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MONDAY, Aug. 31, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Young people seldom say a food or drink is “too sweet.” A new study suggests that may be because they’re less sensitive to sugar<\/a> than adults and prefer more of it.<\/p>\n Researchers found that compared to adults, kids and teens<\/a> needed 40% more sugar<\/a> in a solution to detect sweetness.<\/p>\n The researchers also found that young people have a bigger “sweet tooth” than adults, or prefer more intense sweetness, a finding that echoes previous studies.<\/p>\n The study included almost 500 children, teens<\/a> and adults. The researchers gave participants sugar<\/a>-water concoctions with different levels of sugar<\/a>. They measured how much sugar the participants preferred and the lowest concentration required for them to taste it.<\/p>\n “Both of these dimensions of sweet-taste perception — sensitivity and preference — undergo distinct developmental trajectories from childhood to adulthood,” said study co-author M. Yanina Pepino, an assistant professor of nutrition<\/a> at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n “However, they did so independently, and we found no association between the two,” she said in a university news release.<\/p>\n Adults could taste a single cube of sugar dissolved in 56 ounces of water, while younger participants could only taste it in a less-concentrated solution — 40 ounces.<\/p>\n The study also found that children and teens preferred a 50% higher sugar concentration. Researchers explained that the adults’ preferred sweetness level was equivalent to eight sugar cubes in an 8-ounce glass of water — comparable to a cola drink — while kids preferred 12 cubes in the same amount of water.<\/p>\n The results were published recently in the journal Nutrients<\/i>.<\/p>\n — Serena McNiff<\/p>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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