Wendy Wolfson
Newswire21.org
Stunning genetic discoveries spurred by the Human Genome Project are now being used by food manufacturers to create healthier snacks.
Food companies are contracting with sensory researchers to create a new generation of flavoring compounds that can fool taste receptors. It's hoped those products can help reduce the soaring obesity rate in America.
Cheap and abundant processed food combined with a more sedentary lifestyle has sent obesity rates skyrocketing over the past few decades. At this point, over two-thirds of Americans are overweight. A third of them are obese.
Obesity can lead to chronic diseases like heart disease, and diabetes. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that almost 8 percent of Americans have type II diabetes, and another 5.7 million have elevated blood sugar levels considered pre-diabetes.
The number of baby boomers with diabetes is expected to double over the next 25 years as they age, which will also mean billions of dollars in additional treatments.
It's not just a question of will power. Humans evolved in conditions of scarcity and, as a result, became very efficient at accumulating fat. We're genetically programmed to crave sweet, salty, and fatty foods.
Food companies have evolved, too. They became masterful at giving us what we want. Now consumers and advocacy groups are pushing for healthier foods. But making processed food healthier is difficult. Reducing sugar, salt and fat strips away the taste as well.
Genetic Inroads
We can taste five different flavors; sweet, sour, salty, bitter, savory
(called umami). Researchers can locate genetic sequences for receptors for
sweet, bitter, and savory, but he location of salt is unknown.
"Of all things, chemically, people are sensitive to, the clearest innate liking is for sweets," said Gary Beauchamp. director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia .
Receptors containing separate taste sensing cells for sweetness are found on the tongue. Other sweet receptors line the inside of our gut and pancreas. The location of the human sweet receptor and savory taste receptors were pinpointed in the 1990s.
Humans have 25 bitter taste receptors, 23 of them with known function. Probably so many evolved because natural toxins taste bitter. Some people, called supertasters, are more sensitive to bitter taste.
Dr. Richard Mattes, a professor of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, is conducting research on how people sense fat as well. Taste is linked to sense of smell.
"People can sense fat in foods," said Beauchamp, "The question is by what mechanism they are doing it.
"Salt is ubiquitous," he added. "It is in virtually every food you eat. It is in normal foods. People generally think that the major sources of salt is bread products. Salt has this major role in making things taste better without making them taste salty."
According to Beauchamp, salt can also inhibit bitter tastes. Reducing it is very difficult. One strategy is to use technology. The other is by simply training people to eat less salt.
Targeting Taste Buds
Processed food manufacturers are using this knowledge to directly target our
taste buds. They contract with giant flavor and fragrance companies, like
Givaudan and Firmenich, and small biotech companies, like Senomyx and Redpoint
Bio.
They're developing additives that, in minute amounts, enhance the flavors so that they can, for example, cut the sugar in soft drinks without adding synthetic sweeteners, or enhance the savory flavor in food. The search is on to develop low cal beverages that taste like sugar.
According to Dr. Grant Dubois, a research fellow at the Coca Cola Company, no artificial sweetener, no matter how good, tastes like sugar. He is looking at taste enhancers that could enable the company to reduce the amount of sugar in a low calorie beverage without sacrificing flavor.
But if your tongue is fooled into thinking something is sweet, would the receptors in your stomach agree? That is a matter of controversy in the taste research field.
Taste enhancers could bring that sweet taste
undistinguishable from sugar, said Dr. Jeannine Delwiche, a senior scientist at
Firmenich. "The dream compound would be something that would be sweet,
cheap, natural and low calorie without side effects," she said. "And
we'd like it to have the same functional properties as sucrose."
