• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

Poor Taste Perception May be to Blame for Bad Eating Habits

by Susan Kreimer • April 1, 2013

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

As the global incidence of childhood obesity rises, researchers are examining whether differences in taste perception can influence eating behaviors. A recent study in Germany compared the taste sensitivity of obese and normal weight children and adolescents. Researchers found that obese youth identified taste qualities less precisely than their counterparts of normal weight (Arch Dis Child. 2012;97:1048-1052).

You Might Also Like

  • Post-Tonsillectomy Taste Disorders Rare but Present
  • Women, Patients with Severe Dysfunction Less Likely to Regain Smell, Taste After COVID-19
  • Smell and Taste Disorder Differences Seen Between Long-Term COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 Patients
  • Objective Screening, Evaluation for Taste Disorders Is Key for COVID-19 Patients
Explore This Issue
April 2013

“Taste is a primary aspect by which children determine food acceptance,” the authors wrote. “It plays an essential role in eating behavior. In an evolutionary context, taste has an important function in the identification of valuable nutrition: Sweet tastes promise readily available calories, whereas bitter often indicates toxic substances.”

Sometime between early childhood and adolescence, taste sensitivity and quality undergo transformations. Newborns display a strong preference for sweets. During the second year of life, the nutritional shift from breast milk and formula to solid food coincides with a broadening of the taste spectrum, said Susanna Wiegand, MD, a co-author of the study and head of the pediatric obesity center at Charité Children’s Hospital-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “There is clinical evidence that high sugar content at this period in life could cause the same fixation on sweet food and drinks for years, perhaps for the whole lifespan,” Dr. Wiegand said.

Study Details

In the cross-sectional study, Dr. Wiegand and her collaborators compared the gustatory sensitivity of 99 obese children (body mass index >97th percentile) with 94 normal weight children (BMI <90th percentile), aged 6 to 18 years. They analyzed the sensitivity of five taste qualities—sweet, sour, salty, umami and bitter—using impregnated ‘taste strips’ in different concentrations. A total score was determined for all taste qualities combined, as well as one for each separately. Additionally, the possible influence of sex, age and ethnicity on taste perception was analyzed. An intensity rating for sweet was performed on a five-point scale.

Compared with the control group, the obese children showed a significantly lower ability to identify the correct taste qualities regarding the total score (p<0.001). When analyzing individual taste qualities, the obese participants displayed a dramatically decreased detection rate for salty, umami and bitter.

In the sweetness intensity category, 93 obese and 75 normal weight children and adolescents rated sweet taste strips according to intensity. Participants from both test groups rated higher concentrations of sweet higher on the sweetness scale. However, when compared with the control group, the obese children rated all concentrations lower on the intensity scale and gave remarkably lower intensity ratings to three of the four concentrations.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 | Single Page

Filed Under: Features, Head and Neck, Laryngology, Pediatric, Practice Focus Tagged With: obesity, pediatrics, taste sensitivityIssue: April 2013

You Might Also Like:

  • Post-Tonsillectomy Taste Disorders Rare but Present
  • Women, Patients with Severe Dysfunction Less Likely to Regain Smell, Taste After COVID-19
  • Smell and Taste Disorder Differences Seen Between Long-Term COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 Patients
  • Objective Screening, Evaluation for Taste Disorders Is Key for COVID-19 Patients

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Would you choose a concierge physician as your PCP?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • A Journey Through Pay Inequity: A Physician’s Firsthand Account

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • Excitement Around Gene Therapy for Hearing Restoration
    • “Small” Acts of Kindness
    • How To: Endoscopic Total Maxillectomy Without Facial Skin Incision
    • Science Communities Must Speak Out When Policies Threaten Health and Safety
    • Observation Most Cost-Effective in Addressing AECRS in Absence of Bacterial Infection

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939