Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat

Posted by Soulskill on 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.

90 comments

  1. I just licked my wife. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Didn't taste like anything. I call BS.

    1. Re:I just licked my wife. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Funny I thought your wife has hints of colt 45 and fired chicken,

    2. Re:I just licked my wife. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Waifu doesn't count, buddy.

      CAPTCHA: ingest

  2. Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    umami says you taste fat!

    1. Re:Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Umami's so fat she leaves a delicious taste on your tongue?

    2. Re:Joke by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

      Umami so fat she's on both sides of the family...

    3. Re:Joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ROFL how the fuck have I never heard that one? Thank you sir or madam.

  3. Oleogustus Gloop ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    He was my fave.

  4. Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by mlts · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by sycodon · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Why did it take so long anyway? Skimmed milk and fat free yogurt has existed for how many decades, and it's only NOW that the people in lab coats are figuring out neither taste as good as the real thing?

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the whole thing was a myth really, no more real than our concept of "16 colors" in a box of crayons to cover the entire visible spectrum.

      To be fair, our eyes do have three primary color-sensing cells (R, G, B) but as far as I know they are neither limited to that, nor do they share that physiology with our tastebuds.

    4. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by pjt33 · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

    5. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Quirkz · · Score: 1

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

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
    6. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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.

    7. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    8. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, it was quite plausible that the taste was the various aromatic compounds that are fat-soluble, not necessarily so much the fat itself.

    9. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but taste receptors for glutamates is a real thing.

      MSG wasn't the magic cure-all make things taste good people thought it was, but there are many foods which have glutamates in them which enhance the flavors of things.

      Parmesan (not that Kraft crap) and mushrooms being good examples of this.

      You are so utterly wrong and full of shit it isn't funny.

    10. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Unami the only known flavour that has exactly ONE molecule as it's sole cause.

      Actually, there are a variety of proteins the receptors can respond to, although glutamates is the strongest, and that is still a family of molecules considering there are different ions or molecules you can get from attaching things to glutamic acid.

      one molecule can not be described as a flavour

      Why not? Because you just declare so, and then complain people shouldn't trust what others just declare? If there is a type of receptor that can produce a distinct sensation, regardless of how broad or narrow its trigger, then it should qualify as a flavor.

    11. Re:Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out? by Reziac · · Score: 1

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

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  5. Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by SAN1701 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Maybe many more than five?

    1. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      No?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    2. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many more than five senses. One of those senses is taste. It's long been believed that are five distinct things that your sense of taste can detect (sweet, sour, bitter, salty umami. These guys are saying that their research implies the sense of taste can detect more than five different things.

    3. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's long been believed that are five distinct things that your sense of taste can detect (sweet, sour, bitter, salty umami.

      That's only four. Oxford Comma-Man, AWAaay!

    4. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With 5 sense it is possible discern 32 different things!

    5. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      I think you're confusing sixth taste with sixth sense.

    6. Re:Wasn't it already accepted there's more than 5? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I think you're confusing sixth taste with sixth sense.

      I taste dead ... ok let's not go there. That way lies madness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

  6. Artifical fat flavor. by sims+2 · · Score: 1

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

    --
    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    1. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by sycodon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ribeye Cream Soda!

      I'd buy it.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by neminem · · Score: 1

      Isn't that basically what MSG is?

    3. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that is for umami.

    4. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by digsbo · · Score: 1

      No, MSG is supposed to be the umami flavor.

    5. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      MSG stimulates what they call the "savory" taste, not this new "fat" taste they're talking about.

    6. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Bacon Mountain Dew

      I'd drown in it.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    7. Re: Artifical fat flavor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Artificial fat tastes like shit. What number is that?!?

    8. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... like that?

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    9. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      Yes exactly like that!

      Whats even more suprising is that the wiki article states that it has the same taste as fat as far back as april 28th 2005
      yet scientists have only just now discovered that fat has a taste over 10 years later....Is that time travel I smell cooking?

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    10. Re:Artifical fat flavor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Saying something has a taste is not the same as saying it has a fundamentally different taste receptor. An article on chocolate or carrots might mention their taste, but that doesn't imply that either of those has a specific receptor.

  7. Everything I thought I knew is wrong by rwa2 · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    1. Re:Everything I thought I knew is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Everything I thought I knew is wrong by killkillkill · · Score: 1

      debunked in the 70s

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

    3. Re:Everything I thought I knew is wrong by dbIII · · Score: 1

      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.

  8. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm so glad people are dedicated to this important work

    Can't wait for fat-flavoured chewing gum

  9. U mama by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:U mama by Khashishi · · Score: 1

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

    2. Re:U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      MSG

    3. Re:U mama by theArtificial · · Score: 1

      There's a restaurant called Umami Burger. 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.

      --
      Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
    4. Re:U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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 sheets are good with rice and some garlicky hot sauce (f you can't stomach kimchee. Many cant) or just good by themselves as a snack.

      Fish sauce is also good, but not everyone likes that either.

    5. Re:U mama by omnichad · · Score: 1

      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.

