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This Article Full Text (Publish Ahead of Print[PDF]) All Versions of this Article: 90/3/800S    most recent ajcn.2009.27462Qv1 Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Donaldson, L. F Articles by Melichar, J. K Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Donaldson, L. F Articles by Melichar, J. K Agricola Articles by Donaldson, L. F Articles by Melichar, J. K

Taste and weight: is there a link?^1,2,3,4

¹ From the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology (LFD and LB), Exercise, Nutrition, and Health Sciences (SB), and the Division of Psychopharmacology (JKM), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

² Presented at the "100th Anniversary Symposium of Umami Discovery: The Roles of Glutamate in Taste, Gastrointestinal Function, Metabolism, and Physiology," held in Tokyo, Japan, September 10–13, 2008.

³ Supported by a grant from the International Glutamate Technical Committee, a nongovernmental organization funded by industrial producers and users of glutamate in food, and by funds from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Bristol.

⁴ Address correspondence to LF Donaldson, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University Walk, Bristol, BS8 1TD United Kingdom. E-mail: lucy.donaldson{at}bris.ac.uk.

ABSTRACT

Investigations of the relations between taste perception and obesity have concentrated largely on sweet and bitter tastes, with little work on the "savory" tastes—salt and glutamate—and very little work on sour taste. This article briefly reviews current understanding of the relations between the ability to taste different tastes, (ie, taste threshold for sweet, bitter, sour, salt, and umami) and body mass. Obese children and adolescents show a disturbance in some tastes, with reported reductions in sweet and salt thresholds. Observations on relations between sweet taste threshold and obesity are contradictory; literature discrepancies may depend on the techniques used to evaluate taste. Obese women, however, report higher intensities of monosodium glutamate perception. Taste thresholds have been reported to be raised (bitter and sour), lowered (salt), or unchanged (sweet) in obese adults. Taste perceptual changes (threshold, intensity) in obesity are complex and may be different in obese men and women and in adults and children. Very little is currently known about the relations between savory tastes—salt and umami—and body weight, and these areas merit further study.

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