Study: Why Food Tastes Better When You’re Hungry – International Business Times

Dinner is late and you are starving. You could reach out for a snack to tide you over, or for the more steadfast ones, endure the hunger pangs till the food is ready because as we all know, good things come to those who wait.

When dinner is eventually served, it appears to be the best meal you have ever had. Everything tastes better when you are hungry, doesnt it?

This phenomenon has been explained by the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan. Food tastes sweeter when we are famished, and bitter food becomes easier to eat. We can thank a neural circuit in the hypothalamus for the varying effects.

This is the region of the brain responsible for body temperature, hunger, important aspects of parenting and attachment behaviors, thirst, fatigue, sleep, and circadian rhythms.

People generally prefer sweet tastes because they are a sign of calorie-richness, and are averse to sourness and bitterness as they are signs of spoiled food or poisons. But these preferences may change when our bodies are experiencing a different internal state such as hunger.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, ravenous mice showed a stronger inclination toward sweetness and reduced sensitivity to aversive tastes.

The researchers focused onAgouti-related peptide (AgRP)-expressing neurons which are said to be activated during hunger and influence eating behavior. The study identified two neural pathways that are responsible for this shift in eating preferences.

Upon stimulation of said pathways in the hypothalamus in mice, the researchers were able to manipulate taste preferences.

"The next steps will be to investigate whether these hypothalamic neuronal pathways are altered in pathophysiological conditions such as diabetes and obesity," says Yasuhiko Minokoshi, co-author of the study. "For example, we already know that people with obesity have a strong preference for sweetness; this might be associated with a change in the activity of the glutamate neurons projecting to the lateral septum."

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Study: Why Food Tastes Better When You're Hungry - International Business Times