20 - Psychological and physiological bases of umami taste perception as related to nutrition

Abstract

Eating behavior is an important factor that can affect human nutrition status both under- and overnutrition. Human eating behavior is influenced by physiological and psychological inputs. Maslow’s Motivation Theory that consists of five stages can be used to explain human eating behavior due to the physiological and psychological effects. Physiologically, basic senses in the gustatory system and visceral sense in the gastrointestinal system signal to different parts of brain to function on hunger, satiety, food memory, and palatability, which mainly involves human survival and safety. In more developed societies, psychological inputs from social norm, status, and recognition can be equally or even more influential to human eating behavior than the physiological ones. In order to solve the nutrition problems, several researches were performed in humans and animals on foods and food ingredients as well as their physiological and psychological mechanisms. Foods containing natural or added umami tastant were found to have effect on food palatability and satiety via the sensations from mouth and viscera. Therefore, umami tastant should be beneficial in solving both ends of nutrition problems. The decayed gustatory system of elderly people can be aroused by umami tastant, which consequently increases their appetite. Umami tastant can physiologically signal for satiety, which is useful for controlling caloric intake. Sodium content can be reduced by 35% at the same salty taste by mixing low-concentrated sodium chloride solution with umami tastant, MSG. Washoku is an ideal menu due to its low calorie and rich in umami tastant.