ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bitterness perception seems to be related to an enhanced intake of dietary fat and to a tendency to the development of diseases such as obesity. However, the exact factors for this possible contribution still need to be better investigated. So, gustatory perception of the bitter taste is a promising area of study because of its importance regarding food choices and consequently feeding behavior. Therefore, this short review focused on recent papers reporting correlations between bitter taste, anthropometric variables, obesity and other chronic diseases, age, gender, ethnicity, and genetics. METHODS: A survey was performed in MEDLINE (PubMed) and Scielo from September 2015 to January 2017.Only review articles, observational studies and clinical trials published in English and Portuguese over the last15 years which met the objectives of the present study were considered. A total of 40 papers were evaluated. RESULTS: Two papers showed a positive correlation between bitter taste and obesity, one indicated that this correlation is influenced by the subject's age, one suggested a negative correlation, and two found no association. Age seems to be negatively correlated with the bitterness perceived, and female gender was associated with a stronger perception of bitterness. Genetics, mostly due to differences in TAS2R38 expression, influences sensitivity to the bitter taste, feeding behavior and also alcohol intake. Ethnicity, not only the subject's phenotypic or genotypic characteristics, seems to play a role in taste perception and nutritional diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Age, gender, genetics and ethnicity seem to play a role in bitterness perception. Data about associations between bitterness perception and anthropometrics are conflicting.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Dysgeusia , Obesity/genetics , Taste Disorders/genetics , Taste Perception/geneticsABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Genetic factor to bitter taste perception appears to be largely mediated by the TAS2R38 gene. The insensitivity to bitter compounds like 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) is mediated by this gene. PROP, a pharmacological drug used in treatment of Graves’ disease, proved to be useful tool in determining the genetic sensitivity levels to bitter and sweet taste. The purpose of this study is to show much simpler PROP sensitivity technique for the clinical examiner and its application as a diagnostic aid in Early Childhood Caries (ECC) detection among preschool children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 119 children belonging to the age group of 36 to 71 months of both sexes, were recruited from A. J. Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore (Karnataka). PROP sensitivity test was carried out to determine the inherent genetic ability to taste a bitter or sweet substance. This study used simpler scaling method to find out genetic sensitivity to bitter taste; one who tasted bitter as taster and one who was not able to differentiate/tasted like paper as non-taster. A questionnaire was provided to evaluate their dietary habits and caries experience was recorded. Collected data were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis. RESULTS: In the total of 119 children the mean dmfs was definitely higher in non-taster children compared to tasters. The tasters had a mean dmfs value of 9.5120 (S.D. 7.0543) and non-tasters had a value of 7.7250 (S.D. 8.33147), which was statistically significant. The results suggested that there was increase in caries experience among the group of non-tasters as compared to tasters. Tasters tended to be sweet dislikers and non-tasters tended to be sweet likers. On the whole, tasters had a bad dentition as compared to non tasters. CONCLUSION: The PROP sensitivity test (filter paper test) proved to be a useful diagnostic tool in determining the genetic sensitivity levels of bitter taste. The knowledge of a child's taste perception can help us in identifying the children who are at higher risk for ECC.