KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Tricking the tongue into believing apples taste like burgers could be the key to tackling the fat epidemic, Australian food experts say.
In a new twist to the obesity fight, scientists are spending millions in the race to find tastebuds on the tongue for fat and salt.
The team at Deakin University hope they will be able to fool these tiny receptors into believing healthy foods actually taste deliciously fatty.
The strategy could help limit over-consumption of fat and salt, said Dr Russell Keast, who will present research at a national food conference in Melbourne this month.
Since the 1970s food producers have known how to trick the tongue's sweetness receptors using non-nutrients that mimic sugar, but receptors for salt and fat are yet to be found.
"We still haven't found the salt taste receptor, but if we do, it will mean that researchers will be able to find something that will activate the receptor and signal salty to the brain," Dr Keast said.
"This would result in much lower salt content in processed foods, lower salt consumption for the general population, and therefore fewer dietary related health risks."
He said humans evolved sophisticated taste buds to identify safe foods to eat, but as societies developed they sought out specific nutrients -- sugars, fats and salt.
And once scarce, they are now plentiful, cheap and used in excess in processed foods, fuelling the western world's obesity epidemic.
While discovering fat receptors would help, it would be impossible to fool the body into avoiding fat and salt completely, Dr Keast said.
"There is emerging evidence that when we perceive sweetness our tongue doesn't only tell us that we are eating something sweet, it also prepares our bodies for the onset of carbohydrate or sugars," he said.
"So even if we have tricked our tongue and our brain, our body still remains waiting for the nutrient."
He said teaching children to like foods containing less salt, fat and sugar will go a long way to preserving their health in the future.
- AAP
