Variations in the associations of taste-related words with foods in diabetic patients in Japan according to gender, age, and geographical region: a multicenter study conducted in seven regions of Japan.

Although expressions such as "sweet foods" and "fatty foods" are often used without hesitation when communicating with diabetic patients, little is known about what kinds of food items patients associate these expressions with. We therefore investigated these associations by conducting a questionnaire-based survey in seven outpatient clinics in Japan. Patients were asked which food items came into their mind when they heard the following taste-related words: sweet, fatty, salty, sour, hot, and bitter. Multiple answers were allowed. A total of 6,770 diabetic outpatients were analyzed in the current study. The three food items that were most popularly mentioned as sweet foods were Japanese confectionery, cakes, and chocolates. Although a majority of the population (86 %) mentioned at least one of these three food items, the percentage of patients that mentioned a particular food item was at the most 58 %, indicating that patients did not always mention the same food items in association with each taste-related word. The associations varied significantly with gender and age (all  < 0.05); sweet foods were more likely to be associated with Japanese confectionery by old patients but with cakes and chocolates by young patients, whereas males less commonly mentioned these food items than females. Furthermore, there were significant geographic variations in the foods associated with a sweet taste. Such variations in taste-to-food association according to gender, age, and geographical region were also observed for the other taste-related words. In conclusion, the likelihood that a specific food item would be associated with a particular taste-related word varied among the diabetic patients, and there were significant gender, age, and region variations in the taste-to-food associations. These variations would be worth considering during nutrition counseling in clinical practice.