Influences of weight, age, gender, genetics, diseases, and ethnicity on bitterness perception: a narrative review of current methodological aspects

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.

Avaliação da percepção gustativa em idosos para os gostos básicos, doce e salgado, em comparação a jovens adultos / Evaluation of taste perception in the elderly for basic, sweet and salty tastes, compared to young adults

Objetivo ­ Avaliar a percepção gustativa em idosos para os gostos básicos, doce e salgado, em comparação com adultos jovens. A redução da taxa de mortalidade e natalidade ocorrida nas últimas décadas no Brasil, como parte do fenômeno da transição demográfica, ocasionou o aumento do número de idosos. O envelhecimento apesar de ser um processo natural submete o organismo a diversas alterações anatômicas e funcionais, principalmente, relacionadas ao paladar e olfato. Métodos ­ Para tanto foi realizado um estudo prospectivo, qualitativo, caso controle composto por uma amostra de 40 sujeitos, sendo 20 adultos de 18 a 25 anos e 20 idosos de 60 a 85 anos de ambos os sexos. O instrumento para avaliação gustativa utilizado foi o teste de descrição de atributos para detecção do sabor das concentrações doce e salgada. Resultados ­ Os resultados demonstraram que os idosos avaliados precisaram de aproximadamente oito vezes mais sal (cloreto de sódio) do que os adultos para detectar a presença deste componente e de aproximadamente quatro vezes mais açúcar do que os adultos para detectar a presença desta substância. Conclusão ­ Concluiu-se que ocorrem alterações significativas na sensibilidade gustativa para os gostos básicos, doce e salgado, nos idosos quando comparados com os adultos.

Objective ­ To evaluate the taste perception in the elderly for the basic tastes, sweet, salty, compared with younge adults. The reduction in mortality and birth occurred in recent decades in Brazil, as part of the phenomenon of demographic transition, led to an increase in the number of elderly. The aging despite being a natural process the body undergoes various anatomical and functional changes, mainly related to taste and smell. Methods ­ Therefore we conducted a prospective, qualitative, case-control consists of a sample of 40 subjects, 20 adults 18-25 years and 20 aged 60-85 years of both sexes. The instrument was used to assess gustatory test description attributes to detect the taste of fresh and salt concentrations. Results ­ The results showed that the elderly subjects had to approximately eight times more salt (sodium chloride) than adults to detect the presence of this component is about four times more sugar than adults to detect the presence of the substance. Conclusion­ t was concluded that major changes in taste sensitivity for basic tastes, sweet and salty, the elderly compared with adults.