Liem Djin Gie, Westerbeek Annemarie, Wolterink Sascha, Kok Frans J, de Graaf Cees
Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Taste & Smell Centre, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Chem Senses. 2004 Oct;29(8):713-20. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjh077.
Previous research has suggested that some children have a preference for sour tastes. The origin of this preference remains unclear. We investigated whether preference for sour tastes is related to a difference in rated sour intensity due to physiological properties of saliva, or to an overall preference for intense and new stimuli. Eighty-nine children 7-12 years old carried out a rank-order procedure for preference and category scale for perceived intensity for four gelatins (i.e. 0.0 M, 0.02 M, 0.08 M, 0.25 M added citric acid) and four yellow cards that differed in brightness. In addition, we measured their willingness to try a novel candy and their flow and buffering capacity of their saliva. Fifty-eight percent of the children tested preferred one of the two most sour gelatins. These children had a higher preference for the brightest color (P < 0.05) and were more likely to try the candy with the unknown flavor (P < 0.001) than children who did not prefer the most sour gelatins. Preference for sour taste was not related with differences in rated sour intensity, however those who preferred sour taste had a higher salivary flow (P < 0.05). These findings show that a substantial proportion of young children have a preference for extreme sour taste. This appears to be related to the willingness to try unknown foods and preference for intense visual stimuli. Further research is needed to investigate how these findings can be implemented in the promotion of sour-tasting food such as fruit.
先前的研究表明，一些儿童偏爱酸味。这种偏爱的起源尚不清楚。我们调查了对酸味的偏爱是否与唾液生理特性导致的酸味强度评级差异有关，或者与对强烈和新刺激的总体偏爱有关。89名7至12岁的儿童对四种明胶（即添加0.0M、0.02M、0.08M、0.25M柠檬酸）和四张亮度不同的黄色卡片进行了偏爱排序程序和感知强度类别量表评定。此外，我们测量了他们尝试一种新型糖果的意愿以及他们唾液的分泌量和缓冲能力。在接受测试的儿童中，58%偏爱两种酸味最强的明胶中的一种。与不偏爱酸味最强明胶的儿童相比，这些儿童对最亮颜色的偏爱更高（P<0.05），并且更有可能尝试未知口味的糖果（P<0.001）。对酸味的偏爱与酸味强度评级差异无关，然而，偏爱酸味的儿童唾液分泌量更高（P<0.05）。这些发现表明，相当大比例的幼儿偏爱极酸的味道。这似乎与尝试未知食物的意愿以及对强烈视觉刺激的偏爱有关。需要进一步研究，以探讨如何将这些发现应用于促进酸味食物（如水果）的推广。
