14 DAY TRIAL // A scientist at the Rutgers University says that people's ability to respond to a particular type of bitter compound may be used as a clear indicator of their risk of developing obesity. The PROP chemicals, also known as 6-n-propylthiouracil, can be used to gage people's risk of either becoming obese later in life, or developing cardiovascular diseases. Details of the work appear in a paper entitled “Bitter Taste Phenotype, Diet and Obesity in Women,” PhysOrg reports.
Professor Beverly Tepper, the leader of the study, is based at the Rutger Food Science Department School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. For the recent investigation, she received funding from the American Heart Association, and was recently also awarded funds from Grant-in-Aid, an initiative that supports innovative, independent research. The ultimate goal of her studies is to determine the exact mechanisms through which this minor genetic trait – of being sensitive to PROP or not – indicates a person's risk of gaining excessive weight, or suffering heart afflictions.
“We know from our previous studies that non-tasters tend to be heavier. But laboratories haven’t been able to demonstrate a difference in calorie or fat intake. Part of the issue is that it’s been self-reported, which tends to be biased. So we designed this study to bring people into the lab, where we can effectively measure what they’re eating,” Tepper says of the people who are unable to taste the bitter compound. For them, samples of the stuff taste like regular paper.
“I submitted this work to the American Heart Association because I want to understand the factors that influence body weight and obesity in women, since these are major risk factors for heart disease. If we had a relatively simple method to identify people who are at risk for obesity, that would be a major advance,” the researcher adds. She reveals that about 25 percent of Caucasians are unable to sense PROP, whereas 25 are extremely sensitive to it. The remaining 50 percent have a medium sensitivity to the bitter compounds.