Inability to Taste Fat in Food can Lead to Obesity: Study
Inability to taste fat in foods may increase the risk of overeating and obesity, according to a study.
Taste sensitivity largely influences food intake and body weight of individuals. A research by the Deakin's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research holds that people unable to detect taste of fat in food tend to consume food in excess to achieve satiety. In a previous experiment, Russell Keast, the lead researcher of the study, discovered our tongue can identify the taste of fat just like it determines sweetness, salty, sour and bitter tastes in food. There is a direct association between taste receptivity and obesity, according to the rsearchers.
The current study tested participants' ability to sense fat taste and served them food that was high in fat, carbohydrate, protein and an array of food options from buffet lunch for four days. The subjects were allowed to eat until they felt full and experts recorded their total energy consumed, perception on hunger and satisfaction.
It was found that different individuals have different taste margin for fat. Participants with high taste sensitivity for fat ate lesser high caloric food while those with lesser sensitive or who could not sense the taste had a tendency to gorge on fatty substances.
"If you do not taste fat or experience the fullness associated with eating fatty food, you are likely to be more hungry and consume more energy after an earlier fatty meal. And as we know overconsumption of foods, particularly fatty foods, is associated with people being overweight or obese," said Keast in a news release.
"Through this latest study we now see that low sensitivity to fat taste impairs the body's ability to register the fullness signals that would normally come from eating fatty foods."
The authors believe these findings might help prevent obesity by improving fat taste sensitivity in those who are unresponsive to fat taste.
More information is available online in the journal Appetite.
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