Age and Changes in the Chemical Senses Related to Food Perception
نویسنده
چکیده
In the daily language the word " taste " refers to the sensations that professionals carefully distinguish as taste and odour, or flavour. The sense of taste is notably robust with age, whereas declines in the sense of olfaction are dramatic. Age-related changes in taste functioning do not affect all individuals, and some elderly individuals are essentially unimpaired. Age has a more significant effect on olfaction ability than either gender or smoking. Many chemosensory deficits in the elderly can be attributed to pathologic conditions and medication rather than ageing. In addition to deficits, individuals may experience taste or smell phantoms. A variety of quantitative psychophysical tests can be used in clinical settings to evaluate chemosensory functioning in the elderly. These include detection, recognition and suprathreshold tests as well as preference tests. Age-related changes in psychophysical functions seem to be quality-specific; the differences are not necessarily equal for various flavours. The greatest age-related losses in suprathreshold taste appear to be associated with the perception of bitterness and the least with the perception of sweetness. Losses are not uniform across compounds but tend to vary with the structure of the molecule. Reduced taste sensitivity e.g., for sweeteners and salt might be a disadvantage for elderly persons. Compensation for reduced sensitivity can lead the elderly to ingest excessive amounts of sugars, artificial sweeteners, or salt which may be detrimental to health. Age-related changes in the chemical senses are affecting the perception of foods and food flavour, and impairments give a reduced ability to identify foods on the basis of taste and smell. Loss of taste and smell can also reduce the motivation to eat. Commercial or natural flavours may be added to foods to improve intake and compensate for losses in the chemical senses. Chemosensory losses in the elderly could also be compensated in part by adding texture to food. This could be crunchiness or chewiness, or for elderly with dentition problems, addition of functional fibre and flavours to soften textured foods.
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