Sucrose sensitivity in anorexia nervosa

Abstract

The known close relationship between taste and eating habits in the normal population led to the proposition that patients with anorexia nervosa might display an abnormal taste threshold for sucrose. The present study examines the sweetness taste sensitivity, by a two-alternative forced choice method, of six female anorectics (three at a low body weight in association with a self imposed low carbohydrate diet, and three gaining weight with re-feeding on a high carbohydrate diet) and six age/sex-matched controls. Overall, the anorectics did not demonstrate a specific abnormality of sucrose sensitivity but the anorectics on a high calorie re-feeding diet had a significantly lower taste sensitivity than those on a low calorie diet and also the group of control subjects. Moreover, the taste sensitivity of those anorectics plus controls also on a low carbohydrate diet was significantly higher than in those anorectics plus controls on a normal or high carbohydrate diet. Thus, the taste threshold of both anorectics and controls was related to their calorific intake. It would seem that the abnormal eating behaviour, in terms of restricted carbohydrate intake, of patients with anorexia nervosa is not a consequence of any primary abnormality of sucrose taste sensitivity. Rather it is that heightened sucrose taste sensitivity is a consequence of sucrose avoidance in both anorectics and normal subjects. © 1977.