How taste buds interfere with weight loss and maintenance
Miscellaneous / / May 03, 2023
Trap of sugar and fat.
In the modern world, food is not so much a fuel for life as a source of pleasure. Foods high in salt, sugar and fat fill the shelves of stores, and manufacturers come up with new combinations to “tickle” our receptors. And this directly affects how we taste, what products we choose and how much we weigh in the end.
How taste buds are linked to weight gain
Once in the mouth, food molecules affect on chemoreceptors - cells located in the taste buds in the tongue, palate, epiglottis and larynx.
These cells convert chemical signals into nerve impulses and transmit information to the brain, after which a person feels which product has got into his mouth - sweet, salty, sour, bitter or umami.
Sensitivity to a certain taste and love for it depend both on hereditary characteristics and on environmental factors. For example, on what kind of food a person is used to.
The receptors adapt to the intensity of the taste, and with it, people's preferences change. For example, if there is a lot of salt in the diet, a person
getting used to to this and perceives more insipid foods as tasteless. This also works in reverse: if you consume insipid food, ordinary food will seem oversalted.The same concerns and fatty food habits, and sweets - the main culprits of extra pounds. Decreased sensitivity of the taste system hinders maintain a healthy weight in two directions at once:
- Forces you to choose more high-calorie foods. Ordinary fruits will no longer bring such satisfaction as a portion ice cream, and baked chicken will not replace a salty and fatty cutlet from a fast food cafe. And to get pleasure from food, you have to switch to more sweet and fatty foods.
- Slows down the onset of saturation. The signals from the taste buds not only provide a feeling of pleasure from food, but also predict how satisfying it will be. In other words, if the brain has received information that the food is fatty or sweet, saturation will occur before the nutrients enter the bloodstream. And if the receptors are not working at full strength, a person will have time to eat more before he realizes that it's time to stay.
Thus, the lower the sensitivity to tastes, the greater the calorie content of the diet and the higher the percentage of body fat. Even sadder, obesity directly affects the taste buds, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
How obesity affects taste buds
Scientists have long noticed that obesity connected with a decrease in the number of taste buds. Overweight people have about 25% fewer taste buds. They are less sensitive to both salt and sugar. Getting rid of extra pounds works in the opposite direction - sharpens perception sweet.
To test how obesity causes people to lose their sensitivity to tastes, scientists held series of experiments on mice. Some animals were fed a high-fat diet, while others were fed a regular diet. As expected, the former gained a lot of excess weight and lost 25% of the taste buds on the tongue.
Then the scientists repeated the experiment with mutant mice, which, due to genetic characteristics, could not gain excess weight. This time, the fatty diet had no effect on the taste buds. The mice neither gained weight nor lost their receptors.
Then they checked another group of mutants. These mice may have been overweight, but not associated with it. inflammation in the body — they lacked the pro-inflammatory agent TNF-alpha.
After eight weeks of the experiment, the mice got fat, but the number of receptors on the tongue remained the same. Scientists have concluded that inflammation is to blame. Apparently, it accelerates the death of taste cells and slows down their renewal.
Because people have obesity is also associated with chronic inflammation and decreased sensitivity to taste, suggesting that this mechanism is not exclusive to mice.
Thus, the more excess fat, the less taste buds, more high-calorie foods and even more excess weight.
How to break out of the vicious circle
Fortunately, the reduction in the number of papillae in the mouth is a reversible process. To return to normal sensitivity, you need to lose weight and accustom the receptors to less intense tastes.
If you are obese, see your doctor for a suitable diet and exercise program. By reducing body weight, you will reduce inflammation in the body, and taste buds will begin to update at the same rate.
You can also opt for less saturated foods:
- give up fast food or reduce its amount to one serving per week;
- replace sugary drinks with water, do not add sugar to coffee and tea;
- try to avoid foods with added sugar - juices, processed meats, pastries;
- replace sweets with fruits and freshly squeezed juices;
- replace canned food, sausages and other organ meats with chicken and other lean meats cooked without a lot of salt.
At first, the food will feel bland, but after a week you will begin to distinguish tastes much better. An apple or a nectarine will start to taste sweet to you, and a chocolate-covered marshmallow or a donut in icing will start to seem sickeningly cloying.
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