How do taste perception and eating behavior in obese subjects with eating disorders?

An understanding of the relationship between obesity and eating disorders (i.e., food addicted, binge eaters) has grown in recent years. Despite on-going efforts to better understand dysregulated eating in obese subjects, the core phenomenon of the mechanisms underlying the perception of food properties and the possible sensory deficits in eating disorders, remains scarcely investigated. This is surprising as the perception of food plays an important role in the maintenance of disordered eating behaviors and subsequent intervention therapies. To address this knowledge gap, we tested the hypothesis that taste response profiles are differentially linked to nutritional status and eating disorders types, and further we determined if there were correlations between impaired taste acuity and some blood serum parameters typically askew in unhealthy obese subjects. We evaluated in 94 obese subjects (58% F, age range: 18-60 y), whose 30 simple obese, 30 food addicted obese, 34 obese with co-occurring food addiction and binge eating: a) sweet and salty taste detection thresholds; b) eating behaviour; c) fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin, triglycerides in blood serum. A group of 33 normal-weight (61% F, age range: 18-60 y) was tested as control group. Results generally showed that unhealthy obese presented a significantly (p<0.001) lower acuity to sweet and salty tastes compared to controls, with obese with mixed eating disorders showing higher salty threshold. The latter had significantly (p<0.001) higher scores in emotional eating compared to the others. Moreover, taste thresholds correlated positively with the fasting glucose and glycated hemoglobin concentrations, and with triglycerides levels (all p<0.05). The potentiality of the present study could improve knowledge regarding perceptions of taste in eating diorders types that may be useful to understand whether taste responsiveness represents a useful diagnostic measure in their prevention, assessment and treatment.