Supertasters live in a neon-lit world of food flavours

Some people are born with a better sense of taste than others, according to a study showing that "supertasters" have a biological gift enabling them to detect the most subtle nuances of food. It is believed to be a genetic trait that can determine what individuals eat and what illnesses they will develop.

Supertasters live in a "neon-lit" world of flavours which is roughly three times as intense as the "pastel world" of the less-sensitive "non-tasters" who have fewer taste buds on their tongues, said Linda Bartoshuk of Yale University.

Supertasters carry a double copy of a gene that makes them sensitive to the bitter taste. They tend to avoid sweet, high-fat foods but are also averse to vegetables which can taste unpleasantly bitter, Professor Bartoshuk told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver.

"Supertasters are picky eaters. They taste bitterness in food that other people don't notice. For some, the food world is just slashingly bright and they opt out from many food choices," Professor Bartoshuk told the meeting.

"It's related to gender because women are more likely to be supertasters than men. Bitter taste is related to hormones in humans. The degree of bitterness perceived varies with the menstrual cycle. It also goes to a peak in early pregnancy and falls off a cliff at menopause," she said.

Pregnant women can become highly sensitive to the bitter taste probably because it is a way of protecting their developing babies from the effects of food poisoning. Women also tend to be different to men in terms of their taste preferences.

"Female supertasters really don't like high fat so they eat less of it and their cardiovascular profiles are superior than non-tasting females. Many males show the opposite pattern this means that many males who taste fat more intensely also like it more and so they gain weight," she said.

Scientists can determine whether someone is a supertaster by getting them to taste a chemical called prop. "It tastes incredibly bitter to supertasters, moderately bitter to medium tasters and basically tastes not at all to non-tasters," Professor Bartoshuk said.

About a quarter of the population are supertasters, another quarter are non-tasters and the rest are medium tasters. Scientists believe the ability to detect bitter tastes is designed to be a safety measure to avoid food that has gone off.

"The ability to taste bitter substances has always been associated with poison detection, but now we have found all these health associations," Professor Bartoshuk said. "We know that people's whole diets are different, based on their taste sensitivity.

"Supertasters perceive all tastes more intensely but the bitter effect is the largest. Supertasters also perceive oral burning and oral touching as more intense. Chefs are more likely to be supertasters.

"In older men, we found that the number of polyps in the colon was directly correlated with the bitter [they] perceived. In addition, the men with polyps ate fewer vegetables and were heavier, both risks factors known to be associated with colon cancers," said Professor Bartoshuk.

"We want to see what things suppress bitter the best. We want people to eat these foods so we have to figure out ways of preparing them in a way that is tolerable, and inhibiting bitter is one of them."

Experiments show that being supersensitive to the taste of bitter is related to race – white Caucasians for instance are less likely to be supertasters than Asians. The ability to taste bitterness is largely determined by a single gene which is located on human chromosome number five, Professor Bartoshuk said.