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Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat 90

Posted by Soulskill from the mmm-sweet-coronary dept.
New submitter shuheng writes with news that a study out of Purdue claims to have identified the sixth distinct taste known to humans: fat. The scientists say it should be called oleogustus which means "fatty taste" in Latin (abstract). Professor Richard Mattes said, Most of the fat we eat is in the form of triglycerides, which are molecules comprised of three fatty acids. Triglycerides often impart appealing textures to foods like creaminess. However, triglycerides are not a taste stimulus. Fatty acids that are cleaved off the triglyceride in the food or during chewing in the mouth stimulate the sensation of fat. The taste component of fat is often described as bitter or sour because it is unpleasant, but new evidence reveals fatty acids evoke a unique sensation satisfying another element of the criteria for what constitutes a basic taste, just like sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
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Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat More

Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat

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  • I just licked my wife. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Didn't taste like anything. I call BS.

  • Oleogustus Gloop ? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    He was my fave.

  • I recall reading around 2012, Japanese researchers getting similar results on this study. It is good it is confirmed... but not groundbreaking research by any means.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sycodon ( 149926 )

      That was when they "found" Savory, or, Umami

      But as anyone who has taken a bite of medium rare, Prime Ribeye knows, fat is where all the taste is.

      • Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? (Score:5, Informative)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @02:23PM (#50176653)

        You're about a century out. Umami was discovered at the start of the 20th century, and the name has been adopted internationally since the mid-1980s.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

        Or every cooking show ever, where they chant "fat is flavor!" like a battle cry?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Because sometimes it isn't just about the fat itself, but its ability to carry flavor and change how hard or easy it is to taste other flavors within a particular food.

      • Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AK Marc ( 707885 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @03:23PM (#50177075)
        The greasy texture of milk was known. It was just belived that fat, like some spices, activates the primary tastes, not that it had a separate taste. Just because it didn't have its separate category (sensors) doesn't mean they thought it had no taste.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

        If you can still see the food, there's not enough butter.

  • Maybe many more [wikipedia.org] than five?

  • So now do we need to make a artificial fat flavor for health reasons like they do with the diet soda?

  • Everything I thought I knew is wrong (Score:5, Informative)

    by rwa2 ( 4391 ) * on Friday July 24, 2015 @01:26PM (#50176213) Homepage Journal

    I was about to ask where the receptors were located, then found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] was a mistranslation debunked in the 70s :/

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I was a participant for this study in Denver.

      Based on the experimental design, they don't really know where the receptors are located. They had us place "gelatin strips" (basically, Listerine strips minus the flavor etc) in different locations in the mouth to score sensation for different areas.

    • debunked in the 70s

      ... and still taught to to me in grade school the mid 80s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )
        That's the way it goes, stuff from papers takes years to make it into set textbooks. See also the "personality test" shit that HR people are using. Debunked decades ago. About all it tells you is who is good at gaming those tests.

  • What can I eat that tastes umami-ish? Don't say soy sauce because this is also salty. I want it to pass the hold your nose test.

    • Yeast. It is sold as nutritional yeast as yellow powdery flakes.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      MSG

    • There's a restaurant called Umami Burger [umamiburger.com]. They have amazing burgers, arguably the best I've had, the truffle burger made with wagyu beef (if you eat beef) I'd highly recommend starting with. The burgers are a bit pricey so it's more of a once in awhile place. Hopefully there's a location near you, it's really good.

    • My mama was a saint. Take it back.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Umami means glutamates. Its the "Savory" flavor. Meats and cheeses have plenty. Parmesan cheese has the most glutamates of any food, per weight.

      You can also just go get bulk MSG, but its not really pleasant on it's own.

      Seaweed, from which MSG is extracted, is a good start. - Recently "roasted seatweed" has been popping up in american supermarkets - Thin sheets of seaweed toasted with a little oil and salted. It's a korean style thing and there they're served with rice and kimchee as a comfort food. The she

    • lean unseasoned beef. The problem there is that the iron content has its own metallic taste (and salting/koshering would help remove this residual blood). MSG tends to also taste salty.

      I would say that the flavor of sharp (or blue) cheese has a high umami/glutamate content.

  • Joke (Score:4, Funny)

    by mattwrock ( 1630159 ) <mattwrock@gmail.com> on Friday July 24, 2015 @01:31PM (#50176265)
    Umami says you taste fat!

  • Evolution's response to food scarcity? (Score:3)

    by Orne ( 144925 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @02:06PM (#50176525) Homepage

    I always figured "fat" triggered the sweet sense, but this makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. A primitive creature has to deal with food scarcity, and that means when you find something to eat, you have to make a quick decision on whether this food is going to be nutritious. Sweet tastes are full of glucose/fructose, that provide quick pick-me-up energy. Bitter and sour are good for detecting spoiled food, if eating this thing is going to make you sick. Salty and umami are like a measure of, will this food provide the vitamins that the body needs? Many cellular functions require salts (Sodium, Potassium, etc).

    So, a sense of "fatty" gives a fast feedback to the brain that the food will give long-lasting energy. I say fast, because a sense on the tongue is faster than eating and waiting for the digestive system to break down the material, then have the stomach give a signal that the food was good to eat. I've heard that its about 20 minutes for the brain to catch up to the "stomach is full" sense, so digestion sense is not quick. So when you are hungry and something is in front of you, your body needs a fast sense that the food is good to eat, so eat lots of it now.

  • "Oleogustus" is just a terrible word. At least "umami" doesn't sound disgusting. XD

  • Oleogustus (Score:3)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @02:14PM (#50176575)

    scientists say it should be called oleogustus

    Yeah, that rolls right off the tongue, just like "sweet" or "sour".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )

      scientists say it should be called oleogustus

      Yeah, that rolls right off the tongue, just like "sweet" or "sour".

      Umami just rolls off the tongue.



      They are right, "yo mama's" jokes all the way down.

  • Sounds like the radio show where they told me that the concept of blue is relatively new, the ancients thought of the sky as being wine colored. Did the researchers create this new taste simply by naming it ?
  • ... the taste of fear!

    And remember, in Putin's Russia, fear tastes YOU!

  • basic taste, just like sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

    I must've missed the article about scientists identifying the fifth taste. For I have no idea, what the heck is "umami".

    (Yes, I shall search the Internet and educate myself presently.)

    • For those too lazy to educate themselves, Umami [wikipedia.org] is the "savory" taste. It's somewhat of a meaty/fishy flavor and is found in tomatoes (that's probably why many people like ketchup), mushrooms (especially dried), green tea, soy sauce, fish, and other food items. In high concentrations, it crates that "asian food taste" that many people enjoy. MSG is an artificial glutimate which attempts to emulate the umami taste of the traditional Japanese Dashi [wikipedia.org] stock. However, it happens to be a little easier to prepare (
    • Actually I wonder why 'piquancy' or 'pungency' (like in pepper) is not considered a sixth taste. It is sensed by a specific receptor [wikipedia.org] and it is triggered by a variety of compounds: various capsainoids [wikipedia.org] from peppers and compuonds in black pepper [wikipedia.org], mustard/wasabi [wikipedia.org], raw garlic [nih.gov], and so on.
    • Sweet
    • Sour
    • Salty
    • Bitter
    • Pungent
    • Astringent

  • In related news, scientists discover the result of experimenting with a 6th taste of everything: fat...

  • Food Ideas - http://foodsideas.com/ [foodsideas.com]

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