A taste for fat?
Monday, March 15, 2010 15:12 It turns out that humans have a taste receptor for fat--similar to the sensors that detect sweet, sour, salty, and bitter tastes. According to a new published study, this sensor responds to the presence of fatty acids in foods. I'm guessing that this is what we sense when a food tastes "rich." However, people's sensitivity to this taste varies. A dish may be palatable to one taster but "too rich" for another. Not surprisingly, people who are more sensitive to fats tend to eat fewer fatty foods and to weigh less.
Although the study did not address this, researchers wonder whether a high fat diet eventually causes us to lose our "fat sensitivity," leading us to consume more fat and gain weight? It's not hard to imagine this. People who eat a lot of salty foods develop a higher tolerance for salt; people who use artificial sweeteners (which are hyper-sweet) develop a higher tolerance for sweetness.
The good news is that when you start cutting back on salt and sugar in your diet, your sensitivity to these tastes also tends to return. After a period of adjustment, people often find that they need less salt to make foods taste well-seasoned, for example. And perhaps this means that cutting back on fatty foods would restore our sensitivity to them--and re-calibrate our appetite for them?
Here's another interesting tidbit: Tasters detected linoleic acid (an omega-6 polyunsaturate) at lower levels than they detected oleic acid (a monounsaturate). The highest detection threshold was for lauric (a saturated fat). Does that suggest that it's easier to overeat saturated fats?
This research is too preliminary to draw any real conclusions but it's thought-provoking, isn't it? Hopefully, it provokes more research as well.
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