Combination of flavor enhancement and chemosensory education improves nutritional status in older cancer patients.

Background: Abnormalities in taste and smell functioning occur with elevated frequency in both older adults and patients with cancer. With the predicted increase in both of these populations in the coming decades, it is imperative to evaluate potential interventions that are designed to help older cancer patients compensate for the additive burden of this disease and its treatment on age-related taste and smell losses.

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to determine if providing instruction and products for flavor enhancement of foods to elderly cancer patients in addition to nutritional information would improve their nutritional status, and, by extension, functional and immune status as well as quality of life.

Effect of repeated presentation on sweetness intensity of binary and ternary mixtures of sweeteners.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of repeated presentation of the same sweet stimulus on sweetness intensity ratings. The sweet stimuli tested in this study were binary and ternary blends of 14 sweeteners that varied widely in chemical structure. A trained panel evaluated the sweetness intensity over four sips of a given mixture presented at 30 s intervals.

Taste, smell and neuropsychological performance of individuals at familial risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether there are chemosensory and neuropsychological changes that predate the onset of Alzheimer's disease in individuals at enhanced risk of developing the condition. To study this question, a unique sample of individuals (n = 33) was studied who were genetically at-risk for AD by virtue of documented multigenerational evidence of the disease (so-called multiplex families). The performance of at-risk individuals was evaluated on various smell, taste, and neuropsychological measures at baseline and 18 months later.

Elevated and sustained desire for sweet taste in african-americans: a potential factor in the development of obesity.

Oral habituation is a relatively long-lasting decrease in oral responsiveness that results from the repeated presentation of a single stimulus. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of habituation to sweet-tasting foods and to determine whether there are differences in the rate of habituation between African Americans and European Americans. These two groups were compared because the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related disorders such as diabetes and hypertension is significantly higher among African Americans than among European Americans.

Synergism among ternary mixtures of fourteen sweeteners.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the degree of synergism of sweet taste among ternary mixtures of 14 sweeteners. A trained panel evaluated ternary mixtures of 14 sweeteners varying in chemical structure and type. The ternary mixtures that were tested were limited to those in which the compounds comprising the mixture were synergistic in binary combinations, according to an earlier study.