NP

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

Taste and weight: is there a link?
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 07/02/09

Donaldson LF et al. - This article briefly reviews current understanding of the relations between the ability to taste different tastes, (ie, taste threshold for sweet, bitter, sour, salt, and umami) and body mass. Obese children and adolescents show a disturbance in some tastes, with reported reductions in sweet and salt thresholds. Observations on relations between sweet taste threshold and obesity are contradictory; literature discrepancies may depend on the techniques used to evaluate taste. Obese women, however, report higher intensities of monosodium glutamate perception. Taste thresholds have been reported to be raised (bitter and sour), lowered (salt), or unchanged (sweet) in obese adults. Taste perceptual changes (threshold, intensity) in obesity are complex and may be different in obese men and women and in adults and children. Very little is currently known about the relations between savory tastes—salt and umami—and body weight, and these areas merit further study.

Today in Nutrition...keeping you current

Receive free subspecialty "5-minute updates" via email

Measuring dietary intake in children and adolescents in the context of overweight and obesity
International Journal of Obesity, 11/25/09

Effects of snack consumption for 8 weeks on energy intake and body weight
International Journal of Obesity, 11/25/09

Dynamics of growth and weight transitions in a pediatric cohort from India
Nutrition Journal, 11/24/09

 See all of Nutrition