Taste Sensitivity and Food Deprivation, Blood Sugar Level and Composition of Meal

Abstract

IN a recent communication, Berg et al.¹ cite Dell² that “a hungry animal is considered to be in a state of high nervous irritability leading to a heightened level of sensory and motor excitation. As glycogen stores are depleted, blood glucose levels decrease, circulating epinephrine rises and stimulates the reticular formation of the brain, which in turn produces cortical arousal and facilitation of motor and sensory activity, lowering the threshold for all external sensory stimuli”. This implies that with increasing hours of food deprivation sensory acuity in all modalities increases and, further, that blood glucose level is an important factor in this relationship. However, with respect to taste sensitivity it appears probable that neither of these implications is correct.