How sweet can it be

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Grilling Cooking Tips and Advice. Grilling and Broiling Chicken. Seasonal Cooking Tips. Seasonal Cooking Videos. Cooking Tips Index. Sign Up. There is a clear need for additional research to better understand the response to LCS across the lifespan.

Responses to sweet tastes in adults show broad interpersonal differences. Such differences occur in terms of perception, liking, wanting, and intake. Psychophysical studies on sweet taste perception have shown that the individual sensitivity to sweetness detection and recognition of substances in solution as well as the intensity ratings given to a single concentration of one sweet solution varies considerably Sensitivity to a particular sweet substance e.

Genetic factors that determine the number and type of taste receptors in the mouth could influence such sensitivity.

Sensitivity to bitterness, which is under the clear influence of genetic factors, co-varies with the perception of sweetness. There is little correlation between sensitivity to sweetness and liking or intake of sweet-tasting products Studies of liking for sweetness have shown that although preferences for sweet taste are a universal trait, large variations exist in the preferred intensity and in the type of foods or drinks that are consumed sweet.

Liking for sugars is reinforced by their nutritional effects, because they are a ready source of dietary energy. Many factors, such as age, race, and gender, modulate liking for sweetness. The preferred intensity of sweetness in foods and beverages is lower in adults than in children and adolescents 46 , 72 ; studies suggest that men prefer higher intensities than women 72 , It is characterized by preferences for high sweetness intensity in a large number of foods and drinks and a preference for sweet-tasting, rather than savory, products Body size or adiposity is not a predictor of liking sweet stimuli 75 , but overweight and obese individuals often prefer high-fat, sweet, or nonsweet stimuli Persons who frequently consume sweet-tasting products show a preference for sweeter beverages when tested in the laboratory; this effect is the same for frequent consumers of nonnutritive and nutritive sweeteners The liking for sweetness may change during the course of a meal.

Longer term changes in the nutritional and hormonal status of the body, such as what happens in weight loss, may also influence the palatability of sweet products. There is a major theoretical distinction between liking and wanting. Wanting has to do with actual foods and drinks, rather than the simple stimuli solutions often used in tests of liking and preferences.

Wanting of sweet-tasting products is strongly influenced by liking of sweetness, but it is also dependent on other factors such as the current nutritional status before vs. The appetite for sweet-tasting foods and drinks can take place in the context of a healthy motivation of intake, and control mechanisms alliesthesia, sensory-specific satiety, postingestive hormonal changes, etc. However, easily accessible, highly palatable foods among which many are sweet are wanted by adults as well as children and can trigger intake even in satiated persons.

What impact do sweet taste preferences have on consumption? Sweet-tasting foods and drinks are consumed as a part of the habitual diet of most adults. Again, there are large individual differences in intake. Evidence exists that genetic factors could account for a modest portion of individual differences in the consumption of sweet products In many countries, dietary surveys have reported that the diets of overweight or obese persons are not particularly rich in sugar or sweet products but they are rather high in fat Consumers children, adolescents, and adults of large amounts of sugar and sweet products are often lean 3 , Evidence obtained from biomarkers, rather than self-reports of intake, suggests a higher intake of sweet products by obese persons compared with their normal-weight peers, particularly those with psychological vulnerability In addition to their nutritional value, sweet-tasting foods can be ingested for their soothing properties and have been reported to alleviate depression 87 , premenstrual symptoms, or responses to stress Individual preference for very high concentrations of sucrose is associated with elevated sensitivity to the mood-altering effects of sweetness and impaired control over eating sweets There is no evidence that they can be triggered by sugar itself in human adults.

However, palatable, sweet, fatty, high-energy density foods can easily induce hyperphagia with deleterious consequences on body weight control The liking for sweet taste is both innate and universal. Although infants and young children typically select the most intensely sweet tastes, the pleasure response to sweet taste is observed across individuals of all ages, races, and cultures.

It is basic biology that dictates a liking for sweetness across the lifespan. By contrast, preferences for sweetness in specific foods are context dependent and can be influenced by prior exposure to those foods. Dissociating sweetness from energy may affect expectations for sweetness in foods and, potentially, food-seeking behavior.

The ability to compensate for variability in energy intake seems to decrease with age; thus, the impact of LCS use in the weight management of children may not parallel that of adults.

However, the biologic response to sweetness is only one aspect of food preference and food selection. Important areas for future research include determining the role that dietary habits, including the use of LCS, play in the preferences and physiological consequences of sweets in children as well as elucidating the impact of culture and economics on the choice and purchases of sweet-tasting foods across the lifespan. More knowledge about the consequences of feeding such foods and beverages to children, who today struggle with obesity and diabetes more than any previous generation, should be a research priority.

