15:45 - 17:15
Wed-P2
Room: Waalsprong 4
Hedonic or metabolic sensing: contrasting responses to sucralose and sucrose between the sweet-liking phenotypes
Wed-P2-056
Presented by: Rhiannon Mae Armitage
Rhiannon Mae Armitage 1, Vasiliki Iatridi 2, Phebe Green 1, Giorgia Marzola 1, Martin R Yeomans 1
1 University of Sussex, 2 Oxford Brookes University
Phenotypic differences in liking for sucrose are well established, with three distinct responses found in the UK, USA and Asia: extreme sweet-likers (ESL), moderate sweet-likers (MSL) and sweet dislikers (SD). However, given increasing evidence that humans may be able to sense the metabolic value of oral carbohydrates, responses to sucrose could reflect either sensing of sweetness, its metabolic significance or both. One way to address this is to test if phenotypic differences in sucrose liking extend to non-nutritive sweeteners. Specifically, we explore for the first-time individual differences in liking responses to the low-energy sweetener sucralose. In the UK, 83 adults (18-38 yrs; 22 Male, 61 Female; 34 ESL, 34 MSL and 15 SD) attended a lab experiment with two taste tests: one using 1.0M sucrose (342.3 g/l) and the second five concentrations of sucralose (0.548, 0.274, 0,137, 0.069 and 0.034 g/l). Mixed 3-way ANOVA, with sucralose concentration and replicate within-participant and phenotype defined by sucrose between, found a significant phenotype x concentration interaction (F(8,320) = 11.45, p < .001), with very similar phenotypic liking patterns for sucralose as sucrose. Contrasting the liking ratings of 0.548g/l sucralose and 1.0M sucrose stimuli revealed a significant interaction between tastant and phenotype (F(2,80) = 13.33, p < .001), with distinct responses between the three phenotypes. Although, phenotypic differences were more pronounced for sucrose. No significant differences were found between sweet intensity ratings, but the 0.548g/l sucralose was significantly less sweet than 1.0M sucrose (F(1,80) = 37.47, p < .001). Overall, we observed comparable individual differences in sweet taste liking for sucrose and sucralose, with liking dependent on sweetness intensity. This strongly suggests these phenotypic differences are driven purely by sweet taste, not sweet-signalling. A Leverhulme Trust studentship and grant RPG-2018-068 funded this work.