Modification of Bitter Taste in Children

Developmental Psychobiology. Sep, 2003  |  Pubmed ID: 12918091

The palatability of oral medications, many of which are quite bitter, plays an important role in achieving compliance in pediatric patients. We tested the hypothesis that the addition of a sodium salt to some, but not all, bitter tasting liquids enhances acceptance and reduces the perceived bitterness in 7- to 10-year-old children and their mothers. For both children and adults, sodium gluconate significantly suppressed the perceived bitterness and enhanced the acceptance of urea and caffeine whereas the reverse was true for another bitter stimulus, Tetralone. Because children preferred salted solutions more than did adults, these data suggest that the use of sodium salts may be an especially effective strategy for reducing the bitterness of some medicines and facilitating compliance among pediatric populations. However, based on sodium's differential ability to inhibit bitterness, as has been shown here with children and adults, clearly each drug of interest must be evaluated separately.

Fetal Learning with Ethanol: Correlations Between Maternal Hypothermia During Pregnancy and Neonatal Responsiveness to Chemosensory Cues of the Drug

Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research. May, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15166658

Fetuses learn about ethanol odor when the drug is present in the amniotic fluid. Prenatal learning comprising ethanol's chemosensory cues also suggests an acquired association between ethanol's chemosensory and postabsorptive properties. Ethanol-related thermal disruptions have been implicated as a significant component of the drug's unconditioned properties. In the present study, ethanol-induced thermal changes were analyzed in pregnant rats subjected to a moderate ethanol dose. This thermal response was later tested for its correlation with the responsiveness of the progeny to ethanol and nonethanol chemosensory stimuli.

Advice Given to Women in Argentina About Breast-feeding and the Use of Alcohol

Revista Panamericana De Salud Pública = Pan American Journal of Public Health. Dec, 2004  |  Pubmed ID: 15673483

To explore the types of advice that women in Argentina received from health professionals, family members, and friends about drinking alcoholic beverages and about alcohol usage during pregnancy and lactation.

Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Bitter Perception and Sweet Preferences

Pediatrics. Feb, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 15687429

Flavor is the primary dimension by which young children determine food acceptance. However, children are not merely miniature adults because sensory systems mature postnatally and their responses to certain tastes differ markedly from adults. Among these differences are heightened preferences for sweet-tasting and greater rejection of bitter-tasting foods. The present study tests the hypothesis that genetic variations in the newly discovered TAS2R38 taste gene as well as cultural differences are associated with differences in sensitivity to the bitter taste of propylthiouracil (PROP) and preferences for sucrose and sweet-tasting foods and beverages in children and adults.

Factors Contributing to Individual Differences in Sucrose Preference

Chemical Senses. Jan, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 15738179

Sucrose-induced Analgesia is Related to Sweet Preferences in Children but Not Adults

Pain. Dec, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 16298489

The present study tested the hypothesis that the efficacy of sucrose in reducing pain during the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was related to its hedonic value. To this aim, we determined the most preferred level of sucrose and the analgesic properties of 24% w/v sucrose during the CPT in 242, 5- to 10-year-old children and their mothers. Outcome measures included pain thresholds (the time at which discomfort was first indicated) and pain tolerance (the length of time the hand was kept in the cold water bath). Although children, as a group, preferred significantly higher sucrose concentrations than adults, there were individual differences that allowed us to group them on the basis of those who preferred sucrose concentrations below that used in the CPT (24% w/v) and those who preferred levels >or=24% w/v sucrose. Regardless of such groupings, sucrose was not an effective analgesic in adult women. Unlike adults, the more children liked sucrose, the better its efficacy as an analgesic. That is, children who preferred >or=24%w/v sucrose exhibited an increased latency to report pain and tolerated pain for significantly longer periods of time when sucrose was held in their mouths relative to water. This effect was more pronounced among normal weight when compared to overweight/at risk for overweight children. The role that dietary habits and individual differences contribute to the preferences for sweet taste and its physiological consequences in children is an important area for future research.

