School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9QH, UK.
Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Nutrients. 2019 Jan 10;11(1):129. doi: 10.3390/nu11010129.
Taste hedonics is a well-documented driver of food consumption. The role of sweetness in directing ingestive behavior is largely rooted in biology. One can then intuit that individual differences in sweet-liking may constitute an indicator of variations in the susceptibility to diet-related health outcomes. Despite half a century of research on sweet-liking, the best method to identify the distinct responses to sweet taste is still debated. To help resolve this issue, liking and intensity ratings for eight sucrose solutions ranging from 0 to 1 M were collected from 148 young adults (29% men). Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) revealed three response patterns: a sweet-liker (SL) phenotype characterized by a rise in liking as concentration increased, an inverted U-shaped phenotype with maximum liking at 0.25 M, and a sweet-disliker (SD) phenotype characterized by a decline in liking as a function of concentration. Based on sensitivity and specificity analyses, present data suggest the clearest discrimination between phenotypes is seen with 1.0 M sucrose, where a liking rating between -15 and +15 on a -50/+50 scale reliably distinguished individuals with an inverted U-shaped response from the SLs and the SDs. If the efficacy of this approach is confirmed in other populations, the discrimination criteria identified here can serve as the basis for a standard method for classifying sweet taste liker phenotypes in adults.
味觉愉悦感是促进食物消费的一个有充分记录的驱动因素。甜味在引导摄食行为方面的作用在很大程度上植根于生物学。那么人们可以直观地认为，对甜味的喜好的个体差异可能构成对与饮食相关的健康结果的易感性变化的指标。尽管对甜味的喜好进行了半个世纪的研究，但识别对甜味的不同反应的最佳方法仍存在争议。为了解决这个问题，从 148 名年轻人（29%为男性）中收集了对 8 种从 0 到 1M 的蔗糖溶液的喜好和强度评分。层次聚类分析（HCA）揭示了三种反应模式：甜味喜好者（SL）表型的特征是随着浓度的增加而增加喜好，呈倒 U 形表型，最大喜好在 0.25M 处，以及甜味厌恶者（SD）表型的特征是随着浓度的增加而降低喜好。基于灵敏度和特异性分析，目前的数据表明，在 1.0M 蔗糖中，表型之间的区分最明显，在-50/+50 标度上的-15 到+15 的喜好评分可靠地区分了具有倒 U 形反应的个体与 SL 和 SD。如果这种方法在其他人群中得到证实，那么这里确定的判别标准可以作为在成年人中对甜味喜好表型进行分类的标准方法的基础。
