How French subjects describe well-being from food and eating habits? Development, item reduction and scoring definition of the Well-Being related to Food Questionnaire (Well-BFQ©).

Providing well-being and maintaining good health are main objectives subjects seek from diet. This manuscript describes the development and preliminary validation of an instrument assessing well-being associated with food and eating habits in a general healthy population. Qualitative data from 12 groups of discussion (102 subjects) conducted with healthy subjects were used to develop the core of the Well-being related to Food Questionnaire (Well-BFQ). Twelve other groups of discussion with subjects with joint (n = 34), digestive (n = 32) or repetitive infection complaints (n = 30) were performed to develop items specific to these complaints. Five main themes emerged from the discussions and formed the modular backbone of the questionnaire: "Grocery shopping", "Cooking", "Dining places", "Commensality", "Eating and drinking". Each module has a common structure: items about subject's food behavior and items about immediate and short-term benefits. An additional theme - "Eating habits and health" - assesses subjects' beliefs about expected benefits of food and eating habits on health, disease prevention and protection, and quality of ageing. A preliminary validation was conducted with 444 subjects with balanced diet; non-balanced diet; and standard diet. The structure of the questionnaire was further determined using principal component analyses exploratory factor analyses, with confirmation of the sub-sections food behaviors, immediate benefits (pleasure, security, relaxation), direct short-term benefits (digestion and satiety, energy and psychology), and deferred long-term benefits (eating habits and health). Thirty-three subscales and 14 single items were further defined. Confirmatory analyses confirmed the structure, with overall moderate to excellent convergent and divergent validity and internal consistency reliability. The Well-BFQ is a unique, modular tool that comprehensively assesses the full picture of well-being related to food and eating habits in the general population.

Determinants of the thirst-quenching character of beer.

The purpose of this study was to find which sensory characteristics are significant determinants of the thirst-quenching character of beer. The sensory attributes and thirst-quenching characteristics ("thirst quenching", "refreshing", "drinkability") of 18 beers were evaluated by a panel of 12 judges. The only significant positive determinants of the "thirst-quenching" character of the beers in the design were carbonation and bubble density. Significant negative determinants were foam, overall aroma and flavor, color, viscosity, malty, hoppy, burnt, bitterness, acidic, metallic, astringency and aftertaste. The same correlations (both in terms of direction and significance level) were observed between descriptive attributes and the "refreshing" and "drinkability" factors. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the mean ratings indicated that variability among beers was mostly along a thirst-quenching dimension (72% of the variance). Procrustes analysis performed on the individual ratings showed that, for one of the judges, the interpretation of the thirst-quenching concept differed from that shown by PCA for the overall panel.