By Corinna Noel
PhD candidate
Cornell University
Background: Experimental studies provide convincing evidence that increased consumption of sweet, salt, and fat diminishes respective taste intensity perception and shifts preferences, but it is unknown whether a similar effect occurs with increased consumption of umami. While the appetitive tastes for sweet, salt and fat have been heavily studied, umami is firmly the least characterized basic taste, despite its relevance to our diet, food choice, and metabolic health.
Objective: The objective of this study was to elucidate how repeated exposure to the umami taste with habitual consumption of monosodium glutamate (MSG) influences the umami taste perception, hedonics, and satiety.
Study Design: Fifty eight (58) healthy men and women participated in a parallel group, single blinded randomized controlled study, and were required to drink vegetable broth daily for 4 weeks. The broth for the treatment group (n=28) was supplemented with MSG, while the broth for the control group (n=30) was sodium-matched and contained no MSG. Umami taste intensity and discrimination in aqueous solutions, liking, wanting, and preference of a variety of foods, satiation and satiety from an ad-libtum meal, and anthropometry were assessed at baseline and week 4. The protocol is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03010930). The study was conducted in October-November 2016 at the Sensory Evaluation Center. Thank you to all the panelists who participated in this study!
Results and Implications: Preliminary results suggest that the ability to perceive umami at high concentrations is weakened in females following MSG supplementation. We saw no change in the ability to discriminate the umami taste or hedonic ratings in a variety of real foods. These findings suggest that umami taste intensity perception can be selectively modulated by a diet high in glutamate in a relatively short period of time, in an effect similar to the relation between diet and taste of salt, sugar, and fat.
Note from the editor: If you’d like to learn more about this study, look for Corinna’s research in the scientific journals–she hopes to publish this research in the next few months. In the interim, if you have questions, please contact Corinna at can64@cornell.edu.
* So what is umami? Umami means savory in Japanese. It is one of five basic taste qualities (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami) that plays a key role in intake of amino acids.
