Guarneri Faye, Cortes Liz, Ghali Caren, Clovis Janel, Pouget Enrique R, Hunter Stephanie, Cheung May M
Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11210, USA.
City University of New York, Macaulay Honors College, 35 W 67th St, New York, NY, 10023, USA.
BMC Nutr. 2025 May 13;11(1):94. doi: 10.1186/s40795-025-01076-4.
Humans seek to eat what is palatable, especially when snacking. Theoretically, a person who enjoys sweet taste more may choose snacks with higher sugar and calories, leading to lower overall diet quality, yet individual eating behavior traits may interfere with this relationship. We investigated the influences of sweet taste preference (assessed using a forced-choice paired-comparison method) and eating behaviors (i.e., uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint using the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18) on diet quality and added sugars intake (validated short Healthy Eating Index survey) in 65 adults (23.0 ± 5.5 years). Participants were divided into sweet dislike, moderate sweet liker, and extreme sweet liker groups by preferred sucrose concentration tertiles. Most participants selected a low-calorie, high-sweetness snack, and neither sweet preference nor eating behavior traits were associated with snack choice. Compared to extreme sweet likers, sweet dislikers and moderate sweet likers had a lower added sugars intake, F(2, 62) = 7.32, p = 0.001, and better diet quality, F(2, 62) = 4.06, p = 0.02. Preferred sucrose concentration correlated only with higher added sugars intake (r = 0.49, p < 0.001) and lower diet quality (r = -0.27, p = 0.03) but not with the intake of other food groups. Higher sweet preference increased the odds of consuming medium (OR = 2.18, 95% CI = 0.32, 6.08) and high (OR = 3.17, 95% CI = 1.85, 7.86) amounts of added sugars. Adding other covariates did not improve the statistical model. Interestingly, only sweet preference, but not added sugars intake and eating behaviors, was associated with diet quality. Thus, our data suggest that sweet preference may have a stronger influence on added sugars intake and diet quality compared to eating behaviors, although these findings should be replicated in other populations and with a larger sample size. Future studies may also assess liking for other sensory qualities (e.g., fat liking) to understand the contributions of taste preference to nutrient intake and diet quality.
人类倾向于食用美味的食物，尤其是在吃零食时。从理论上讲，更喜欢甜味的人可能会选择含糖量和热量更高的零食，从而导致整体饮食质量较低，但个体的饮食行为特征可能会干扰这种关系。我们调查了甜味偏好（使用强制选择配对比较法评估）和饮食行为（即使用三因素饮食问卷-R18评估的无节制饮食、情绪化饮食和认知克制）对65名成年人（23.0±5.5岁）的饮食质量和添加糖摄入量（经过验证的简短健康饮食指数调查）的影响。参与者根据蔗糖浓度三分位数被分为不喜欢甜味组、中度喜欢甜味组和极度喜欢甜味组。大多数参与者选择了低热量、高甜度的零食，甜味偏好和饮食行为特征均与零食选择无关。与极度喜欢甜味的人相比，不喜欢甜味的人和中度喜欢甜味的人添加糖摄入量更低，F(2, 62) = 7.32，p = 0.001，饮食质量更好，F(2, 62) = 4.06，p = 0.02。偏好的蔗糖浓度仅与较高的添加糖摄入量（r = 0.49，p < 0.001）和较低的饮食质量（r = -0.27，p = 0.03）相关，与其他食物组的摄入量无关。更高的甜味偏好增加了摄入中等量（OR = 2.18，95% CI = 0.32，6.08）和大量（OR = 3.17，95% CI = 1.85，7.86）添加糖的几率。添加其他协变量并没有改善统计模型。有趣的是，仅甜味偏好与饮食质量相关，而添加糖摄入量和饮食行为与饮食质量无关。因此，我们的数据表明，与饮食行为相比，甜味偏好可能对添加糖摄入量和饮食质量有更强的影响，尽管这些发现应在其他人群中进行重复验证且样本量更大。未来的研究也可以评估对其他感官特性（如对脂肪的喜好）的喜爱程度，以了解口味偏好对营养摄入和饮食质量的影响。
