Is Sweet Taste Perception Associated with Sweet Food Liking and Intake?

Abstract

A range of psychophysical taste measurements are used to characterize an individual’s sweet taste perception and to assess links between taste perception and dietary intake. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between four different psychophysical measurements of sweet taste perception, and to explore which measures of sweet taste perception relate to sweet food intake. Forty-four women aged 20–40 years were recruited for the study. Four measures of sweet taste perception (detection and recognition thresholds, and sweet taste intensity and hedonic liking of suprathreshold concentrations) were assessed using glucose as the tastant. Dietary measurements included a four-day weighed food record, a sweet food-food frequency questionnaire and a sweet beverage liking questionnaire. Glucose detection and recognition thresholds showed no correlation with suprathreshold taste measurements or any dietary intake measurement. Importantly, sweet taste intensity correlated negatively with total energy and carbohydrate (starch, total sugar, fructose, glucose) intakes, frequency of sweet food intake and sweet beverage liking. Furthermore, sweet hedonic liking correlated positively with total energy and carbohydrate (total sugar, fructose, glucose) intakes. The present study shows a clear link between sweet taste intensity and hedonic liking with sweet food liking, and total energy, carbohydrate and sugar intake.

The Associations Between Oral Complex Carbohydrate Sensitivity, BMI, Liking, and Consumption of Complex Carbohydrate Based Foods

“…Previous data investigating the link between sweetness liking, BMI, and intake of sweet foods is conflicting, with most data failing to find any significant associations (Drewnowski, Kurth, & Rahaim, ; Malcolm et al., ; Rodin, ; Simone & Pangborn, ; Thompson, Moskowitz, & Campbell, ; Thompson et al., ; Witherly, Pangborn, & Stern, ; Wooley et al., ). However, in a more controlled experiment, one recent study using 44 female participants did showed a positive relationship between liking of fruit drink and hedonic liking ratings of sweet glucose solutions (Jayasinghe et al., ). Similarly, at present, we also found no significant differences in terms of complex carbohydrate liking (solutions and prototypical foods), BMI, and frequency of consumption of complex carbohydrate based foods.…”

Determinants of Sweetness Preference: A Scoping Review of Human Studies

“…In a study of prospective nutrition teachers, no significant associations were observed between sweetness preference and several variables, including physical activity level, stress level, sleep, weight gain, or constipation [122]. In four cross-sectional studies, significant positive correlations were identified between sweetness preference and several different variables, including sweet taste sensitivity, fasting blood glucose level, basal metabolic rate, body weight index [123]; total energy and carbohydrate (total sugar, fructose, glucose) intakes [124]; country of residence, age, and BMI [125]; and age, current smoking status, stronger cognitive restraint, and former dieting ( [30]; refer to Table S3-12 of Supplementary File S3 for gender-specific results). Lampuré et al [30] found significant negative correlations between sweetness preference and uncontrolled eating habits and emotional eating habits (see Table S3-12 of Supplementary File S3 for gender-specific results).…”

Cross-national differences in child food neophobia: A comparison of five European countries

“…According to Wilk test, the distributions were always normal. Children were divided into 3 groups according to the 25 th 179 and 75 th percentiles calculated across total sample: ''low food neophobia'' (children in the lowest quartile, 180 scores ≤ 17), ''high food neophobia'' (children in the highest quartile, scores ≥ 24) and ''medium food 181 neophobia'' (children in the mid 50%, scores [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Reliability of the tool in different EU countries 207…”