CHICAGO—While taste has an important impact on dietary choice, there is no link between sweetness intensity and overall caloric intake in young adults, according to a new study published in the Journal of Food Science.
For the study, researchers at Deakin University in Australia asked students enrolled in a food and nutrition course to complete a food and diet questionnaire, two 24-hour food records, a food variety survey, and a perceived sweetness intensity measurement test that consisted of the subjects being given a sucrose solution to taste and they had to rate how sweet they felt the solution was. Out of the 130 students that participated, no correlation was observed between perceived sweetness and total caloric intake.
The researchers said the study was the first of its kind to investigate the correlation between sweetness intensity and specific food behaviors and nutrient intake and no associations were found between the two.
