Repeated Exposure to Umami Taste on Taste Perception, Hedonics, and Satiety

Does Repeated Dietary Exposure to Umami Taste Affect Umami Perception, Hedonics, or Satiety? A Randomized Controlled Study

The purpose of this study is to determine how repeated dietary exposure to umami taste affects umami taste perception, hedonics, food preferences, and satiety. Healthy adult subjects will consume a low glutamate vegetable broth daily for one month, where the experimental group's broth is supplemented with the umami-rich stimuli of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the control group's low glutamate broth is matched for sodium (NaCl).

The investigators hypothesize that repeated dietary exposure to umami taste will:

1. diminish umami suprathreshold intensity perception and hinder the ability to discriminate varying MSG concentrations
2. decrease liking of umami-rich foods and shift preferences upwards towards more intense umami stimuli
3. decrease satiation and decrease the satiating effect of a test meal

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Umami Taste Perception
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Supplementation of diet with MSG; Other: No supplementation of diet with MSG

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 64
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Have normal sense of taste and smell (self-report)
• Likes soups or broths (self-report)
• Able to report to study site daily (self-report)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Restrained eater (score > 12 on restrained eating subscale from Three Factor Eating Questionnaire)
• BMI < 18 or > 25 kg/m2 (self-report)
• Vegan (self-report)
• Hypertensive or on low-sodium diet (self-report)
• Allergic or sensitive to MSG (self-report)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Increased exposure to MSG; Subjects consume vegetable broth daily containing MSG	Other: Supplementation of diet with MSG; Subjects eat normal diet and consume 8 ounces of vegetable broth with added MSG one time per day for 1 month
SHAM_COMPARATOR: No change in exposure to MSG; Subjects consume low glutamate vegetable broth daily, sodium-matched to the broth of the experimental group with NaCl	Other: No supplementation of diet with MSG; Subjects eat normal diet and consume 8 ounces of low glutamate vegetable broth without MSG (sodium-matched with NaCl) one time per day for 1 month

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in umami taste intensity perception	Subjects rate the umami intensity of aqueous solutions and foods on the general Labeled Magnitude Scale before and after a month-long dietary supplementation to determine how perception changes with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Change in umami taste discrimination	Subjects rank solutions of varying umami intensity before and after a month-long dietary supplementation to determine how perception changes with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in umami liking and preference	Subjects rate liking and preference in a variety of umami-rich foods before and after a month-long dietary supplementation to determine how liking and preference of umami-rich foods changes with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Change in liking and wanting of high protein foods	Subjects complete the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire before and after a month-long dietary supplementation to determine how explicit liking and implicit wanting of high-protein foods changes with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Change in satiation	Subjects consume a test meal and the amount of food eaten is measured before and after a month-long dietary supplementation to determine how satiation from a test meal differs after repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Change in satiety	Subjects consume a test meal and rate appetite sensations on a visual analog scale throughout the test meal before and after a month-long dietary supplementation. A satiety quotient will be derived from these values with the formula: Satiety Quotient = (rating pre-eating episode-rating post-eating episode) / (intake of eating episode) to determine how satiety changes with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Height	Body height (centimeters) will be measured with standard procedures and equipment. Using this information, BMI will be calculated with the formula: BMI=[kg/m]2 to ensure that BMI does not change with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Weight	Body weight (kilograms) will be measured with standard procedures and equipment. Using this information, BMI will be calculated with the formula: BMI=[kg/m]2 to ensure that BMI does not change with repeated exposure to umami taste	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)
Habitual glutamate consumption	Subjects complete the National Cancer Institute's monthly diet history questionnaire to estimate habitual glutamate consumption. Baseline habitual glutamate consumption, in addition to gender, will be assessed as effect modifiers in the analysis.	1 month (at baseline and post intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Cornell University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Noel CA, Finlayson G, Dando R. Prolonged Exposure to Monosodium Glutamate in Healthy Young Adults Decreases Perceived Umami Taste and Diminishes Appetite for Savory Foods. J Nutr. 2018 Jun 1;148(6):980-988. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxy055.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): November 1, 2016
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): November 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 15, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 3, 2017
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): January 5, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): February 7, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 24, 2022
• Last Verified: January 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 1608006563

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO