A new fat-tasting flavor? Coming soon…
What could be more pleasant, as a feeling, than to consume food? Salty like ham, eggs, cheese, sweetness found in fruit or sodas, sour like biting half a lemon, bitterness found in endive, cocoa or grapefruit… It’s this variety of taste in our foods that allows us to avoid falling into the daily routine in terms of meals and to innovate. And that’s also why each of us loves to eat .
A food that makes the majority of us crack
Silky texture and sweet taste, Nutella makes us all, or almost, crack. February 5th was “Nutella World Day”. Two American bloggers launched this initiative which has gone around the world thanks to social networks. The Ferrero company is delighted. You should know that Nutella, formerly called “Tartinoise” in the sixties, is the cross of “nuts”, hazelnuts in English, and “ella” Italian ending.
This spread contains 55% sugars, 17% palm oil, 13% hazelnuts, 7.5% lean cocoa and 6.5% skimmed milk. It is the obsession of nutritionists because its consumption in France represents 26% of the 300,000 tons of annual world production. Either way, Nutella is over 70% sugar and oil, and its flavor falls between sweet and fatty .
The fat is therefore this new flavor which tends to develop. A sort of sixth taste which, in addition to umami or “savoury taste”, would join the four existing primary flavours.
The fat or the sixth primary flavor
Thus, salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami are the first five known tastes. At the University of Melbourne, the whole team at Russell Keast says that the flavor of fat does exist . The proof, the results of a study (1) , could not be more serious, were published in the scientific journal “Flavour”. Researchers are mainly concerned with the scourge of obesity and identify existing flavors using five criteria. We owe, in 1914, to the chemist Charles Cohn, the concept of detectable flavors thanks to the specific taste buds of the tongue. His hypothesis is that each flavor is detected by a specific receptor which connects, through a neuron, the information to the brain.
So, scientists have detected saturated fat receptors and prove, through this, that a link exists between the development of obesity and oral sensitivity to fatty acids. The more sensitive our taste buds are to fat, the less we eat.
Through this study, the medical profession hopes for a better identification of the link between this oral sensitivity to fat and the consumption of foods that are too rich in order to be better armed against overweight.
The concept of flavor is not to be taken lightly
In China, each flavor is associated with an organ , a function and therefore with a benefit or a lack in the body. For example, the sour flavor found in lemon is associated with liver. Astringent, it condenses the tissues together and cleans the body of toxins.
For Asians, there is a “pungent” flavor that regulates and participates in the proper functioning of mental, emotional and physical balance. It is said that this flavor should be avoided when fatigued or overworked as it disperses energy.
Like what, food is truly our most necessary medicine .
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.