Taste sensitivity, nutritional status and metabolic syndrome: Implication in weight loss dietary interventions

Table 1 Compounds used to elicit the 4 basic tastes with relevant dilution step and concentration range

Taste	Compound	Dilution step	Concentration range (g/L)
Sweet	Sucrose	3	1.23-100.00
Bitter	Caffeine	0.2 log	0.16-1.00
Salty	Sodium cloride	3.5	0.50-75.00
Sour	Citric acid	3.5	0.33-50.00

Table 2 Features of the population according to weight status

	Controls	Overweight	Obese	P
	(n = 56)	(n = 41)	(n = 52)
Sex (M:F)	20:36	7:34	20:32	0.061
Age (yr)	41.6 ± 12.3	46.9 ± 11.5	45.8 ± 11.6	0.060
Range	24-66	20-64	19-64
Current smoking (n)	30 (53.6)	22 (53.7)	33 (63.4)	0.511
Menopause (n)	15 (41.7)	16 (47.0)	15 (46.9)	0.404
BMI (kg/m2)	22.1 ± 1.7	27.9 ± 1.6	34.8 ± 4.6	<0.001
Body fat mass (%)	-	45.6 ± 5.2	47.6 ± 5.1	0.054
Waist (cm)	-	91.5 ± 7.5	106.2 ± 18.2	<0.001
Metabolic syndrome (n)	0 (0)	8 (19.5)	25 (48.1)	0.004
Taste thresholds
Sweet (log g/L)	0.74 ± 0.44	0.78 ± 0.40	0.85 ± 0.48	0.418
Salty (log g/L)	0.23 ± 0.54	0.13 ± 0.48	0.36 ± 0.58	0.099
Sour (log g/L)	-0.21 ± 0.54	-0.34 ± 0.40	-0.05 ± 0.67	0.105
Bitter (log g/L)	-0.34 ± 0.35	-0.21 ± 0.29	-0.24 ± 0.30	0.151
GTAS	8.0 ± 1.9	8.0 ± 1.6	7.3 ± 2.1	0.132

Data are reported as mean ± SD or counts (%). P values according to χ² or parametric tests (ANOVA analysis), where appropriate. GTAS: Global Taste Acuity Score; BMI: Body mass index; M:F: Male:Female.

Table 3 Multiple regression model between taste sentitivity and nutri-metabolic parameters

	Sour	Bitter	Salty	BMI	BF%1	Waist1	MetS1	MetS criteria1
Sour	-	-	-	0.20a	0.05	0.27c	0.21a	0.21a
Bitter	0.34f	-	-	0.14	-0.09	-0.13	0.02	0.03
Salty	0.26c	0.23b	-	0.10	-0.08	-0.11	0.23a	0.19
Sweet	0.24d	0.33f	0.26c	0.15	-0.15	0.10	0.08	-0.01
GTAS	-	-	-	-0.13a	-0.15	-0.05	-0.08	-0.11

¹For BF%, waist circumference, presence of metabolic MetS and the number of MetS criteria correlations refer to overweight/obese patients (n = 93). Values are standardized coefficients adjusted for age and sex,

^aP < 0.05;

^bP < 0.01;

^cP <0.002;

^dP < 0.005;

^fP < 0.001, between BMI and both sour taste and GTAS, with lower sensitivity with increasing BMI. BMI: Body mass index; BF%: Percentage of body fat mass; MetS: Metabolic syndrome; GTAS: Global Taste Acuity Score.