    6. Re:U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mushrooms: Shitake, Portobello.

    7. Re:U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I went there once. I now call it Salty Burger. It was actually reasonably tasty, but the overwhelming impression after I was done was "wow, that was salty." I'm pretty sure they were just capitalizing on the hipster craze when umami was (re)discovered a few years ago.

      I can distinctly and easily identify sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But umami? Myth.

    8. Re:U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pure MSG is probably the cleanest form of the taste you can find. I found a bag in the chinese section of a supermarket. Clear crystals, looks like plain sugar.

    9. Re:U mama by theArtificial · · Score: 1

      Oh cool, what did you have? I've had crap experiences at places so perhaps it's that. For example I typically associate Dennys/Burger King with salty food, the BK chicken sandwich especially. I sound like a junk food connoisseur...

      --
      Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
    10. Re: U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF does "savory" taste like?

    11. Re: U mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're replying to a person who is literally explaining what savory tastes like.

    12. Re:U mama by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I can distinctly and easily identify sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But umami? Myth.

      Only two tastes for me - chilli and bland.

  10. Joke by mattwrock · · Score: 4, Funny

    Umami says you taste fat!

    --
    "Ones and zeros were everywhere. I even think I saw a two!" - Bender
  11. Excuse me. by halivar · · Score: 1

    My mama was a saint. Take it back.

  12. Evolution's response to food scarcity? by Orne · · Score: 2

    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.

  13. Latin? Really? by qeveren · · Score: 1

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

    --
    Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
  14. Taste or feel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it really a taste or a mouth feel?

  15. Oleogustus by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2

    scientists say it should be called oleogustus

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

    1. Re:Oleogustus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And people will start saying things like "oleogustus taste", which would mean fat taste taste (actually oil taste taste) .

    2. Re:Oleogustus by dbIII · · Score: 1

      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.

  16. Blue by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    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 ?

    --
    Nullius in verba
  17. Yo mama's so umami by sjbe · · Score: 1

    At least "umami" doesn't sound disgusting.

    But it does sound like the start of a "yo mama's" joke...

  18. I thought the sixth taste was ... by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 1
    ... the taste of fear!

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

    --
    Similar to the upcoming US election results
  19. Re: Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that before or after you're left nauseated by the flavor? Blood and fat are nearly unpalatable.

  20. I must've missed the previous discovery by mi · · Score: 1

    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.)

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:I must've missed the previous discovery by stephenmac7 · · Score: 2

      For those too lazy to educate themselves, Umami 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 stock. However, it happens to be a little easier to prepare (and cheaper).

      --
      "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
    2. Re:I must've missed the previous discovery by hankwang · · Score: 1

      Actually I wonder why 'piquancy' or 'pungency' (like in pepper) is not considered a sixth taste. It is sensed by a specific receptor and it is triggered by a variety of compounds: various capsainoids from peppers and compuonds in black pepper, mustard/wasabi, raw garlic, and so on.

      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
    3. Re:I must've missed the previous discovery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because that comes under a subset of touch, or sensation of heat when that is split off as a separate sense. Those receptors are not specific to the tongue, and are also triggered by things other than just specific chemical compounds.

  21. Carbonation was discussed as a taste in 2009 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://ddg.gg/carbonation_taste
    That would make fat the seventh, or eight if you want to count capsaicin (I don't, that's not really taste, we can detect it on our feet too. But it's delicious though).

  22. Six tastes were always known in Ayurveda by dmt0 · · Score: 1
    • Sweet
    • Sour
    • Salty
    • Bitter
    • Pungent
    • Astringent
    1. Re:Six tastes were always known in Ayurveda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Astringent is considered a mouth feel thing, interacting through induced texture, not a taste.

    2. Re:Six tastes were always known in Ayurveda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And pungent wasn't the as umami, but rather a vaguely-defined ‘sharp’ sensation.

      I always feel pity when the vedics crawl out of the woodwork. I mean, I'm a big fan of the Romans but I wouldn't go as far as to say the Romans invented differential calculus or something. But at every new discovery the vedic fanboys just have to insist, usually completely unfounded, that the vedics already knew it all along. Don't they realise how ridiculous they sound? It's like they have no self-awareness at all.

  23. Zombies Have a Seventh Taste by flargleblarg · · Score: 1

    Braaaains

  24. In related news... by slew · · Score: 1

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

  25. Didn't Australian reserchers find it out 5yrs ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And in 2010 researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne already wrote in the British Journal of Nutrition about that same.

  26. Re: Didn't some Japanese researchers find this out by reboot246 · · Score: 1

    Blood unpalatable?

    Speak for yourself!

    Dr.Acula

  27. Hey I'm on a low fat diet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I ordered long pig not a greasy American fat burger!!

  28. No. There's not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's only one flavor. It's CHICKEN. This is because the machines didn't know what to make it taste like, so that's why everything tastes like chicken...

    Shut up, Mouse.

  29. Scientists Identify Sixth Taste: Fat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, being from NJ this certainly explains why our governor looks the way he does. He must have the best functioning taste buds that science has ever seen.

  30. Food Ideas by foods+ideas · · Score: 1

    Food Ideas - http://foodsideas.com/