Acute Alcohol Consumption Disrupts the Hormonal Milieu of Lactating Women

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Apr, 2005  |  Pubmed ID: 15623810

Despite the lack of scientific evidence to support the claim that alcohol is a galactagogue, lactating women have been advised to drink alcohol as an aid to lactation for centuries. To test the hypothesis that alcohol consumption affects the hormonal response in lactating women, we conducted a within-subjects design study in which 17 women consumed a 0.4 g/kg dose of alcohol in orange juice during one test session and an equal volume of orange juice during the other. Changes in plasma prolactin, oxytocin, and cortisol levels during and after breast stimulation, lactational performance, and mood states were compared under the two experimental conditions. Oxytocin levels significantly decreased, whereas prolactin levels and measures of sedation, dysphoria, and drunkenness significantly increased, during the immediate hours after alcohol consumption. Changes in oxytocin were related to measures of lactational performance such as milk yield and ejection latencies, whereas changes in prolactin were related to self-reported measures of drunkenness. Although alcohol consumption resulted in significantly higher cortisol when compared with the control condition, cortisol levels were not significantly correlated with any of the indices of lactational performance or self-reported drug effects. Moreover, cortisol levels steadily decreased on the control day, indicating that the procedures were not stressful to the subjects. In conclusion, recommending alcohol as an aid to lactation may be counterproductive. In the short term, mothers may be more relaxed, but the hormonal milieu underlying lactational performance is disrupted, and, in turn, the infant's milk supply is diminished.

Short-term Effects of Alcohol Consumption on the Hormonal Milieu and Mood States in Nulliparous Women

Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.). Jan, 2006  |  Pubmed ID: 16762689

The present study was designed to determine the short-term effects of alcohol consumption on hormonal responses and mood states in nulliparous women who have regular menstrual cycles. To this aim, we conducted a within-subjects design study in which eight women consumed a 0.4-g/kg dose of alcohol in orange juice during one test session (alcohol condition) and an equal volume of orange juice (control condition) during the other. Changes in plasma prolactin, oxytocin and cortisol levels, blood alcohol concentrations (BACs), and mood states were compared. BAC peaked at approximately 36.7+5.4 min after the consumption of the alcoholic beverage and decreased thereafter. Alcohol consumption significantly increased the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) of prolactin (P<.01) and decreased the oxytocin AUC (P=.04) when compared to the control condition. Cortisol AUCs were not different across the two experimental conditions. Similar to that previously observed in lactating women, changes in prolactin and oxytocin paralleled changes in feelings of drunkenness. The magnitude and persistence of the alcohol-induced hormonal changes in nulliparous women were significantly less pronounced than those observed in lactating women, further highlighting the dynamics of the system under study during lactation.

Similarities in Food Cravings and Mood States Between Obese Women and Women Who Smoke Tobacco

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.). Jun, 2009  |  Pubmed ID: 19247281

The present study assessed food cravings in a cohort of 229 women who differed in smoking history (i.e., never smoker, former smoker, and current smoker) and body weight (i.e., normal weight, overweight, and obese). Each subject completed the Food Craving Inventory (FCI), which measures cravings for sweets, high fats, carbohydrates/starches, and fast-food fats, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS), which measures psychological distress. Smoking and obesity were independently associated with specific food cravings and mood states. Current smokers craved high fats more frequently than former and never smokers. They also craved starches more frequently and felt more depressed and angry than never smokers, but not former smokers. Whereas cravings for starchy foods and some mood states may be characteristic of women who are likely to smoke, more frequent cravings for fat among smokers is related to smoking per se. Similarly, obese women craved high fats more frequently than nonobese women and depression symptoms were intensified with increasing body weights. We hypothesize that the overlapping neuroendocrine alterations associated with obesity and smoking and the remarkable similarities in food cravings and mood states between women who smoke and women who are obese suggest that common biological mechanisms modulate cravings for fat in these women.

