Is there such a thing as a "sweet tooth"?

by Shayna Glick, Posted Mar 28th 2008 @ 9:58AM

A bowl of cute Japanese candy with a pink background.

I always thought there was such a thing as a sweet tooth. You know, that love of the taste of sugary foods. Most of us have probably heard about that tooth from the very beginning. Some scientists are working on changing that perception, though.

They've been researching this topic, and they think that people aren't really addicted to the sweet taste of sugary foods. The researchers are discovering that the brain senses the yummy calories from the sugar and in response it releases hormones that make us feel happy. The people studying this question say it has very little to do with actual taste, and they're proving it on mice with no "sweetness" taste buds. The mice still love sweets even though they supposedly cannot taste the actual sugar.

Of course, the researchers are also working on how to use this information to "turn off" the sweet tooth. Blasphemy! Outrageous! First some scientists think they've found a cure for chocoholism and now they want to take away my sweet tooth! I just don't know what the world is coming to when everyone is trying to take away my few pleasures in life. What about you? Do want to keep your sweet tooth?

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Filed Under: Newspapers, Ingredients
Tags: candy, sugar, sweet tooth, SweetTooth