Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics

Oral Fatty Acid Sensitivity among Obesity Resistant and Obesity Susceptible Individuals

Abstract Context: While rates of global obesity are high, a substantial proportion of the population remain lean despite living in an obesogenic environment. One potential difference between obesity resistant individuals (ORIs) and obesity susceptible individuals (OSIs) is oral fatty acid sensitivity.

Objective: We compared oral fatty acid sensitivity and fat ranking ability between ORIs and OSIs.

Design and participants: Oral sensitivity to oleic acid (1.4 mM) was determined using triplicate triangle tests amongst 50 ORIs and 36 OSIs. Participants tasted three milk samples, consisting of one sample with oleic acid and two control samples without oleic acid. Hypersensitive individuals were defined as those who chose the oleic acid sample three out of three tests. Participants also ranked the fat content of custard samples containing 0%, 2%, 6% and 10% fat.

Statistics: Logistic regression models including sex, age, and percentage body fat estimated adjusted odds ratios (OR) for oral fatty acid sensitivity between ORI and OSI. Negative binomial regression adjusting for age, BMI, and height compared fat ranking scores between ORIs and OSIs.

Results: The odds of being hypersensitive to fatty acids amongst ORIs was 3.60 times that for OSIs (P=0.034). There was no evidence for an association between resistance to obesity and the ability to rank the fat levels in a food (P=0.600).

Conclusion: Hypersensitivity to oral fatty acids among ORIs may influence their dietary fat intake, and thus their body weight regulation. Future larger studies are needed to confirm this.

Author(s):

Rachel Clare Brown, Rebecca McLay-Cooke, Andrew Robert Gray and Siew Ling Tey

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