%0 Journal Article
%T Quantifying Sweet Taste Liker Phenotypes: Time for Some Consistency in the Classification Criteria
%A John E. Hayes
%A Martin R. Yeomans
%A Vasiliki Iatridi
%J Archive of "Nutrients".
%D 2019
%R 10.3390/nu11010129
%X Taste hedonics is a well-documented driver of food consumption. The role of sweetness in directing ingestive behavior is largely rooted in biology. One can then intuit that individual differences in sweet-liking may constitute an indicator of variations in the susceptibility to diet-related health outcomes. Despite half a century of research on sweet-liking, the best method to identify the distinct responses to sweet taste is still debated. To help resolve this issue, liking and intensity ratings for eight sucrose solutions ranging from 0 to 1 M were collected from 148 young adults (29% men). Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) revealed three response patterns: a sweet-liker (SL) phenotype characterized by a rise in liking as concentration increased, an inverted U-shaped phenotype with maximum liking at 0.25 M, and a sweet-disliker (SD) phenotype characterized by a decline in liking as a function of concentration. Based on sensitivity and specificity analyses, present data suggest the clearest discrimination between phenotypes is seen with 1.0 M sucrose, where a liking rating between £¿15 and +15 on a £¿50/+50 scale reliably distinguished individuals with an inverted U-shaped response from the SLs and the SDs. If the efficacy of this approach is confirmed in other populations, the discrimination criteria identified here can serve as the basis for a standard method for classifying sweet taste liker phenotypes in adults
%K sweet taste
%K hedonics
%K sweetness
%K taste test
%K individual differences
%K classification method
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6357166/