Repeated Exposure to Umami Taste on Taste Perception, Hedonics, and Satiety

Cornell University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Umami Taste Perception

Treatments: Other: No supplementation of diet with MSG; Other: Supplementation of diet with MSG

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03010930

1608006563

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine how repeated dietary exposure to umami taste affects umami taste perception, hedonics, food preferences, and satiety. Healthy adult subjects will consume a low glutamate vegetable broth daily for one month, where the experimental group's broth is supplemented with the umami-rich stimuli of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the control group's low glutamate broth is matched for sodium (NaCl).

The investigators hypothesize that repeated dietary exposure to umami taste will:

1. diminish umami suprathreshold intensity perception and hinder the ability to discriminate varying MSG concentrations
2. decrease liking of umami-rich foods and shift preferences upwards towards more intense umami stimuli
3. decrease satiation and decrease the satiating effect of a test meal

Enrollment: 64 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Have normal sense of taste and smell (self-report)
• Likes soups or broths (self-report)
• Able to report to study site daily (self-report)

Exclusion criteria

• Restrained eater (score > 12 on restrained eating subscale from Three Factor Eating Questionnaire)
• BMI < 18 or > 25 kg/m2 (self-report)
• Vegan (self-report)
• Hypertensive or on low-sodium diet (self-report)
• Allergic or sensitive to MSG (self-report)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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64 participants in 2 patient groups

Increased exposure to MSG

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects consume vegetable broth daily containing MSG

Treatment:

Other: Supplementation of diet with MSG

No change in exposure to MSG

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Subjects consume low glutamate vegetable broth daily, sodium-matched to the broth of the experimental group with NaCl

Treatment:

Other: No supplementation of diet with MSG