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Sweet is one of the five basic tastes and is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as sugar are those most commonly associated with sweetness, although there are other natural and artificial compounds that are sweet at much lower concentrations, allowing their use as non-caloric sugar substitutes. Other compounds may alter perception of sweetness itself. The chemosensory basis for detecting sweetness, which varies among both individuals and species, has only been teased apart in recent years. The current theoretical model is the multipoint attachment theory, which involves multiple binding sites between sweetness receptor and the sweet substance itself. Studies indicate that responsiveness to sugars and sweetness has very ancient evolutionary beginnings, being manifest as chemotaxis even in motile bacteria such as E. Coli.[1] Newborn human infants also demonstrate preferences for high sugar concentrations and prefer solutions that are sweeter than lactose, the sugar found in breast milk.[2][3] Sweetness appears to have the highest taste recognition threshold, being detectable at around 1 part in 200 of sucrose in solution. By comparison, bitterness appears to have the lowest detection threshold, at about 1 part in 2 million for quinine in solution.[4] In natural settings of the sort our primate ancestors evolved in, sweetness intensity should indicate energy density, while bitterness tends to indicate toxicity[5][6][7] The high sweetness detection threshold and low bitterness detection threshold would have predisposed our primate ancestors to seek out sweet-tasting (and energy-dense) foods and avoid bitter-tasting foods. Even amongst leaf-eating primates,there is a tendency to prefer immature leaves, which tend to be higher in protein and lower in fibre and poisons than mature leaves.[8]. The 'sweet tooth' thus has an ancient evolutionary heritage, and while food processing has changed consumption patterns[9][10], human physiology remains largely unchanged.[11] A great diversity of chemical compounds, such as aldehydes, ketones are sweet. Among common biological substances, all of the simple carbohydrates are sweet to at least some degree. Sucrose (table sugar) is the prototypical example of a sweet substance. Sucrose in solution has a sweetness perception rating of 1, and other substances are rated relative to this.[12]. For example, another sugar, fructose, is somewhat sweeter, being rated at 1.7 times the sweetness of sucrose[12]. Some of the amino acids are mildly sweet alanine, glycine, and serine are the sweetest. Some other amino acids are perceived as both sweet and bitter.
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Sweetness Subcategories
Sweetness Articles
Choosing Your Wedding Cake
by Julie Whitehead
Apr 09, 2010
The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is your wedding day must be organized so that you can cherish it forever. A wedding cake plays an important role in your special day. Your wedding cake goes hand in hand with the venue, wedding dress, theme of ...
VigRx Plus
by Angel Sosa
Oct 29, 2009
We are totally aware that happiness can be gained when we make folks happy, most especially our family ; for married couples, our partners in life. When you are married, you are already one with your other half. What wounds her h...
Wedding Cakes With Flare
by Alpharetta Murray
Jun 09, 2009
You dream of a wedding with a cake so magnificent you fear to cut into it. You know it will be a great moment in your list of beautiful memories. The thought of cutting the cake, hand in hand, and sharing your first bite of sweetness as husband and w...
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