NCT07031076

Investigating the Cognitive and Brain Health Benefits of Lean Pork Consumption

• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 0 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Nebraska Lincoln · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 65 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if eating more lean pork will lead to better cognition and a healthier brain in older adults. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does eating more lean pork lead to higher scores on cognitive tests and better quality of life? * Does eating more lean pork lead to slower brain aging and/or better brain function? Researchers will compare participants in the experimental group (participants undergoing the dietary intervention) to control participants (participants that do not undergo the intervention). Participants will: * Be instructed to prepare and consume ready-to-eat pork meals along with their regular diet and not eat any more pork other than what they are given; or be instructed to consume their regular diet * Visit the study facilities once every week to pick up ready-to-eat pork meals and complete dietary surveys; or complete dietary surveys every 4 weeks * Visit the study facilities before and after the 16-week of intervention period for researchers to study them

Detailed description

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of learn pork consumption on cognitive and brain health in healthy older adults. Specifically, we seek to evaluate the effects of lean pork consumption on measures of executive function, memory, psychological well-being, and sleep quality. Additionally, we will explore the effects of increased lean pork consumption on measures of brain health derived from structural and functional brain imaging. The study will consist of two groups of participants: experimental and control. Participants in the experimental group will take part in a 16-week dietary intervention. Throughout the intervention, participants in the experimental group will receive 4 portions of ready-to-eat lean pork in frozen packages each week. Each serving of ready-to-eat lean pork for the experimental group will weigh 5-ounces. Participants in the control group will be asked to continue their regular diet, without receiving any frozen packages of ready-to-eat lean pork. Study compliance will be evaluated through weekly surveys about lean pork consumption. In addition, all participants will complete pre- and post-intervention assessments: * MRI scan, including structural and functional brain imaging * a comprehensive questionnaire battery evaluating cognitive and psychological measures * neuropsychological tasks * a blood draw

Conditions

• Dietary Intervention
• Dietary Proteins
• Dietary Assessment
• Older Adults (65 Years and Older)
• Cognitive Ability, General

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Ready-to-eat lean pork in frozen, 5-oz packages	The dietary intervention lasts 16 weeks for each individual. Participants in the experimental group will receive this intervention. Each participant will acquire 4 portions of ready-to eat lean pork in frozen packages per week; each portion of ready-to-eat lean pork in this intervention will weigh 5 ounces.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-08-01
• Primary completion: 2026-12-01
• Completion: 2026-12-01
• First posted: 2025-06-22
• Last updated: 2025-12-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States