Breast Pumping and Lactational State Exert Differential Effects on Ethanol Pharmacokinetics

Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.). Mar, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20056373

Prior research revealed that breast stimulation altered the way the lactating body handles alcohol. Its effects depended upon when it occurred relative to drinking. The goal of the present study was to determine whether breast pumping works independently of the physiological and metabolic changes that accompany lactation. To this end, we tested 12 women when they were exclusively breastfeeding 3-5-month-old infants and then again several months after lactation had ceased. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups that differed in the timing of breast pumping relative to drinking a 0.4g/kg dose of alcohol: one group breast pumped 0.6h after drinking (pumped after group) and the other pumped 1h before drinking (pumped before group). For each reproductive stage, subjects were tested on 2 separate days, consuming a standardized meal 1 h before drinking during 1 test day and remaining fasted during the other. Breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) and temperature readings were obtained before and at fixed intervals after drinking. Pumping before drinking significantly decreased BrAC during both reproductive stages, whereas pumping after drinking resulted in different BrAC time curves during lactation when compared with after lactation. That is, levels were significantly lower during the descending phase of the time curve during than after lactation. The interactions between pumping and reproductive stage were most apparent during fed condition. Furthermore, women were more sensitive to hypothermic effects of both fasting and drinking alcohol during lactation. These findings add to the growing literature that lactating women metabolize alcohol differently, in part, due to the frequent breast stimulation during breastfeeding and the pronounced physiological changes that accompany one of the most energetically costly mammalian activities.

Obese Women Have Lower Monosodium Glutamate Taste Sensitivity and Prefer Higher Concentrations Than Do Normal-weight Women

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.). May, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20075854

The goal of this study was to determine whether obese women exhibit altered umami and sweet taste perception compared to normal-weight women. A total of 57 subjects (23 obese and 34 normal weight) participated in a 2-day study separated by 1 week. Half of the women in each group were evaluated using monosodium glutamate (MSG; prototypical umami stimulus) on the first test day and sucrose on the second test day; the order was reversed for the remaining women. We used two-alternative forced-choice staircase procedures to measure taste detection thresholds, forced-choice tracking technique to measure preferences, the general Labeled Magnitude Scale (gLMS) to measure perceived intensity of suprathreshold concentrations, and a triangle test to measure discrimination between 29 mmol/l MSG and 29 mmol/l NaCl. Obese women required higher MSG concentrations to detect a taste and preferred significantly higher MSG concentrations in a soup-like vehicle. However, their perception of MSG at suprathreshold concentrations, their ability to discriminate MSG from salt, and their preference for sucrose were similar to that observed in normal-weight women. Regardless of their body weight category, 28% of the women did not discriminate 29 mmol/l MSG from 29 mmol/l NaCl (nondiscriminators). Surprisingly, we found that, relative to discriminators, nondiscriminators perceived less savoriness when tasting suprathreshold MSG concentrations and less sweetness from suprathreshold sucrose concentrations but had similar MSG and sucrose detection thresholds. Taken together, these data suggest that body weight is related to some components of umami taste and that different mechanisms are involved in the perception of threshold and suprathreshold MSG concentrations.

Sweet Preferences and Analgesia During Childhood: Effects of Family History of Alcoholism and Depression

Addiction (Abingdon, England). Apr, 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20148789

To determine whether depression and family history of alcoholism are associated with heightened sweet preferences in children, before they have experienced alcohol or tobacco and at a time during the life-span when sweets are particularly salient. Design Between- and within-subject experimental study.

Age Modifies the Genotype-phenotype Relationship for the Bitter Receptor TAS2R38

BMC Genetics. 2010  |  Pubmed ID: 20594349

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of TAS2R38 haplotypes and age on human bitter taste perception.