ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to assess the ways in which human behaviour toward sweets is measured, and the factors that influence it. It examines the relationship between the preference for sweet foods, their intake, and the eject on obesity. People often hypothesize that if someone has a sweet tooth, it will cause the person to eat sweet food in excess of his or her caloric needs and consequently gain weight. In other words, the sweet tooth is the cause and obesity is the eject. The initial events in the perception of sweet taste occur in taste receptor cells in the tongue, which are found clustered in taste buds in taste papillae. Sweets may alleviate depression and premenstrual symptoms, and provide relief from the cravings for other drugs because sweet taste releases opiates into the blood, at least in rodents. Sweetness in food and drink provides a signal of the number of calories available in the form of readily digested sugar.