Taste perception depends on diet, study clams

The taste of food largely determines our experience, Eurek Alert reported referring to the study.

“Researchers at the University of Sydney have discovered the basic science of how sweet taste perception is fine-tuned in response to different diets,” the source noted.

Experts carried out a sensor analysis on the proboscis of the fruit fly and on its front legs, which showed that a protein-restricted diet that allows the body to live much longer also increases the intensity of sucrose perception.

“The response was also really specific. For example, when we fed flies food that had no sweetness, the animals' sweet taste perception was enhanced, but only for glucose, not for fructose. We have no idea why they specifically focus just on one kind of sugar when they perceive them both as sweet,” said Professor Wang, who led the study.

But the abundance of sugar in the diet, on the contrary, suppresses the perception of sweet taste, making sugar subjectively less sweet. In this case, the sense of taste is controlled by dopamine.

By the way, that study found artificial sweeteners activate a neuronal starvation pathway, and end up promoting increased food intake, especially when combined with a low-carb diet. 

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