Written by Yuju P. (GAFL '18)
Edited by Muchang B. (KIS '19) &
Natalie M. (VHS '19)
━━ August 4st, 2018 ━━
Obesity and Taste Buds
It goes without a doubt that obesity rates have gone up exponentially within the past couple of years, especially with prevalent fast food chain restaurants injecting endless amounts of chemicals into processed foods. However, despite the dietary problems that come with obesity, scientists have recently discovered an issue that is pertinent with being overweight: taste. Is it true that obesity can affect your taste buds? Yes. In fact, obesity has been prone to dull our taste buds to a point in which excessive eating could alter how you taste and perceive the food you eat in your daily lives, a shocking fact scientists today were close to discovering almost too late.
Taste buds, which contain tiny taste receptor cells, are located on the papillae, tiny structures located on the upper surface level of the tongue. These cells have the primary role of detecting the five tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami. Through the small openings of the tongue called taste pores, small portions of the food ingested by humans dissolve in the saliva and come in contact with the taste buds. The taste buds then send information processed by the ions and other receptors to the gutary areas of the brains, known as the seventh, ninth, and tenth cranial nerves. Typically, an average human consists of 50-100 taste bud cells that last about ten days each before they are recycled and replaced over and over.
Many scientists and researchers across the globe have discovered this ever-so shocking revelation, with numerous cases on this issue. One of many unique cases being studied was in Cornell University, where researchers conducted an experiment regarding the relatedness between obesity and the sensitivity of our taste buds on mice. By injecting a small amount of an inflammation that is known to drive obesity, the scientists discovered that obesity often reduced the number of taste buds present on our tongues. To conduct the experiment effectively and precisely, the experts created a control and experimental group, which they fed different diets for eight full weeks. The control group was given a standard rodent meal comprised of 14% fat, 32% protein, and 54% carbohydrates. The experimental group, on the other hand, was given a different set of meals, one with high fat, comprised of 58.4 % fat (about four times more than the control group), 15% protein (about half of the control group), and 26.6% carbohydrates (about half of the control group). After feeding the respective two groups consistently for eight weeks, scientists concluded that the mice fed with a high fat meal program had 25% fewer taste buds than the mice given the regular diet.
After conducting the experiment and going into extensive research with the data results they extracted from the trials, both the scientists and the researchers at Cornell University discovered that the loss of taste buds was due to adipose, a fatty tissue in the body used for storing long term fat. Adipose, in the human body, creates little proteins called cytokines which in effect can cause severe inflammation and upset the regular cycle of cell renewal and death. With these new findings, the researchers of Cornell were able to help new developments surface to combat “taste dysfunction,” the incapability of tasting little to no foods, for many people who suffer from obesity.
Adding on to this experiment, expert researcher of Cornell University Andrew Kaufman uncovered another key detail in the experiment with the mice that was crucial in the future planning and development of experiments conducted by the fellow researchers and scientists. The decrease of taste buds in the obese mice was due to the slower taste bud cell regeneration, generating the taste bud cells at a rate almost half as slow as the regular rate of the cell regeneration. This discovery was crucial for not only Kaufman, but for scientists across the US for reasons that this allowed them to determine that the cause of taste dysfunction and the rapid loss of taste buds was due to the weight gain of the mice, and not due to the change of the diet. Although this process is still being under investigation by Kaufman and his fellow research team, Kaufman deduced that when the heavier mice were switched back to their regular rodent chow, they would effectively revert back to a healthier, and actively growing taste bud cell generation process.
Despite the extensive research conducted by many more scientists and expert researchers across the world, obesity is a worldwide issue that requires much more research in order to be resolved effectively. Especially because almost more than one third of the US suffers from obesity, this issue has been one that has confounded many for years. With the new research method and data taken from experiments like the one conducted by the scientists from Cornell University and Andrew Kaufman himself, scientists have come one step closer to aiding those suffering from obesity and the problem of overeating. However, it is important to note that these studies are in their early stages, with many more modifications and improvements needing to be made in the future years. As ground breaking and refreshingly new the data is, scientists and researchers who have conducted these experiments claim that this new data has the possibility of being inaccurate and without retrial , they can not claim anything for sure. The continuation and the possible integration of humans themselves in these experiments are one of many possibilities that both scientists have considered and are ideas that could further confirm the assertion that the process of being overweight and the number of taste buds in our tongue today are directly related.
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Bibliography:
Associated Press. “Obesity Robs the Tongue of Taste Buds, Study Says.” New York Post,
New York Post, 20 Mar. 2018
Choo, Ezen. “How Obesity Dulls the Sense of Taste.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 20 Mar.
2018
Fan, Ava. “Obesity, Could It Be Taste Buds?” Cornell Research, 21 June 2017
Indoiu, Ana. “Why Does Obesity Blunt Our Sense of Taste?” Medical News Today,
MediLexicon International, 25 Mar. 2018
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Purdy, Chase. “Obesity Is Killing off People's Taste Buds-Now Scientists Can Explain Why.”
Quartz, Quartz, 24 Mar. 2018
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