The taste and food preferences in children can affect their food intake and body weight. Bitter and sweet taste sensitivities were identified as primary taste contributors to children's preference for consuming various foods. This pilot study aimed to determine the taste sensitivity and preference for bitter and sweet tastes in a sample of Malaysian children. A case-control study was conducted among 15 pairs of Malay children aged 7 to 12 years. Seven solutions at different concentrations of 6-n-propylthiouracil and sucrose were prepared for testing bitterness and sweet sensitivity, respectively. The intensity of both bitter and sweet sensitivity was measured using a 100 mm Labelled Magnitude Scale (LMS), while the taste preference was rated using a 5-point Likert scale. The participants were better at identifying bitter than sweet taste (median score 6/7 vs. 4/7). No significant differences were detected for both tastes between normal-weight and overweight groups (bitter: 350 vs. 413, = 0.273; sweet: 154 vs. 263, = 0.068), as well as in Likert readings (bitter 9 vs. 8: = 0.490; sweet 22 vs. 22: = 0.677). In this sample of Malay children, the participants were more sensitive to bitterness than sweetness, yet presented similar taste sensitivity and preference irrespective of their weight status. Future studies using whole food samples are warranted to better characterize potential taste sensitivity and preference in children.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pediatric13020034 | DOI Listing |
Food Res Int
February 2025
Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. Electronic address:
Currently, little is known about how complex carbohydrates (maltodextrins) with varying degrees of polymerisation (DP) and molecular branching interact with α-amylase in human saliva and the associated amounts and structures of generated reducing sugars. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate salivary α-amylase and the subsequent reducing sugars generated with complex carbohydrate stimuli. A secondary aim was to investigate reducing sugar generation and complex carbohydrate taste sensitivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Chem
January 2025
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, School of Food Engineering, State University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil. Electronic address:
Threshold determination forms an integral part of sensory and consumer studies applied for product control and development. The authors examined the potential of an impedimetric electronic tongue to discriminate basic tastes and consider limitations pertaining to the sensory evaluation process. Three samples at lower, medium, and higher concentration levels of basic taste compounds were prepared and subjected to consumer studies (n = 60) using the difference from-control (DFC) test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Neurovascular Unit Research Group, Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu 41062, Republic of Korea.
In ephaptic coupling, physically adjacent neurons influence one another's activity via the electric fields they generate. To date, the molecular mechanisms that mediate and modulate ephaptic coupling's effects remain poorly understood. Here, we show that the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel lateralizes the potentially mutual ephaptic inhibition between gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Eat Disord
January 2025
Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Background: Individuals with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) self-report heightened sensitivity to taste and smell, but neither phenomenon has been systematically explored in the laboratory. We hypothesized that, compared to healthy controls (HC, n = 34), children, adolescents, and adults with full/subthreshold ARFID (n = 100; ages 9 to 23 years) would self-report heightened response to taste/smell stimuli and exhibit stronger bitter taste perception and heightened smell perception in performance-based tasks, and these differences would be especially prominent in those with the ARFID-sensory sensitivity presentation.
Method: We measured self-reported sensitivity to taste/smell with the adolescent/adult sensory profile (AASP).
BMC Cancer
January 2025
Patient Centered Solutions, IQVIA, Reading, UK.
Background: Despite approvals of new first-line immunotherapies for advanced/metastatic gastric cancer/gastroesophageal junction cancer (aGC/GEJC), patients' median survival is around 14 months and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is affected by disease-related symptoms and treatment-related side effects. Using a targeted literature review (TLR) and patient interviews, this study identified disease- and treatment-related concepts that are important to patients with aGC/GEJC and their HRQoL.
Methods: A TLR was conducted to identify primary qualitative studies from 2018 to 2021 on patients' experiences with aGC/GEJC.
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