Sweet and Umami Taste Perception Differs with Habitual Exercise in Males

Abstract

Taste is influenced by several factors. However, whether habitual exercise level is associated with differences in taste perception has received little investigation. The aim of this study was to determine if habitual exercise is associated with differences in taste perception in men. Active (n = 16) and inactive (n = 14) males, between ages 18–55, underwent two days of sensory testing, using prototypical taste stimuli of high and low concentrations for sweet, salt, bitter, sour, umami, and carbohydrate (maltodextrin). Mean perceived intensity and hedonic ratings were recorded. Eating behaviour was assessed by the three factor eating questionnaire and food intake by EPIC food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). There were moderate to large differences between the two groups in perceived intensity for sweet taste at the high concentration and umami taste at both high and low concentrations, with active males recording a higher perceived intensity (p < 0.05 for all). The active group also recorded a greater dislike for umami low and carbohydrate low concentration (p < 0.01). Salt, bitter and sour perception did not significantly differ between the two groups. FFQ analysis showed no difference in % energy from macronutrients between the groups. Eating behaviour traits correlated with sweet taste intensity and umami taste liking, independent of activity status. Results indicated that sweet and umami taste perception differ in active compared to inactive males. Habitual exercise level should be considered in taste perception research and in product development. Whether differences in taste perception could be one factor influencing food intake and thus energy balance with habitual exercise warrants further investigation.

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

“…The phenomenon of collateral adiposity or simply 'fat overshooting', where the potent internal signal for recovery of FFM after weight loss induces overeating and consequently a disproportional increase in fat mass, further emphasizes the critical importance of FFM over fat mass in regulating energy intake [73]. Recently, disliking for low sweetness was proposed to be positively associated with habitual exercise levels [74]. Given that, in the absence of differences in BMI or age, active individuals are expected to have relatively higher FFM than those being more sedentary, it could be theorized that the taste stimulus that signaled the poorest energy content (i.e., the stimulus of low sweetness) was likely to evoke lower liking among more active individuals.…”

Taste, Nutrition, and Health

“…Using fMRI, Gramling, Kapoulea, and Murphy [18] demonstrate that chronic caffeine consumers and nonconsumers experience differential activation in neuronal areas involved in reward, memory, and information processing when they are exposed to bitter and sweet tastants. Likewise, Feeney et al [19] showed that in men, habitual physical activity selectively alters taste perceptions. Specifically, active men gave higher intensity ratings to sweet and umami solutions in comparison to nonactive men.…”

Effect of Physical Exercise on Taste Perceptions: A Systematic Review

“…From the 5699 titles screened, 88 were approved based on their title, 49 were assessed using the full text, and 18 were analyzed and included in this systematic review. From the 18 studies, 17 had an experimental design, including non-defined [18], nonrandomized control trials [16,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24][26][27][28]30,32,33], and randomized control trials [25,31]. One case control study [29] was also included.…”

“…The studies originated from Canada [33], China [29], Ireland [32], Israel [21,22], Japan [18,19,23,26,28], the Netherlands [25], New Zealand [30], Norway [31], the United States of America [16,17,24,27], and the United Kingdom [20]. Most of the studies were conducted on healthy normal-weight males and females, but some studies included participants who were obese [31], clinically ill [29], or athletic [16,24,26,27].…”