Humans perceive some amino acids as sweet and some as umami (glutamate-like). For example, glycine, L-alanine, L-glutamine, and L-threonine are sweet tasting amino acids and when added to food they can cause the food to increase in sweetness. However, when the amino acids are not in their free form, but instead joined to other amino acids in a protein, they lose some of their sweet taste. Carbohydrate within foods can be predicted based on their sweet taste. When a sweet taste is present it usually indicates the presence of certain sugars, with fructose being particularly sweet. Very sweet foods, such as honey can therefore be predicted to contain fructose, which in the case of honey is true. Protein foods can also be analysed through taste and although the presence of the sweet amino acids is not as clear as with sugars, protein foods do change their taste based on the amino acid content. The purpose of this may be a feedback mechanism to ensure that foods that are desirable and beneficial are selected based on their taste.
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