Hello El_Tigre,
Thank you for requesting that I answer your question, I appreciate it.
If you are not pregnant, under stress, have a loss of smell, or on
a medication that alters your taste perception, you have probably
re-trained your taste buds! This site says it best:
?I think that diet versions always taste better than "regular". This
goes for iced tea, soda, whatever. When you only drink diet it tastes
normal. Your tastebuds recalibrate and don't expect as much sweetness.
When I drink a regular soda or iced tea it tastes way too strong,
cloyingly sweet. It's not as good a thirst quencher, either. This is
all without even thinking of all the empty calories in regular soft
drinks and how bad for you refined sugar is.?
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/12/procrastination.html
You are so used to the ?sweetness? level of diet soda, that sugary
foods and drinks are too strong, too cloying for your taste buds. I
myself have had this experience, and from my research, many others
have too.
?Although certain taste buds seemed to have an affinity for one of the
four major flavors, continued research into this intricate biological
process has revealed a complex neural and chemical network that
precludes simple black and white explanations. For example, each taste
bud actually has receptors for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter
sensations, indicating that taste buds are sensitive to a complex
flavor spectrum just like vision is sensitive to a broad color
spectrum grouped into the four major colors of red, orange, yellow,
and green. Particular proteins of taste are also under study, like
gustducin, which may set off the plethora of chemical reactions that
causes something to taste bitter.
?People constantly regenerate new taste buds every 3-10 days to
replace the ones worn out by scalding soup, frozen yogurt, and the
like. Unfortunately, as people grow older, their taste buds lose their
fine tuning because they are replaced at a slower rate. As a result,
middle-aged and older people require more of a substance to produce
the same sensations of sweetness or spiciness, for example, than would
be needed by a child eating the same food.?
?A cold or flu is probably the most common example of how important
smell is to taste. People with congestion often experience a
diminished ability to taste. The taste buds, however, are working
fine; it's the lack of smell that hinders the brain's ability to
process flavor. The texture and temperature of food also influences
how it tastes. For example, many people would not think of drinking
cold coffee, while others will not eat pears because of a dislike for
the fruit's gritty texture.?
http://www.bookrags.com/other/health/taste-woh.html
?One-hundred sixty-eight obese women aged 20 to 60 years were placed
on a nutrient-balanced deficit diet (1000 ± 200 kcal/day) for three
weeks. At the end of this time, the subjects were instructed to
continue the balanced deficit diet and were randomly assigned either
to consume aspartame-sweetened foods and beverages during the
remaining 16 weeks of active weight loss phase of the study or to
avoid such products.
Among subjects in the aspartame group, aspartame consumption was
positively associated with weight loss. The desire for sweets
decreased significantly in the aspartame group but not in the
no-aspartame group; hunger did not differ significantly from baseline
in either treatment group, but eating control increased significantly
in both treatment groups.?
http://www.aspartame.org/aspartame_benefits_study1.html
?Here's how it works: While you're chewing, the food releases
chemicals that immediately travel up into your nose. These chemicals
trigger the olfactory receptors inside the nose. They work together
with your taste buds to create the true flavor of that yummy slice of
pizza by telling the brain all about it!
When you have a cold or allergies, and your nose is stuffy, you might
notice that your food doesn't seem to have much flavor. That's because
the upper part of your nose isn't clear to receive the chemicals that
trigger the olfactory receptors (that inform the brain and create the
sensation of flavor).?
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/taste_buds.html
?The sweet tooth gene exists, scientists revealed this week. In two
separate studies, scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New York pinpointed a gene in mice they
believe is responsible for tasting sweetness and, with the help of the
recently completed mapping of the entire human genome, were able to
locate the equivalent gene in humans, Reuters reports.
Scientists hope to have definitive proof that gene T1R3 is the actual
"sweet tooth" receptor gene in several months, said Robert Margolskee,
who headed the Mount Sinai team and whose study was published in the
journal Nature Genetics. Margolskee said the finding, if proven, could
help scientists design new artificial sweeteners.?
