Proceedings from the 2018 Association for Chemoreception Annual Meeting Symposium: Bariatric Surgery and Its Effects on Taste and Food Selection

Abstract

This article provides a summary of the topics discussed at the symposium titled “Bariatric Surgery and Its Effects on Taste and Food Selection,” which was held at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. Bariatric surgery such as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is currently one of the most effective treatments available for weight loss and Type 2 diabetes. For this reason, it is of great interest to clinicians as well as to basic scientists studying the controls of feeding and energy balance. Despite the commonly held view by clinicians that RYGB patients change their food preferences away from fats and sugars in favor of less energy dense alternatives such as vegetables, the empirical support for this claim is equivocal. It is currently thought that the taste and palatability of fats and sugars are affected by the surgery. Some key preclinical and clinical findings addressing these issues were evaluated in this symposium.

A Comparison of Total Food Intake at a Personalised Buffet in People with Obesity, before and 24 Months after Roux-en-Y-Gastric Bypass Surgery

“…Residential studies may mimic more free-living conditions and allow for more sampling and provide more precise estimates of intake patterns. The results of these types of studies are awaited [48]. The ad libitum buffet meal was picked from the 72-items list and a researcher chose 18 items from this list.…”

“…This made the decision harder and, therefore, could influence the actual liking and dislike of foods and the 3 items per group that were chosen. Video recording of the buffet would permit reporting of parameters such as meal duration and rate of eating, factors we were unable to report on from our study and the opportunity to assess more comprehensive microstructural features of ingestive behaviour [48].…”

Methodological issues in assessing change in dietary intake and appetite following gastric bypass surgery: A systematic review

“…The reasons why individuals with obesity are more likely to underreport are not well understood, but it probably represents an interplay between cognitive and behavioral processes 70,71 . Underreporting can be conscious or subconscious and may be affected by negative social attitudes toward carrying excess weight and subsequent guilt about the quantity or type of food consumed 72 . Macronutrient‐specific underreporting is difficult to assess as relative macronutrient intake is highly interrelated, but it is conceivable that foods and macronutrients with perceived negative health connotations (e.g., high‐fat, high‐sugar foods) are underreported, whereas those with perceived positive attributes (e.g., high‐protein foods, fruits, and vegetables) are overrepresented.…”

Microstructural changes in human ingestive behavior after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass during liquid meals

“…Additionally, changes in diet selection after bariatric surgery have been suggested as an important candidate mechanism potentiating weight loss ( 4 , 12 , 13 ). According to self-report surveys, patients after RYGB tend to experience earlier satiation, leading to faster meal termination and consequently to smaller meal size ( 14 ).…”