Abstract
Taste perception and its association with nutrition and related diseases (type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular, etc.) are emerging fields of biomedicine. There is currently great interest in investigating the environmental and genetic factors that influence sweet taste and sugary food preferences for personalized nutrition. Our aims were: (1) to carry out an integrated analysis of the influence of sweet taste preference (both in isolation and in the context of other tastes) on the preference for sugary foods and its modulation by type 2 diabetes status; (2) as well as to explore new genetic factors associated with sweet taste preference. We studied 425 elderly white European subjects with metabolic syndrome and analyzed taste preference, taste perception, sugary-foods liking, biochemical and genetic markers. We found that type 2 diabetic subjects (38%) have a small, but statistically higher preference for sweet taste (p = 0.021) than non-diabetic subjects. No statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) in preferences for the other tastes (bitter, salty, sour or umami) were detected. For taste perception, type 2 diabetic subjects have a slightly lower perception of all tastes (p = 0.026 for the combined “total taste score”), bitter taste being statistically lower (p = 0.023). We also carried out a principal component analysis (PCA), to identify latent variables related to preferences for the five tastes. We identified two factors with eigenvalues >1. Factor 2 was the one with the highest correlation with sweet taste preference. Sweet taste preference was strongly associated with a liking for sugary foods. In the exploratory SNP-based genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identified some SNPs associated with sweet taste preference, both at the suggestive and at the genome-wide level, especially a lead SNP in the PTPRN2 (Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type N2) gene, whose minor allele was associated with a lower sweet taste preference. The PTPRN2 gene was also a top-ranked gene obtained in the gene-based exploratory GWAS analysis. In conclusion, sweet taste preference was strongly associated with sugary food liking in this population. Our exploratory GWAS identified an interesting candidate gene related with sweet taste preference, but more studies in other populations are required for personalized nutrition.
Highlights
In many studies, the dietary intake of sugary foods has been associated with an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases [1–3]
High statistically significant associations were found, adding consistency to the when we examined the association between the rs2091718-PTPRN2 single polymorphism (SNP)
Our study found that subjects with type 2 diabetes have a slightly lower taste perception for all tastes combined in the computed “total taste score”, with bitter taste being the only taste quality showing statistically significant differences
Summary
The dietary intake of sugary foods has been associated with an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases [1–3]. For personalized nutrition (based on the notion that individualizing dietary advice will be more effective than general approaches), there is, a growing interest in understanding the factors that influence why some people consume more sugary foods in their diet. The factors that contribute to a higher intake of sweet foods are many and varied, it is thought that taste may be an important determinant [6–9]. In several studies undertaken on populations of different ages, participants stated that food taste was one of the factors that most influenced their intake [10–16]. People state that they prefer to eat what they like, and sweet is one of the most preferred tastes [17–20]
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