Associations between fat taste sensitivity, nutritional intakes, body mass index and papillae density in healthy Algerian women: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the link between nutritional intake, fat taste sensitivity, papillae density, and body mass index (BMI) in the Algerian women population. Methodology: This work is a cross-sectional study; 140 women were recruited. Weight, height, and waist circumference were measured. Detection thresholds for oleic acid (OA) were determined according to three alternative forced choice method. Based on the cumulative distribution of minimum detection thresholds, participants were classified into hyposensitive >= 3 mM and hypersensitive <3 mM. Food intakes were recorded using 24-hour diaries on three different days. Fatty food consumption frequencies were studied using a frequency consumption survey. Papillae density was determined by tongue photography. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software version 25. Results: Our results indicated that 50% of our population was overweight including 27% of obesity. Average OA detection thresholds were greater in overweight and obese subjects compared to normal-weight subjects (p<0.001). A positive correlation was found between OA detection thresholds and BMI and waist circumference (p<0.001). Hyposensitive subjects consumed more energy and fat intake compared to hypersensitive subjects. Papillae density was inversely associated with BMI and OA detection thresholds. Conclusions: The study confirms the association between fat taste sensitivity and weight status in Algerian women. Overweight and/or obese participants were the least sensitive to OA compared to normal-weight participants. Hyposensitive subjects had higher intakes of energy and lipids compared to hypersensitive subjects. They also expressed a lower number of fungiform papillae. Overweight participants also had a lower number of fungiform papillae compared to normal-weight participants. A better understanding of the links between the detection of dietary lipids and energy/fat intakes in obese subjects may lead to new nutritional strategies to limit the risk of obesity.