Insulin activates insulin receptors (InsRs) in the hypothalamus to signal satiety after a meal. However, the rising incidence of obesity, which results in chronically elevated insulin levels, implies that insulin may also act in brain centres that regulate motivation and reward. We report here that insulin can amplify action potential-dependent dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens (NA...

Lipids possess a wide range of biological activities in plants, animals and humans. They also serve as important components of our daily diet and provide both energy and essential fatty acids; they also act as carriers of fat-soluble vitamins and help in their absorption. Lipids are crucial as a heating medium for food processing and affect the texture, mouth feel and flavour of foods. Structur...

We summarize the results on patterns of flavour violation in a Randall-Sundrum model with custodial protection (RSc) and compare them with those identified in the Littlest Higgs Model with T–parity (LHT) and in a number of SUSY Flavour Models. While K decays play in this presentation a prominent role, the inclusion of B physics and lepton flavour violation is crucial in the distinction between ...

A growing body of empirical research on the crossmodal correspondences, that is, on the associations between abstract features that we share across the senses, demonstrates that people associate (gustatory) tastes and visual shape features in a non-random manner. Such abstract features of shapes (e.g., symmetry or curvature) can, under certain circumstances, guide our taste expectations and eve...

Food selection represents a major challenge for omnivorous species. Faced with a variety of potential foodstuffs, many beneficial and some deleterious, the omnivore must decide which to eat and which to reject. The select-reject decision process involves an evaluation of the sensory characteristics of the foodstuff, particularly its flavour (i.e. taste, odour and texture). Innate predisposition...

Mushrooms have long been used for nutritional and medical purposes [1]. They are rich in protein and amino acids, as well as their texture and flavour, low in calories and are considered a nutritious food [2]. In addition to their nutritive properties, they are considered as a significant source of medicinal substances due to their important biologically active compound content [3,4]. Because o...

The amino acid biosynthesis and proteolytic system of Lactobacillus bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus) is important for its growth in niche-specific environments, as well as for flavour formation in the food industry. Comparative analyses of 4 completed sequences of the L. bulgaricus strain genome on a genomic scale revealed that genes involved in amino acids synthesis were undergoing reductive evoluti...

In this manuscript we propose, analyse, and discuss a possible new principle behind traditional cuisine: the Food-bridging hypothesis and its comparison with the food-pairing hypothesis using the same dataset and graphical models employed in the food-pairing study by Ahn et al. [1]. The Food-bridging hypothesis assumes that if two ingredients do not share a strong molecular or empirical affinit...

After an overture and a non-technical exposition of the relevant theoretical framework including a brief discussion of some of the most popular extensions of the Standard Model, we will compile a list of 20 goals in flavour physics that could be reached already in the next decade. In addition to K, D and Bs,d decays and lepton flavour violation also flavour conserving observables like electric ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the degree of liking of the Oportunidades programme dietary supplements (DS)--purees and beverages--added with different iron salts (IS): reduced iron (RI), ferrous sulphate (FS) or ferrous fumarate (FF) during 24 weeks of storage. MATERIALS AND METHODS The DS were evaluated through a hedonic scale for aroma, flavour and colour attributes; at time zero and every eight w...