Is Gaining Weight Due to Your Taste Buds?

I was just reading an interesting article from the National Institutes of Health titled, "Research Uncovers Little-Known Impacts of Smell and Taste on Health". They're trying to determine if we are genetically predisposed to want certain flavors. Did you know that there are 5 types of taste buds in your mouth? We can sense the presence of sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and the newest one, savory (also referred to as umami)?

I always wondered why many Americans have taken to eating spicy food. Is spicy food a bitter taste or is it a savory (umami) one? I honestly don't like spicy food because I find that the spicy ingredients added to dishes overpowers the taste of the ingredients in a dish. But I think I'm in the minority when you watch television cooking shows or see what restaurants are the most popular in your area. Do you think that more and more Americans are eating spicy food because they need a jolt from their food, a way of telling their body they're eating?

One of the interesting points in the article is that sweet foods, when they enter the intestine, send a signal to the body to crank out some insulin. That's because insulin is needed to move the glucose from that sweet food into the cells of the body and keep the blood sugars at an even level. The hormone that's produced in response to sweets in the gut modulates sensitivity to sweet tastes. Is it possible that eating sugar substitutes triggers the same hormonal reaction, stimulating the release of insulin, which in turn removes glucose from the bloodstream, and thereby actually makes us hungrier? Would we be better off eating small smounts of sugar than to overload on sugar substitutes? Some studies have shown that eating sugar substitutes can actually cause people to crave more sugar or sweet foods.

Do you like beer, dark chocolate, coffee, and leafy greens like bok choy? If so, it means your sensitivity to "bitter" flavors is greater than what other people may experience. It would be an interesting study to see if people, who are sensitive to bitter foods, find they can eat less of these bitter foods and still be satisfied. If someone isn't as sensitive to that taste, he or she may need to eat more of it, trying to get a bigger taste sensation. I know that I can eat a very small piece of dark chocolate and be satisfied, yet eating milk chocolate would cause me to eat more in my attempts to be satisfied with the taste.

The NIH study also found that someone's occupation could adversely influence their sense of smell and therefore, their sense of taste. Fire fighters, for example, often destroy some of their sense of smell while fighting fires, and, in turn, destroy some of their sense of taste. People with chronic sinus problems also experience similar effects. These factors can influence a person's choice of food and the amount eaten.

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