The authors thank Drs. Karen L. Teff and Danielle R. Reed for comments on earlier content on a portion of this manuscript. Drewnowski, J. Mennella, S. Johnson, and F. Bellisle contributed to portions of manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The views expressed in these papers are not necessarily those of the supplement coordinator or guest editors. The supplement coordinator for this supplement was Adam Drewnowski, University ofWashington.

Supplement Coordinator disclosures: AdamDrewnowski received travel reimbursement for participation in the Low-Calorie Sweeteners Conference. The supplement is the responsibility of the Guest Editor to whom the Editor of The Journal of Nutrition has delegated supervision of both technical conformity to the published regulations of The Journal of Nutrition and general oversight of the scientific merit of each article.

The Guest Editor for this supplement was Sibylle Kranz. Guest Editor disclosure: Sibylle Kranz has received funding from The Kellogg Company to conduct research projects unrelated to this supplementmaterial. She has also been an invited speaker at a roundtable discussion funded by The Kellogg Company. Publication costs for this supplementwere defrayed in part by the payment of page charges.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not attributable to the sponsors or the publisher, Editor, or Editorial Board of The Journal of Nutrition. Bellisle received a modest honorarium for their participation in the workshop and development of the manuscript. Travel was funded for all authors to attend the workshop. Drewnowski has received research grants from Ajinomoto on behalf of the University of Washington.

Bellisle has received consulting fees and honoraria from food and beverage companies. Johnson, no conflicts of interest. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. J Nutr. Published online May 9. Mennella , 5 Susan L. Johnson , 6 and France Bellisle 7. Julie A. Susan L. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

E-mail: ude. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Human desire for sweet taste spans all ages, races, and cultures. Introduction The consumption of energy-containing sweeteners in the form of added sugars has risen consistently among all age groups in the United States 1 , 2. Responses to Sweet Taste during Development In recent years, major scientific advances have helped identify the initial events underlying sweet taste recognition 9 — 11 and the brain mechanisms underlying the strong pleasure response to sweet taste The Role of LCS in the Development of Children xs Food Preferences The majority of developmental studies on sweet taste responsiveness among children have been conducted with naturally occurring sugars: sucrose, lactose, or fructose.

How do LCS impact children xs dietary intake? What do we know about children xs food preferences, intake patterns, and body weight? Responses to Sweetness in Adults: from Perception to Intake Responses to sweet tastes in adults show broad interpersonal differences. Summary and Conclusions The liking for sweet taste is both innate and universal.

Acknowledgments The authors thank Drs. Footnotes 1 Published in a supplement to The Journal of Nutrition. Literature Cited 1.

Food sources of added sweeteners in the diets of Americans. J Am Diet Assoc. Drewnowski A. The real contribution of added sugars and fats to obesity. Epidemiol Rev. The sweetening of the world's diet. Obes Res. Bellisle F, Drewnowski A. Intense sweeteners, energy intake and the control of body weight.

Eur J Clin Nutr. Nonnutritive sweetener consumption in humans: effects on appetite and food intake and their putative mechanisms. Am J Clin Nutr. Taste cells of the gut and gastrointestinal chemosensation. Mol Interv. Nutrient selection in the absence of taste receptor signaling.

J Neurosci. Common sense about taste: from mammals to insects. Reed DR, Knaapila A. Genetics of taste and smell: poisons and pleasures. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. The receptor basis of sweet taste in mammals.

Results Probl Cell Differ. Mechanisms for sweetness - low-calorie sweeteners, appetite and weight control: what the science tells us - mechanisms for sweetness. Sclafani A. Sweet taste signaling in the gut. Gut-expressed gustducin and taste receptors regulate secretion of glucagon-like peptide Taste signaling elements expressed in gut enteroendocrine cells regulate nutrient-responsive secretion of gut hormones.

Mennella J. The sweet taste of childhood. You might love sugary doughnuts, but your friends find them too sweet and only take small nibbles.

Now our recently published study shows a wider range of genes at play than anyone thought. In particular, we suggest how these genes might work with the brain to influence your sugar habit. Read more: Fact or fiction — is sugar addictive?

When food touches our taste buds, taste receptors produce a signal that travels along taste nerves to the brain. This generates a sensation of flavour and helps us decide if we like the food. Genetic research in the past decade has largely focused on genes for sweet taste receptors and whether variation in these genes influences how sensitive we are to sweetness and how much sugar we eat and drink. Read more: Curious Kids: how do tongues taste food?

We measured how sweet 1, Australians thought sugars glucose and fructose and artificial sweeteners aspartame and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone were. We also looked at how sweet Americans thought sucrose was and whether they liked its taste. We also calculated the daily intake of dietary sugars monosaccharide and disaccharide sugars found in foods such as fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese and sweets lollies and chocolates from , British people of European descent in the UK Biobank.