Aug

Taste is in the Gut

InterWined.com promotes the development of the senses in order to enjoy everything that much more. A recent report highlighted this, with the ‘discovery’ that compounds in the skins of fruits and vegetables provide humans with beneficial qualities.

In fact, this is old news — the compound anthocyanidin, which pigments skin across the plant world, especially with food with redder-hues, such as grapes and aubergines (eggplants). These colors are appealing to the eyes of human (and other creatures)… and smell ripe. We eat it, walk further (because we are healthy) and ‘deposit’ the indigestible seeds in fields far away.

See how that works?

A more important finding, overlooked across the global press syndicate, is that there are taste buds in the gut. That’s right, researchers at the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified taste receptors in the human intestines.

Such an identification is huge when considering the looming obesity issues facing the health industries in Western countries.

“Our work is an important advance for the new field of gastrointestinal chemosensation - how the cells of the gut detect and respond to sugars and other nutrients,” said lead author, Robert F. Margolskee, MD, PhD Professor of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Cells of the gut taste glucose through the same mechanisms used by taste cells of the tongue. The gut taste cells regulate secretion of insulin and hormones that regulate appetite. Our work sheds new light on how we regulate sugar uptake from our diets and regulate blood sugar levels.”

Margolskee added, “This work may explain why current artificial sweeteners may not help with weight loss, and may lead to the production of new non-caloric sweeteners to better control weight,” he said. “Sensing glucose in the gastrointestinal tract is the first step in regulating blood sugar levels. Having discovered the identity of the gut’s sweet receptors may open the way for new treatment options for obesity and diabetes.”

These new findings are published online in the August 20th, 2007 “Early Edition” of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Tasting Notes