Within a few weeks of eating healthier, our taste sensations change such that foods with lower salt, sugar, and fat content actually taste better.
Changing Our Taste Buds
4.5/5 - (83 votes)
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
How can we overcome our built-in hunger drives for salt, sugar, and fat? We now have scientific evidence to back up the claim that if you go a few weeks cutting down on junk food and animal products, your tastes start to change. We now think humans may actually taste fat, just like we taste sweet, sour, salty. And, people on low-fat diets start liking low-fat foods more, and high-fat foods less.
Our tongues may actually become more sensitive to fat. And the more sensitive our tongue becomes, the less butter, meat, dairy, and eggs we eat. Whereas a blunted taste for fat, if we pile too much of it in our face, is associated with eating more calories, more fat, more dairy, meat, and eggs, and being fatter ourselves. And, this change in sensation, this numbing of our fat sensation, can happen after just a few weeks.
Put people on a low-salt diet, and over the weeks, they like the taste of salt-free soup more and more, and the taste of salty soup less and less. Your tastes physically change. If you let them salt their own soup to taste, they add less and less, the longer on the low-sodium diet. Tastes just as salty, with half the salt. A control group liked lots of salt in their soup, but for those who’d been on salt-restricted diets, regularly salted foods taste way too salty, and they actually preferred soup with less.
People “should be assured that their diet gradually may become more acceptable as their taste for salt diminishes.” The longer we eat healthier foods, the better they taste.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- J. E. Stewart, L. P. Newman, R. S. J. Keast. Oral sensitivity to oleic acid is associated with fat intake and body mass index. Clin Nutr 2011 30(6):838 - 844.
- M. K. Spill, L. L. Birch, L. S. Roe, B. J. Rolls. Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density: An effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake and reduce energy intake. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 94(3):735 - 741.
- A. D. Blatt, L. S. Roe, B. J. Rolls. Hidden vegetables: An effective strategy to reduce energy intake and increase vegetable intake in adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 93(4):756 - 763.
- R. D. Whitehead, D. Re, D. Xiao, G. Ozakinci, D. I. Perrett. You are what you eat: Within-subject increases in fruit and vegetable consumption confer beneficial skin-color changes. PLoS ONE 2012 7(3):e32988.
- I. D. Stephen, V. Coetzee, M. L. Smith, D. I. Perrett. Skin blood perfusion and oxygenation colour affect perceived human health. PLoS ONE 2009 4(4):e5083.
- O. Genschow, L. Reutner, M. Wänke. The color red reduces snack food and soft drink intake. Appetite 2012 58(2):699 - 702.
- J. E. Stewart, R. S. J. Keast. Recent fat intake modulates fat taste sensitivity in lean and overweight subjects. Int J Obes (Lond) 2012 36(6):834 - 842.
- R. M. Tucker, R. D. Mattes. Are free fatty acids effective taste stimuli in humans? Presented at the symposium The Taste for Fat: New Discoveries on the Role of Fat in Sensory Perception, Metabolism, Sensory Pleasure and Beyond held at the iNstitute of Food Technologists 2011 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, June 12, 2011. J. Food Sci. 2012 77(3):S148 - S151.
- J. S. Litt, M.-J. Soobader, M. S. Turbin, J. W. Hale, M. Buchenau, J. A. Marshall. The influence of social involvement, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable consumption. Am J Public Health 2011 101(8):1466 - 1473.
- R. D. Whitehead, G. Ozakinci, I. D. Stephen, D. I. Perrett. Appealing to vanity: Could potential appearance improvement motivate fruit and vegetable consumption? Am J Public Health 2012 102(2):207 - 211.
- C. A. Blais, R. M. Pangborn, N. O. Borhani, M. F. Ferrell, R. J. Prineas, B. Laing. Effect of dietary sodium restriction on taste responses to sodium chloride: A longitudinal study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1986 44(2):232 - 243.
- F. G. Grieve, M. W. V. Weg. Desire to eat high- and low-fat foods following a low-fat dietary intervention. J Nutr Educ Behav 2003 35(2):98 - 102.
Images thanks to GordonMcDowell and Toenex via flickr. Thanks also to Ellen Reid and Shane Barrett for their Keynote help.
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
How can we overcome our built-in hunger drives for salt, sugar, and fat? We now have scientific evidence to back up the claim that if you go a few weeks cutting down on junk food and animal products, your tastes start to change. We now think humans may actually taste fat, just like we taste sweet, sour, salty. And, people on low-fat diets start liking low-fat foods more, and high-fat foods less.
