Jul 7, 2026 · 43 min · 16 segments
A common idea is that repeated exposure to sweet taste strengthens our preference for sweetness, which then drives greater intake of sweet foods and drinks. This idea is often used in arguments about…
Danny LennonHost
Katherine AppletonGuest
And in particular, there is a maybe, uh, an assumption or a line of thinking that if we have exposure to some type of sweet taste, we're gonna develop a strong preference for that said taste.
That in turn is then gonna give us this reward when we have these foods, it's gonna increase our intake.
And so those types of arguments end up having this almost causal chain from exposure to sweetness to end up Consuming more through that kind of sequence.
Can you maybe talk about f-from your perspective and even from an overview at least at first, for you, in that type of chain I've laid out of this sweet exposure to having a sweet preference to then that impacting things like reward or intake, what do you feel are some of the maybe assumptions that are built into that may not be as solid or, or taken for granted as some people may initially assume at least?
I think the idea that increased exposure to a certain taste, and sweet taste here, leads to an increased preference for that taste is a fundamental assumption that's not correct in the first place.
We have work now where we've looked at a number of studies, combined them together in a systematic review meta-analysis to demonstrate that essentially your exposure to sweet taste doesn't change your generalized liking for sweet taste.
So at the moment, there is no causal link between sweet taste exposure and sweet taste preference.
What's interesting though is, and this is where it can be confusing, for certain flavors, there is possibly this causal link.
So the more you experience a flavor, and there is a lot of work demonstrating, for example, that increased experience of vegetable flavors can lead to vegetable, well, preferences for that vegetable flavor.
So we need to be careful if we're talking about a flavor or a more generalized does this transfer to other flavors or other, uh, foods.
Yeah, and, uh, the- there's a, a, a lot of really useful stuff within that, and certainly this will circle back to a topic I'll maybe bring up a bit later on when we talk about some things related to artificial sweeteners or zero or low-calorie sweeteners.
But from the, uh, initial opening and what you said we're talking about in the context of sweetness and a preference or, or a liking for sweetness, one of the things that I noted in one of your publication, I think it was a 2024 paper, was being very explicit in trying to be clear on this terminology which can sometimes get mixed up when people are talking about sweet liking versus maybe a phenotype of being a sweet liker, and then sweet taste intensities.
Can you maybe distinguish for us some of that different terminology, where there's some confusion, and what distinctions we need to make before we even enter into this conversation?
But you can ask people whether they like a taste or like a product, and they can give you an answer.
They might not, this is a slightly different issue, but they might not consistently give you the same answer.
And in particular, there is a maybe, uh, an assumption or a line of thinking that if we have exposure to some type of sweet taste, we're gonna develop a strong preference for that said taste.
That in turn is then gonna give us this reward when we have these foods, it's gonna increase our intake.
And so those types of arguments end up having this almost causal chain from exposure to sweetness to end up Consuming more through that kind of sequence.
Can you maybe talk about f-from your perspective and even from an overview at least at first, for you, in that type of chain I've laid out of this sweet exposure to having a sweet preference to then that impacting things like reward or intake, what do you feel are some of the maybe assumptions that are built into that may not be as solid or, or taken for granted as some people may initially assume at least?
I think the idea that increased exposure to a certain taste, and sweet taste here, leads to an increased preference for that taste is a fundamental assumption that's not correct in the first place.
We have work now where we've looked at a number of studies, combined them together in a systematic review meta-analysis to demonstrate that essentially your exposure to sweet taste doesn't change your generalized liking for sweet taste.
So at the moment, there is no causal link between sweet taste exposure and sweet taste preference.
What's interesting though is, and this is where it can be confusing, for certain flavors, there is possibly this causal link.
So the more you experience a flavor, and there is a lot of work demonstrating, for example, that increased experience of vegetable flavors can lead to vegetable, well, preferences for that vegetable flavor.
So we need to be careful if we're talking about a flavor or a more generalized does this transfer to other flavors or other, uh, foods.
Yeah, and, uh, the- there's a, a, a lot of really useful stuff within that, and certainly this will circle back to a topic I'll maybe bring up a bit later on when we talk about some things related to artificial sweeteners or zero or low-calorie sweeteners.
But from the, uh, initial opening and what you said we're talking about in the context of sweetness and a preference or, or a liking for sweetness, one of the things that I noted in one of your publication, I think it was a 2024 paper, was being very explicit in trying to be clear on this terminology which can sometimes get mixed up when people are talking about sweet liking versus maybe a phenotype of being a sweet liker, and then sweet taste intensities.
Can you maybe distinguish for us some of that different terminology, where there's some confusion, and what distinctions we need to make before we even enter into this conversation?
But you can ask people whether they like a taste or like a product, and they can give you an answer.
They might not, this is a slightly different issue, but they might not consistently give you the same answer.
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