Taste, Nutrition, and Health

Abstract

The sensation of flavour reflects the complex integration of aroma, taste, texture, and chemesthetic (oral and nasal irritation cues) from a food or food component. Flavour is a major determinant of food palatability—the extent to which a food is accepted or rejected—and can profoundly influence diet selection, nutrition, and health. Despite recent progress, there are still gaps in knowledge on how taste and flavour cues are detected at the periphery, conveyed by the brainstem to higher cortical levels and then interpreted as a conscious sensation. Taste signals are also projected to central feeding centers where they can regulate hunger and fullness. Individual differences in sensory perceptions are also well known and can arise from genetic variation, environmental causes, or a variety of metabolic diseases, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. Genetic taste/smell variation could predispose individuals to these same diseases. Recent findings have also opened new avenues of inquiry, suggesting that fatty acids and carbohydrates may provide nutrient-specific signals informing the gut and brain of the nature of the ingested nutrients. This special issue on “Taste, Nutrition, and Health” presents original research communications and comprehensive reviews on topics of broad interest to researchers and educators in sensory science, nutrition, physiology, public health, and health care.

The Association between Salt Taste Perception, Mediterranean Diet and Metabolic Syndrome: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Taste and olfaction form the basis of flavor perception, and as such, they are well-recognized and major predictors of food choices, dietary patterns, body composition and consequent health outcomes [49]. The sense of taste has been extensively studied and many determinants of individual differences in taste perception have been identified, such as genetic factors, age, habits and lifestyle factors, alongside with various pathologies and metabolic diseases, such as obesity [50]. Salt taste perception was investigated to a lesser extent, and most commonly in relation to the salt sensitivity (change in blood pressure depending on the change in salt intake), hypertension and salt intake [51,52].…”

Fried Carbohydrate-rich Food as a Potential Source of Malondialdehyde and Acrylamide: a Consumption Pattern to Evaluate the Risk of Cancer in Population

“…In this study, there was no signi cant difference between the parameters that show people's attitudes towards food contamination and the harmfulness of a particular type of Tah-Dig and Tah-Dig oil with the level of education and different classes of SES. High tendency of people towards eating crunchy rice or Tah-Dig may be affected by some properties such as texture, appearance and taste [32].…”

Bitter Taste and Olfactory Receptors: Beyond Chemical Sensing in the Tongue and the Nose

“…They inform about the aroma and flavor of food and beverages and act as warning system for toxic substances. Hence, these two chemical senses strongly affect human well-being, food acceptance and intake (Tepper et al 2020 ; Boesveldt and Parma 2021 ), as well as drug compliance (Pawar and Kumar 2002 ; Menella et al 2013 ), especially in children. In addition, taste and smell impact key brain processes (Sullivan et al 2015 ; Boesveldt and de Graaf 2017 ; Sabiniewicz et al 2021 ), such as memory, emotional responses or behavior.…”