High-fat diet-related stimulation of sweetness desire is greater in women than in men despite high vegetable intake

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of lunches with different dietary energy densities on food preferences between genders. Design: Randomized crossover study. Participants were administered the following packed test meals once weekly on a specified day during six sessions: control (150 g of rice with a sautéed beef entrée containing 40 g of raw beef and 240 g of vegetables), high-meat/low-rice, low-vegetable, medium-fat/low-vegetable, high-fat and high-fat/low-vegetable meals. Subjective levels of sensory properties were assessed over time using visual analogue scales. Setting: University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan. Subjects: Sixty-five men and sixty-five women matched by age and BMI. Results: Men showed significantly stronger desires for salty and fatty foods after meals (P < 0·05). Women showed a significantly stronger desire for sweetness from 2 h after the low-vegetable meal, and increasing fat content under highvegetable conditions caused a significant stimulated sweetness desire in women more than in men (P < 0·05). Moreover, after a high-meat/low-rice meal with 100 g of rice, sweetness desire was stronger in women (P = 0·024), whereas no significant differences in sweetness desire were shown between genders after another low-energy-density control meal with 150 g of rice.Conclusions: Men had significantly stronger desires for salty and fatty foods, whereas women preferred sweet food after meals. The sweetness desire in women was stimulated by increasing fat content, even with a high vegetable intake. Low rice intake in a low-energy-density diet also caused a relative stimulation of sweetness desire in women. Keywords Energy density Food preference Gender differencesSweetness desireNutritional strategies that can prevent weight gain are considered to be a result of controlling appetite and energy intake during normal daily life (1) . Controlled studies show that energy intake is closely associated with the energy density (ED) of the diet, which enables individuals to consume a satisfying amount of food when it is lower in ED (2-4) . Thus, reducing the ED of the total diet may be a nutritionally sound strategy for the management of body weight (5) . Many factors affecting the sensory properties of food may contribute to the effects of ED on energy intake and eating behaviour as foods are consumed (6) . Because observational studies have indicated a relationship between food consumption and intensity of food taste (7) , attention needs to be paid to the perceptions of food-related pleasantness as well as fullness and satisfaction after food intake. The brain controls eating behaviour and it responds differentially to food depending on factors such as body mass (8) , mood (9) and age (10) . Another potential factor that cannot be neglected regarding its effects on eating behaviour is the gender difference. Men and women often have different social perceptions regarding the sensory properties of food, because women pay more attention to nutrition content than men (11) . Despite numer...

Determinants of Sweetness Preference: A Scoping Review of Human Studies

“…A "set of sweetened foods or beverages" was defined as one or more variations of the same food or beverage, tested in the same study population, sweetened with the same sweetener (i.e., sugar or NNS), but differing only in the level of sweetness. In the remaining eight studies [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32], sweetness preference was assessed without having subjects sample and rate a sweetened food or beverage. For example, Mizuta et al [26] requested study participants with different leptin and leptin gene polymorphisms to score from 1 ("I hate them") to 5 ("I love them") when asked, "Do you like things that taste sweet?"…”

Association of habitual high-fat intake and desire for protein and sweet food

“…A randomized crossover design was used to investigate the post-prandial effects of test meals, with a 1 -week interval between testing rounds during the subjects' normal daily life. A packed test meal was systematically provided on a specified day for 6 weeks consecutively, and the details of this study were as previously reported (17,18). All subjects were provided detailed written and verbal explanations of the general purpose and procedures of the study before their written consent was obtained.…”

“…They had sedentary clerical occupations and routine lifestyles (17,18). After recruitment, each subject was asked to complete a brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ).…”

“…Six types of packed lunches, "bento" based on "Washoku" or Japanese food, used as test meals were prepared using the same ingredients each time (17,18). Without changing the appearance of the test meals, variations were introduced by adding oil, using various cooking methods, or changing the volume/amount of ingredients.…”

“…To develop an effective dietary pattern for weight management, we need to identify how dietary habits influence food preferences based on sensory properties. Previously, we have reported an association between sensory properties and dietary CD (17,18). We hypothesized that responses to diets with different CDs would vary among subjects with different dietary fat intake habits and that a higher habitual dietary fat intake would stimulate appetite.…”