Table 4 Taste sensitivity in overweight and obese patients according to metabolic syndrome and gender

	Overall			Women			Men
	MetS+ (n = 33)	MetS- (n = 60)	P1	MetS+ (n = 21)	MetS- (n = 45)	P1	MetS+ (n = 12)	MetS- (n = 15)	P1
BMI (kg/m2)	33.7 ± 5.2	30.7 ± 4.2	0.002	33.5 ± 4.8	30.0 ± 3.9	0.002	34.1 ± 6.1	32.7 ± 4.4	0.485
BF%	47.7 ± 6.0	46.4 ± 4.7	0.281	50.3 ± 4.4	47.2 ± 4.5	0.013	43.1 ± 5.8	43.8 ± 4.2	0.744
Waist (cm)	106.2 ± 14.2	96.1 ± 16.3	0.004	101.9 ± 11.2	94.1 ± 9.4	0.005	113.9 ± 16.0	102.2 ± 28.0	0.288
Sweet (log g/L)	0.87 ± 0.41	0.80 ± 0.47	0.396	0.81 ± 0.45	0.72 ± 0.43	0.458	0.97 ± 0.31	1.02 ± 0.51	0.730
Salty (log g/L)	0.43 ± 0.56	0.16 ± 0.52	0.029	0.31 ± 0.50	0.10 ± 0.45	0.121	0.65 ± 0.62	0.33 ± 0.67	0.244
Sour (log g/L)	-0.01 ± 0.69	-0.27 ± 0.49	0.069	-0.08 ± 0.59	-0.39 ± 0.39	0.022	0.11 ± 0.85	0.08 ± 0.61	0.859
Bitter (log g/L)	-0.22 ± 0.28	-0.23 ± 0.31	0.956	-0.24 ± 0.27	-0.23 ± 0.29	0.846	-0.18 ± 0.30	-0.23 ± 0.37	0.757
GTAS	7.4 ± 2.0	7.7 ± 1.9	0.440	7.8 ± 2.0	7.8 ± 1.7	0.936	6.8 ± 1.9	7.5 ± 2.4	0.414

P values according to unpaired Student t-test or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. ¹MetS+ vs MetS- within the same group (overall or women or men). BMI: Body mass index; BF%: Percentage of body fat mass; MetS: Metabolic syndrome (+, presence; -, absence); GTAS: Global Taste Acuity Score.

Table 5 Features of overweight and obese patients according to the outcome

	Drop-out	Continuing the program
		Overall	WL < 5%	WL≥5%
	(n = 29)	(n = 64)	(n = 27)	(n = 37)
Sex (M:F)	8:21	19:45	6:21	13:24
Age (yr)	45.3 ± 11.4	46.7 ± 11.7	48.1 ± 12.1	45.7 ± 11.4
Current smoking (n)	15 (51.7)	40 (62.4)	14 (51.6)	26 (70.2)
Menopause (n)	9 (42.9)	22 (48.9)	11 (52.4)	11 (45.8)
BMI (kg/m2)	31.0 ± 4.3	32.1 ± 5.0	32.8 ± 4.8	31.6 ± 5.2
Body fat mass (%)	46.6 ± 4.9	46.9 ± 5.3	47.8 ± 5.3	46.3 ± 5.4
Waist (cm)	99.3 ± 13.2	99.9 ± 17.5	112.7 ± 12.3	99.7 ± 20.5
Metabolic syndrome (n)	10 (34.5)	23 (35.9)	10 (37.0)	13 (35.1)
Weight loss (%)	-	-5.6 ± 3.5	-2.5 ± 1.7	-7.8 ± 2.5
Taste thresholds
Sweet (log g/L)	0.87 ± 0.35	0.80 ± 0.48	0.79 ± 0.52	0.81 ± 0.46
Salty (log g/L)	0.27 ± 0.49	0.25 ± 0.57	0.23 ± 0.53	0.26 ± 0.61
Sour (log g/L)	-0.25 ± 0.48	-0.15 ± 0.62	-0.24 ± 0.52	-0.08 ± 0.68
Bitter (log g/L)	-0.27 ± 0.31	-0.21 ± 0.29	-0.26 ± 0.28	-0.16 ± 0.29
GTAS	7.6 ± 2.0	7.6 ± 1.9	7.8 ± 1.7	7.4 ± 2.1

Data are reported as mean ± SD or counts (%). No significant differences were detected in ANOVA comparison among drop out, WL < 5% and WL > 5%. GTAS: Global Taste Acuity Score; BMI: Body mass index; M:F: Male:Female; WL: Weight loss.