Orosensory Factors in Fat Detection

Fat intake results from both orosensory and postingestive controls. During the past decade, more attention has been given to the study of the orosensory factors in the control of fat intake in rodent models (Gilbertson, 1999; Gilbertson et al., 2005; Sclafani et al., 2007a,b). Understanding the orosensory factors in the ingestion of sweet/fat mixtures is important because in the human diet, fat is most often consumed in conjunction with sweeteners (Elizalde and Sclafani, 1990; Lucas and Sclafani, 1990; Greenberg and Smith, 1997) and is very important in weight control. The goal of this chapter is to describe the data that have been collected in this laboratory over the past decade involving the taste perception and ingestion of fat by the laboratory rat. Although studies done in other laboratories will be mentioned from time to time, this chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature in this area. The research conducted in my laboratory was inspired by Professors Gerry Smith and colleagues at the Bourne Laboratory (Greenberg and Smith, 1996, 1997), Tony Sclafani and colleagues at Brooklyn College (Ackroff et al., 1990; Elizalde and Sclafani, 1990; Lucas and Sclafani, 1990; Ackroff and Sclafani, 1996; Ackroff et al., 2004; Sclafani and Glendinning, 2005; Ackroff et al., 2005; Sclafani, 2007; Sclafani et al., 2007a,b), and Tim Gilbertson’s electrophysiological studies (Gilbertson et al., 1997; Gilbertson, 1998; Gilbertson et al., 1998a,b; Gilbertson, 1999; Gilbertson et al., 2005).