Sweeter Foods With Less Sugar
(Inside Science TV) -- Sweet…salty…sour….No two people experience flavors in exactly the same way, but our collective sweet tooth can put our teeth and our waistlines in jeopardy.
Linda Bartoshuk, a scientist at the University of Florida's College of Dentistry, has identified a group of naturally occurring compounds in foods that enhance the way we taste sweetness. These compounds can be used to make foods taste sweeter with less sugar and no artificial sweeteners.
“It’s not just that we are going to add sweet to things, we are going to take away bad tastes like bitter,” said Bartoshuk.
The compounds were discovered in tomatoes. They found that the tomatoes that tasted the sweetest contained less sugar. The question was: why?
“Six different volatiles, or odors, in the tomato were contributing to sweet independent of the sugar,” explained Bartoshuk.
Agricultural scientist, Dave Clark of the University of Florida hopes that this research will be used to make food tastier.
Clark said, “We want every blueberry, and every strawberry and every tomato to be like the best you’ve ever had.”
Researchers are hoping that these “sweet” findings about flavor can be made into a real product to sweeten foods and beverages in a more natural, healthy way. The next step is to study how to transfer the newly discovered natural sweeteners into foods.
“The beauty is you’re not adding anything unnatural,” Bartoshuk said.
Get Inside The Science:
UF scientists identify natural compounds that enhance humans’ perception of sweetness
Center for Smell and Taste - University of Florida
