Fasting, Taste Perception and Metabolic Regulation

Taste perception, via reception of tastants and endocrine signalling within the tongue, plays a key role in consumer acceptance and sensory evaluation of foods. Taste perception triggers hormones that are crucial in the control energy balance and appetite exerts a strong effect on food intake, satiety and metabolic regulation. Due to the complex interaction of genetic, biological and psychological factors, the influence of fasting on the relationship between taste perception and associated metabolic parameters remains to be explored. This book, therefore investigates the effect of fasting on interaction between taste perception and metabolic regulation through three main objectives. The first objective is to explore the relationship between the bitter taste sensitivity and the fatty acid taste sensitivity. The second objective is to investigate the effect of overnight fasting or meal consumption on sweet and fatty acid taste perception. This led to a further investigation on the last objective- the role of key plasma metabolites on fatty acid taste perception in fasting and satiated states.