Genetic Taste Markers and Preferences for Vegetables and Fruit of Female Breast Care Patients
Section snippets
Subjects
Patients were recruited at the University of Michigan Hospitals Breast Care Center in Ann Arbor. The patient pool was based on consecutive admissions to the center for purposes of examination, diagnosis, or treatment. Women with a history of a previous cancer (excluding skin cancer) and women who were already undergoing radiation or chemotherapy treatment were not eligible for the study. Women diagnosed with potentially precancerous conditions such as atypical hyperplasia and lobular carcinoma
Subjects
Characteristics of this sample of women are shown in Table 1. Mean age was 49.7 years; mean weight was 70.3 kg; and mean body mass index was 26.1. The subjects were mostly white, were educated, and had above-average incomes. Patients diagnosed with breast cancer were somewhat older than control patients, (mean age=51.7 years vs 47.6 years; P<.01); otherwise, no significant differences in anthropometric, sensory, or food preference variables were observed between the 2 groups. For purposes of
Discussion
Genetically mediated responsiveness to the bitter taste of PROP was associated with lower acceptance of cruciferous vegetables and some raw vegetables in this all-female sample. In particular, women who expressed a dislike for such vegetables were, in most cases (34 of 35), either tasters or supertasters of PROP. These data are consistent with earlier reports that PTC and PROP tasters tended to dislike bitter and sharp-tasting foods, including cruciferous and green leafy vegetables (15), (16),
Applications
■ Efforts to promote consumption of vegetable-rich diets have been based on social marketing theories, consumer-based health communication programs, and other social and psychological models of behavioral change (30). The role of taste factors as potential barriers to dietary change has not been a mainstream issue of current research on health promotion (31).
■ Nonetheless, taste remains the most important influence on food choices (13), (31). Even though only 1 in 6 PROP tasters disliked
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2023, Food Research InternationalSensory influences on food choice and energy intake: recent developments and future directions
2022, Flavor: From Food to Behaviors, Wellbeing and Health, Second EditionThe impact of PROP and thermal taster status on the emotional response to beer
2018, Food Quality and PreferenceAssociation of TAS2R38 variants with sweet food intake in children aged 1–6 years
2016, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :The amino acid combination PAV represents the taster variant (49%) and AVI (47%) the non-taster variant (Kim & Drayna, 2005). In numerous investigations, tasters showed lower acceptance of cruciferous, green and raw vegetables (Drewnowski, Henderson, Hann, Berg, & Ruffin, 2000; Kaminski, Henderson, & Drewnowski, 2000; Yackinous & Guinard, 2002), whereas a recent study found no association between genetic variations of the TAS2R38 gene and the intake of brassica vegetables (Gorovic et al., 2011). Intake of sweet tasting food or sugar intake was also discussed to be associated with bitter taste sensitivity.