Our tongues may actually become more sensitive to fat. And the more sensitive our tongue becomes, the less butter, meat, dairy, and eggs we eat. Whereas a blunted taste for fat, if we pile too much of it in our face, is associated with eating more calories, more fat, more dairy, meat, and eggs, and being fatter ourselves. And, this change in sensation, this numbing of our fat sensation, can happen after just a few weeks.
Put people on a low-salt diet, and over the weeks, they like the taste of salt-free soup more and more, and the taste of salty soup less and less. Your tastes physically change. If you let them salt their own soup to taste, they add less and less, the longer on the low-sodium diet. Tastes just as salty, with half the salt. A control group liked lots of salt in their soup, but for those who’d been on salt-restricted diets, regularly salted foods taste way too salty, and they actually preferred soup with less.
People “should be assured that their diet gradually may become more acceptable as their taste for salt diminishes.” The longer we eat healthier foods, the better they taste.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- J. E. Stewart, L. P. Newman, R. S. J. Keast. Oral sensitivity to oleic acid is associated with fat intake and body mass index. Clin Nutr 2011 30(6):838 - 844.
- M. K. Spill, L. L. Birch, L. S. Roe, B. J. Rolls. Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density: An effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake and reduce energy intake. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 94(3):735 - 741.
- A. D. Blatt, L. S. Roe, B. J. Rolls. Hidden vegetables: An effective strategy to reduce energy intake and increase vegetable intake in adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 93(4):756 - 763.
- R. D. Whitehead, D. Re, D. Xiao, G. Ozakinci, D. I. Perrett. You are what you eat: Within-subject increases in fruit and vegetable consumption confer beneficial skin-color changes. PLoS ONE 2012 7(3):e32988.
- I. D. Stephen, V. Coetzee, M. L. Smith, D. I. Perrett. Skin blood perfusion and oxygenation colour affect perceived human health. PLoS ONE 2009 4(4):e5083.
- O. Genschow, L. Reutner, M. Wänke. The color red reduces snack food and soft drink intake. Appetite 2012 58(2):699 - 702.
- J. E. Stewart, R. S. J. Keast. Recent fat intake modulates fat taste sensitivity in lean and overweight subjects. Int J Obes (Lond) 2012 36(6):834 - 842.
- R. M. Tucker, R. D. Mattes. Are free fatty acids effective taste stimuli in humans? Presented at the symposium The Taste for Fat: New Discoveries on the Role of Fat in Sensory Perception, Metabolism, Sensory Pleasure and Beyond held at the iNstitute of Food Technologists 2011 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, June 12, 2011. J. Food Sci. 2012 77(3):S148 - S151.
- J. S. Litt, M.-J. Soobader, M. S. Turbin, J. W. Hale, M. Buchenau, J. A. Marshall. The influence of social involvement, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable consumption. Am J Public Health 2011 101(8):1466 - 1473.
- R. D. Whitehead, G. Ozakinci, I. D. Stephen, D. I. Perrett. Appealing to vanity: Could potential appearance improvement motivate fruit and vegetable consumption? Am J Public Health 2012 102(2):207 - 211.
- C. A. Blais, R. M. Pangborn, N. O. Borhani, M. F. Ferrell, R. J. Prineas, B. Laing. Effect of dietary sodium restriction on taste responses to sodium chloride: A longitudinal study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1986 44(2):232 - 243.
- F. G. Grieve, M. W. V. Weg. Desire to eat high- and low-fat foods following a low-fat dietary intervention. J Nutr Educ Behav 2003 35(2):98 - 102.
Images thanks to GordonMcDowell and Toenex via flickr. Thanks also to Ellen Reid and Shane Barrett for their Keynote help.
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Title
Changing Our Taste Buds
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
This is exciting news! That’s why I’ve always encouraged my patients to think of healthy eating as an experiment. I ask them to give me three weeks. The hope is by then, not only do they feel so much better—not only physically, but in the knowledge that they don’t have to be on medications for chronic diseases the rest of their lives after all! See Say No to Drugs by Saying Yes to More Plants. But also, their taste sensitivity has been boosted such that whole foods-as-grown regain their natural deliciousness. To see how a healthy diet can make you feel, check out the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s 21-Day Kickstart program at http://www.21daykickstart.org/.
For more context, check out my associated blog post: Want to be Healthier? Change your Taste Buds.
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