on consumer expectations with the knowledge of an expert panel to identify methodological gaps in cognitive health research.
The independent National Opinion Research Center (NORC) conducted four focus groups (39 participants ages 19-59) with “mainstream” consumers of cognitive supplements and functional foods to determine what benefits consumers expect from nutritional products, how consumers would describe these benefits in their own words, and how consumers expect these benefits to manifest in their daily lives.
A multidisciplinary expert panel was asked whether current cognitive performance tools/tasks could demonstrate the specific cognitive benefits expressed by consumers.
The expert panel included scientists specializing in cognitive health and the development of psychometrically robust measures, the impact of diet and nutrition on cognition and brain health, and translational consumer research.
Future Memory, Flow, and Being
Experts agreed that validated tests exist and are already being used to test the effectiveness of nutritional interventions on several benefits noted by consumers, including focus, sustained attention, episodic memory, energy levels and anxiety.
However, some consumers discussed memory in terms of the ability to remember tasks that need to be completed as part of a daily routine (so-called prospective memory).The study noted that prospective memory has been little investigated in the context of nutrition and therefore it is currently unclear whether the limited tests available (e.g., the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test) have adequate sensitivity.
Consumers also spoke about their desire to “get in the zone”, a concept known in psychology as the “flow state”, a mental state in which a person is fully focused on a single task or activity. The expert panel said that research has not yet looked at the effect of nutrition on the tendency to enter a flow state, and therefore it is unclear whether available tools are effective at testing this. However, they said there are a number of well-validated scales, such as the Flow State Scale and the Dispositional Flow Scale.
Consumers frequently cite feeling “in the moment” as a reason for their awareness of brain health and taking supplements.
The expert panel noted that some mindfulness questionnaires have subscales that can be used to measure presence of mind, such as the Behavioral Awareness subscale of the Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire. However, it is unclear whether such measures are sensitive to nutritional influences. Given that mindfulness was associated with obesogenic eating habits in this study, they suggested that researchers interested in these areas should consider reverse causation.
sauce: Nutrients
Source: 10.3390/nu16121950
“Aligning the brain benefits consumers expect from foods and supplements with measurable cognitive performance tests”
Author: Young, HA et al.
