TASTE PERCEPTION OF FOOD LIPIDS

The profound technical and economic changes of the 20th Century had a deep effect on our way of life and, consequently, on our eating behaviour. For the first time in its history, much of the world's population no longer has to run after calories. An abundance of food has obvious consequences: it promotes our specific appetites. Lipids account for about 40% of the calories ingested in Western countries, whereas nutritional recommendations are 5 to 10% lower. This excessive lipid intake, associated with a qualitative imbalance (excess of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, too high omega 6/omega 3 ratio) strongly favours the development of obesity and associated diseases (atherosclerosis, non insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension, cancer). This attraction to fatty foods is not specific to humans. Rats and mice spontaneously prefer lipid-rich foods if provided with a free choice. Until recently, it was thought that oral lipid detection involved only somesthesic and olfactory cues. This restrictive view has been challenged by recent observations suggesting that sense of taste is also involved in spontaneous fat preference underlying that the fatty taste might constitute a sixth gustatory modality. This mini-review highlights recent findings in this new field of investigations in both rodents and humans.