Understanding Sweetness: Perception, Liking, and the Role of Sweet Taste in a Healthy Eating Plan

Recorded December 2, 2020.

Continuing Education Hours: IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CDR Credentialed Practitioners will receive 1.0 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU) for completion of this recorded webinar.

Description:

As a means of addressing excess intakes of added sugars and the link to obesity, authoritative guidance (e.g., from the Pan America Health Organization, Health Canada, and others) includes avoidance of sweet taste in a dietary pattern. Statements about avoidance of sweet include use of low-calorie sweeteners, a tool shown to be useful in reducing added sugars intake. There is an opportunity to communicate what is known about how individuals perceive sweet, alterations due to changes in physiology, and implications for health. Reconciling current messages about sweet taste given individual variability and the role of sweet in a healthy eating plan will be covered. Finally, speakers will review some of the research gaps toward better understanding the role of sweetness to support optimal public health messaging and nutrition counseling.

Webinar program:

Moderator: Marie Latulippe, MS, RDN, IAFNS

Individual Differences in Sweet Taste: Implications for Nutrition Practitioners

  • Beverly J Tepper, PhD, Head of the Sensory Evaluation Laboratory Director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation Department of Food Science, Rutgers University

Crafting Public Health Messages Around Sweet Taste: The Struggle is Real

  • Robin M. Tucker, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University

Learning outcomes:

After this presentation, the viewer will be able to:

  • Articulate the rationale for differences in patient and client responses to sweetness.

  • Provide evidence-based responses to client questions about sweetness in the diet and management of gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and weight.

  • Counsel clients and patients on where and how to identify sweetness in the diet and the role of sweetness in an eating plan that promotes health.

Continuing Education Hours: IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CDR Credentialed Practitioners will receive 1.0 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU) for completion of this recorded webinar until December 2, 2023.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Repeated Exposure to and Subsequent Consumption of Sweet Taste: Reanalysis of Test Meal Intake Data Following the Repeated Consumption of Sweet vs Non-sweet Beverages

FNCE 2020

Impact of Dietary Sweetness Exposure on Future Dietary Intake: Reanalysis of Existing Intervention Trial Data

Several global health authorities recommend avoidance of sweetness in the diet from both sugar and low-calorie or non-nutritive sweeteners, due to concerns that intake of sweet taste drives a preference for more sweetness, with ultimate negative consequences for energy intake and weight. However, the scientific data available to understand the role of sweetness in the diet is severely lacking. The aim of this project is to re-harvest existing clinical trial data in a way that provides information about selection and intake of sweet vs. non-sweet foods after some intervention.

Institution: Bournemouth University
Principal Investigator: Katherine Appleton, PhD, RD
Year Awarded: 2020

Read More: Repeated exposure to and subsequent consumption of sweet taste: Reanalysis of test meal intake data following the repeated consumption of sweet vs non-sweet beverages.

Center for Open Science’s Open Science Framework.

Learn more about the IAFNS Low-Calorie Sweeteners Committee.

Effect of Low-Calorie Sweetener Intake on Glycemic Response

Globally, dietary guidance recommends reducing added and total sugars in the diet to reduce caloric intake and chronic disease. Low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) present an option for reducing calories while providing sweetness in the diet, but questions remain regarding the effects of LCS on health, including its effects on glycemic response and diabetes. This project will systematically review randomized controlled trials to determine the relationship between LCS and glycemic response in adults.

Institution: Glycemia Consulting Inc.
Principal Investigator: 
John Sievenpiper, BASc, MD, MSc, PhD, FRCPC
Year Awarded: 2020

Read more: The Effect of Non-Nutritive Sweetened Beverages on Postprandial Glycemic and Endocrine Responses: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Learn more about the IAFNS Low-Calorie Sweeteners Committee.

Application of Acceptable Daily Intake Values in Nutrition Research Studies that Consider the Safety of Low-Calorie Sweeteners

Several recent publications on the intake of low-calorie sweeteners (LCSs) have compared intake data to the corresponding Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) values. This indicates a use of ADI that may not be appropriate, since ADI is not meant to be considered a threshold for a safety concern at one moment in time. This may lead to misunderstanding of the safety of LCSs, and affect the potential of LCSs as effective tools for lowering added sugar intake.

The proposed project aims to evaluate the trends in application of ADI to LCS intake data, health-related research, and international government documents/evaluations. The study is designed to test the hypothesis that there is an increasing misapplication of ADI as a type of “safety intake threshold” for particular age groups, and to discuss the ramifications of such a trend. This project should help researchers and clinicians better understand both what is meant by an ADI and what limitations exist for safety determinations when comparing LCS intake data to an ADI. It should also help clinicians to better understand the safety of LCSs and the level of expected risk with use in various life stages.

Institution: ToxStrategies, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Daniele Wikoff, PhD
Year Awarded: 2019

Read more: Use of Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) as a Health-Based Benchmark in Nutrition Research Studies that Consider the Safety of Low-Calorie Sweeteners (LCS): a Systematic Map

View this project on the Center for Open Science's Open Science Framework.

Learn more about the IAFNS Low-Calorie Sweeteners Committee.

Research Priorities for Studies Linking Intake of Low Calorie Sweeteners and Potentially Related Health Outcomes

Evidence Mapping of Low-Calorie Sweeteners and Health Outcomes

As concerns regarding the link between added sugars and obesity risk rise, there is increasing interest in low-calorie sweeteners (LCSs) as a common replacement of added sugars to help reduce total energy intake and reduce excess body weight. In 2012, a joint scientific statement from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association (AHA/ADA) concluded that, at that time, there were insufficient data to determine conclusively whether the use of LCSs to displace caloric sweeteners in beverage and food reduces added sugars or carbohydrate intake, or modifies appetite, energy balance, body weight, or cardiometabolic risk factors. This project aims to identify and prioritize the direction of future research for LCS intakes and health outcomes.

Institution: Tufts University
Principal Investigator: Mei Chung, PhD
Year Awarded: 2014

Read More: Research Priorities For Studies Linking Intake Of Low Calorie Sweeteners And Potentially Related Health Outcomes

Learn more about the IAFNS Low-Calorie Sweeteners Committee.