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BOSTON -- Diminished taste intensity following bariatric surgery may be linked to better weight loss, researchers reported here.
Patients who reported a decrease in taste intensity lost 20% more of their body weight 3 months after surgery than those who reported an increase in taste intensity, , chief of bariatric surgery at Stanford University, and colleagues reported here at Obesity Week.
"It's not just the flavor that influences weight loss, it's the intensity of the flavor," Morton said, adding that the results may have implications for therapy, as teaching taste appreciation may have an impact -- but that would require further study, he said.
Many patients report alterations in taste perception after bariatric surgery. Some say it increases their sensitivity to tastes, while others report new aversions to foods.
But there's little evidence on how those changes affect weight loss after surgery, Morton said, so he and his colleagues studied 88 patients -- 55 bariatric surgery patients and 33 healthy, non-obese controls -- who took a validated taste test before surgery and at 3, 6, and 12 months thereafter.
The test quantified patients' ability to identify primary tastes -- sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami -- using paper strips with varying concentrations of taste solution, as well as taste intensity.
Morton and colleagues found that patients who were going to have surgery had lower taste scores, preoperatively, than controls.
"Obese patients may make up for a lack of taste sensitivity and derive satisfaction through volume," Morton said.
The majority of surgical patients (87%) did indeed report a change in taste after bariatric surgery, and 42% of patients said they ate less food because it didn't taste quite as good anymore.
But the total taste score, sweet score, and salty score were not associated with significant differences in body mass index (BMI) or percentage of body weight lost at 3 months.
Preoperative sweet score, however, was negatively correlated with BMI at both 3 months and 6 months (P=0.027 for both), suggesting a potential mechanism for increased weight loss after surgery, the researchers said.
More interesting results were seen with taste intensity, though. Patients who reported a decrease in taste intensity lost 20% more of their body weight over 3 months than those who reported an increase in taste intensity, they found (P=0.025).
Changes in taste intensity may be more important than taste discrimination in the first 3 months after surgery, Morton said, for better results with weight loss after bariatric surgery.
He and his colleagues concluded that increasing taste perception may aid in enhancing postoperative weight loss.
, director of bariatric surgery at Hamilton Medical Center in Florida, said more research is needed to see how clinicians can adjust for taste perception to increase weight loss after surgery.