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=40505-sweet-tooth-gene
?The researchers created mice with the same sweet-tooth preferences as
humans by inserting the gene that codes for a human sweet-taste
receptor protein into the animals.
They also inserted an entirely different receptor gene into the taste
cells of mice, thereby producing animals that perceive a previously
tasteless molecule as sweet.
Both of these experiments demonstrate that receptor molecules on the
tongue for both the sweet and 'savory' umami tastes are what triggers
taste cells on the tongue and palate to transmit taste signals to the
brain. Umami taste responds to amino acids such as monosodium
glutamate.
The researchers said their findings open the way for tracing the
circuitry for sweet and umami tastes all the way to the centers in the
brain that perceive those tastes. The findings also suggest that
individual variations in the 'sweet tooth' response may lie in subtle
genetic differences in receptor molecules that perceive sweet taste.?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=4594
?Although these sweeteners do not directly cause weight gain, they can
secondarily for two reasons. First, these sweeteners are so sweet that
they cause a certain craving for sweet foods. After training our taste
buds to a high level of sweetness, other foods pale by comparison and
we only tend to be satisfied once this sweet craving is fulfilled by
another sweet. Second, even though artificial sweeteners do not
contain calories, they can still promote a release of insulin, which
has detrimental effects on our metabolism. This is similar to the
?Pavlov?s dog? effect, where even the sight, thought, or smell of food
is enough to cause the body to begin to salivate, and also to release
insulin.?
http://www.ultraprevention.com/tools/top_ten_for_fuccessful_weight_loss.htm
?But for the population as a whole, artificial sweeteners could make
things worse by feeding people's sweet tooth. For those trying to cut
back on carbohydrates and calories, hyper-activating one's sweet tooth
with artificial sweeteners can backfire.?
http://www.health24.com/dietnfood/Weight_Centre/15-51-89,13368.asp
?Artificial Sweeteners were created to curb our sweet tooth without
the guilt. Some even market themselves as safe and natural when they
are neither; many actually trigger cravings for sweets instead of
satisfying our sweet tooth.?
?You grab a diet soda each day to help you lose weight; at this point,
it has simply become a habit. Yet, there are no studies which prove
that diet sodas help us lose weight! In actuality, the very opposite
is likely true. The sweetness of the soda tends to stimulate our
appetite, especially for more sweets. A recent study found that
people who drank diet soda had a greater likelihood of being obese and
overweight, even over people who drank regular soda! Why is that?
Diet soda triggers our craving for sugar.?
http://www.deliciousorganics.com/Controversies/sweet.htm
?I grew up on diet soda (since 9-10 years old) cuz I was an overweight
kid. Now that I'm not, I could drink regular Coke but I hate the
taste... it's like drinking a thick syrup to me. Believe me, I get
plenty of sugar from other foods - the lack of sugary Coke doesn't
bother me.?
?Me. I can't drink a whole can of sugar soda, but can drink diet by
the quart. Think about it: sugar soda has 180 calories per 12 oz can
(of course 20 oz is the normal nowadays) and sugar has 17 calories per
teaspoon, so there is roughly 11 teaspoons of sugar in there. That is
disgustingly sweet. I was away from soda for a couple of years and
when I returned I couldn't stand the taste of the sugared stuff. It's
like drinking syrup. It leaves a horrible aftertaste in my mouth and
sick feeling in my stomach.?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=6353
?Fowler is quick to note that a study of this kind does not prove that
diet soda causes obesity. More likely, she says, it shows that
something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity.?
?That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet
taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a
recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made
them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.
"If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories,
but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there
is something there and it will search for the calories promised but
not delivered," Fowler says.?
Perhaps, Bonci says, our bodies are smarter than we think.
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/107/108476.htm
This is an interesting site on taste buds.
http://www.enologyinternational.com/articles/senses.html
I hope this is the answer you were seeking. If any part of this answer
is unclear, please request an Answer Clarification, and allow me to
respond, before rating.
Sincerely, Crabcakes
Search Terms
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Cephalic response + sweet
Artificial sweeteners + craving sweets
diet soda + regular soda + sweetness + taste + perceive
diet soda + sweetness + loss of sweet taste + perceive |
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