(P31-004-23) The Relationship Between Fat Hedonic Liking and Obesity in Humans

Objectives: Obesity in the United States now affects about 36% of Americans and costs over $100 billion in healthcare costs per year. Changes in taste have been known to occur with obesity and might cause further intake of obesogenic foods due to a decrease in fatty acid taste sensitivity, perpetuating weight gain. We tested the hypothesis that obese humans have greater liking for a high fat, highly palatable food relative to lean humans.

Methods: 5 high BMI (≥ 30 kg/m²) and 9 low BMI (≤ 25 kg/m²) subjects were given 5 frostings (Crisco, sucrose syrup, vanilla extract) of varying fat:sugar ratios (1:3, 2:3, 1:1, 4:3, 5:3) and asked to rate hedonic liking of each frosting mixture on a bidirectional labeled hedonic scale in duplicate.

Results: Our current results show that high BMI participants rated all frosting ratios positively (above 0) on a labeled hedonic scale, whereas low BMI participants rated the fattiest ratio (5:3) negatively (below 0). High BMI participants had an average hedonic liking rating of 15.9 (slight to moderate liking) versus a 6.9 (neutral to slight liking) for the low BMI participants averaged across all 5 ratios (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: This suggests the physiology of obesity and potential changes in taste influences fat liking. This observation has important implications for the overconsumption of obesogenic food in our society. If eating these foods increases perceived palatability, then a positive feedback loop could induce further weight gain. Future work will consist of replicating this experiment in mice and collecting taste tissue to examine changes in potential fatty acid receptors under obesogenic conditions. Understanding the relationship between obesity and taste function will help us develop better therapies and interventions for obesity.

Funding Sources: This research was supported by NIH NIDCD RO1 014286 to PASB Co-PI and NIH NIDDK R01 38389 and USDA NJ Hatch NJ14115 to JS.