Effects of Sweet-Liking on Body Composition Depend on Age and Lifestyle: A Challenge to the Simple Sweet-Liking—Obesity Hypothesis

Abstract

Taste hedonics drive food choices, and food choices affect weight maintenance. Despite this, the idea that hyper-palatability of sweet foods is linked to obesity development has been controversial for decades. Here, we investigate whether interpersonal differences in sweet-liking are related to body composition. Healthy adults aged 18–34 years from the UK (n = 148) and the US (n = 126) completed laboratory-based sensory tests (sucrose taste tests) and anthropometric measures (body mass index; BMI, body fat; fat-free mass; FFM, waist/hips circumferences). Habitual beverage intake and lifestyle and behavioural characteristics were also assessed. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, we classified participants into three phenotypes: sweet liker (SL), sweet disliker (SD), and inverted-U (liking for moderate sweetness). Being a SD was linked to higher body fat among those younger than 21 years old, while in the older group, SLs had the highest BMI and FFM; age groups reflected different levels of exposure to the obesogenic environment. FFM emerged as a better predictor of sweet-liking than BMI and body fat. In the older group, sweetened beverage intake partially explained the phenotype–anthropometry associations. Collectively, our findings implicate underlying energy needs as an explanation for the variation in sweet-liking; the moderating roles of age and obesogenic environment require additional consideration.

Phenol-Rich Food Acceptability: The Influence of Variations in Sweetness Optima and Sensory-Liking Patterns

“…Previous studies have reported an association between sensitivity to reward and some unhealthier behaviours, such as higher fat intake, higher alcohol consumption, smoking frequency, while only a trend was observed with sugar intake [ 93 , 102 ]. Furthermore, no difference between the clusters was found in BMI, in line with some studies [ 32 ] even if the results in the literature are mixed [ 88 ]. Nevertheless, the current findings require further investigation to understand more deeply the role of these and other personality traits in food preferences and consumption behaviours, specifically in relation to sweet foods taking into account gender differences.…”

“…In keeping with most of the literature we identified three clusters [ 86 ]. However, compared to studies that classified sweet likers based on their response to sucrose aqueous solutions [ 20 , 32 , 88 ], we did not identify distinct Sweet Dislikers. Instead, in line with Kim et al [ 18 ], we found Moderate Sweet Likers whose sweetness/liking slopes were less steep than those of the High Sweet Likers.…”

Female sweet likers have enhanced cross-modal interoceptive abilities.

“…individuals expressing aversive responses to high sweetness; SDs). In a multi-country study, we recently found that SLs had either lower fat mass or greater fat free mass than SDs (Iatridi, Armitage, et al, 2020). We concluded that, for SLs, hedonic response to sweetness matched their bodily needs, either in respect to energy stores or energy requirements.…”

“…Conversely, human body primarily defends undersupply in order to prevent or reverse body mass loss (Speakman et al, 2011). Further, SLs also exhibited behavioural characteristics analogous to those of high interoceptive performers, such as enhanced trait-hunger, intensity seeking, and reward sensitivity (Iatridi, Armitage, et al, 2020). Collectively then, interoception appears to be a good candidate to explain the observed effects of sweet taste phenotype on body composition and psychometric profiles.…”

Food Preferences and Obesity

“…A few studies examined the relationship between the sweet-liking phenotype and body mass index (BMI), with mixed results. While Garneau et al [32] did not find any association in a sample of children and young adults, Iatridi et al [33] reported that sweet likers had an higher BMI and fat-free mass but only in the older groups. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that exposure to an obesogenic environment contributes to an increase in sweet-liking.…”