Obesity: A Tasteless Cycle
Obesity has increasingly become a prevalent problem. Large portion sizes, the cheap cost of junk food, sugar consumption are just some factors that contribute to this health issue. Obesity includes various health risks, such as higher blood pressure, diabetes and breathing problems. It may also affect other aspects in one’s life, in ways that we have not known before.
Recent studies have found that mice on a high-fat diet have lost some of their taste buds, losing about 25% of taste buds in the course of eight weeks. The loss of taste buds is most likely due to chronic, low-level inflammation that is associated with obesity. Mature taste buds in these mice died off more quickly than the control mice, and fewer new cells took their place. Normally, each taste bud lasts about 10 days before being replaced.
Due to the inflammation caused by obesity, the body produces a protein called cytokine to regulate the inflammation. The mice on the high-fat diet had more of this portion in their taste tissues, and unfortunately, cytokine was found to have negative effects on taste buds. In one experiment, obese mice that couldn’t produce this protein didn’t lost their taste buds.
Since taste is more dull in people with obesity, they don’t feel the same positive satisfying feeling when they eat, which can lead to overeating. This creates a cycle that is hard to break from: the more you eat, the less you are able to taste, so you eat more to compensate for the loss of taste. Currently, researchers are hoping to find new treatments for the inflammation caused by obesity.
Posted by Angelina Weng (3)
Obesity has increasingly become a prevalent problem. Large portion sizes, the cheap cost of junk food, sugar consumption are just some factors that contribute to this health issue. Obesity includes various health risks, such as higher blood pressure, diabetes and breathing problems. It may also affect other aspects in one’s life, in ways that we have not known before.
Recent studies have found that mice on a high-fat diet have lost some of their taste buds, losing about 25% of taste buds in the course of eight weeks. The loss of taste buds is most likely due to chronic, low-level inflammation that is associated with obesity. Mature taste buds in these mice died off more quickly than the control mice, and fewer new cells took their place. Normally, each taste bud lasts about 10 days before being replaced.
Due to the inflammation caused by obesity, the body produces a protein called cytokine to regulate the inflammation. The mice on the high-fat diet had more of this portion in their taste tissues, and unfortunately, cytokine was found to have negative effects on taste buds. In one experiment, obese mice that couldn’t produce this protein didn’t lost their taste buds.
Since taste is more dull in people with obesity, they don’t feel the same positive satisfying feeling when they eat, which can lead to overeating. This creates a cycle that is hard to break from: the more you eat, the less you are able to taste, so you eat more to compensate for the loss of taste. Currently, researchers are hoping to find new treatments for the inflammation caused by obesity.
Posted by Angelina Weng (3)
Wow, that was interesting. I never knew that losing your sense of taste was an effect of obesity. I always thought that people ate because they were hungry and did not feel full or had some emotional reason. Would losing your sense of taste from smoking be something similar to losing your taste from obesity or are they something different?
ReplyDelete-Trung Le (2)
Thank you for your insight! Before reading this article, I didn't know that obesity had an effect on tastebuds either. I'm not 100% sure if losing your sense of taste from smoking would be something similar to losing your taste from obesity. If I had to guess, I would say it's the same idea. In which taste buds are being used more quickly than can be replaced. In the smoking situation, I'm not sure if that would lead to people overeating. But again, that's my theory.
Delete- Angelina Weng (3)
This is some scary stuff. Positive feedback loops with negative effects such as this one are complex problems that are bodies really have no defense to, as effects such as inflammation due to obesity are just natural reactions to what's being put inside it. Did you happen to come across anything that might be able to bring the taste buds back? This might just help those with this issue.
ReplyDelete-Colby Ells (1)
Thank you for your comment! I didn't come across anything that might be able to bring the taste buds back. The loss of taste due to obesity is because the taste buds are being used at a faster rate than they can be replaced. So eventually, the taste buds will come back, but at their own time. I'm not sure if there is a way to speed up that process, but the article did mention that the researchers are looking into treatments. Hopefully, in the near future, there will be something to help those who struggle with this.
Delete- Angelina Weng (3)