People sensitive to the taste of fat tend to eat less of it and are less likely to be overweight, according to Australian research that found human tongues can detect fatty tastes in addition to the five others — sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein-rich.
Researchers found that people have a taste threshold for fat that varies from person to person — some people have a high sensitivity to the taste while others do not.
Researcher Russell Keast said, “we found that those with a high sensitivity to the taste of fat consumed less fatty foods and had lower BMIs (body-mass indices) than those with lower sensitivity.”
People become less sensitive to fat by eating too much of it, Dr Keast says, but it is not necessarily a permanent condition. “We believe that if you consume a high-fat diet, you will adapt to that level of fat in the diet and will actually desensitize in your response to fat,” he said.
