Sweet taste and diet in type II diabetes

The relationship between sweet taste function and dietary intake was studied in 21 patients with type II diabetes mellitus and 16 age-, weight-, and sex-matched controls. Subjects rated the sweetness intensity and pleasantness of a series of beverage samples sweetened with sucrose: 1.5-24%, fructose: 1-18%, or aspartame: 0.25-4%. They also kept 7-day food records. No group differences were found in sweet taste perception, pleasantness ratings, daily energy intakes, or macronutrient composition of the diets. However, subjects with diabetes consumed less sucrose but 3.5 times more alternative sweeteners than did controls. Peak pleasantness ratings for the beverage samples were positively correlated with dietary sweetness content in the subjects with diabetes but not the controls. These findings suggest that in diabetes, hedonic ratings for a sweetened beverage were related to dietary sweetness intake rather than changes in sweet taste perception.