Gastroenterology 2013-09-01

Effect of carbonation on brain processing of sweet stimuli in humans.

Francesco Di Salle, Elena Cantone, Maria Flavia Savarese, Adriana Aragri, Anna Prinster, Emanuele Nicolai, Giovanni Sarnelli, Maurizio Iengo, Maxime Buyckx, Rosario Cuomo

Index: Gastroenterology 145(3) , 537-9.e3, (2013)

Full Text: HTML

Abstract

Little is known about how CO2 affects neural processing of taste. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of carbonation on brain processing of sweet stimuli, which has relevance to studies of food selection and satiety. The presence of carbonation produced an overall decrease in the neural processing of sweetness-related signals, especially from sucrose. CO2 reduced the neural processing of sucrose more than that of artificial sweeteners. These findings might be relevant to dietary interventions that include noncaloric beverages, whereas the combination of CO2 and sucrose might increase consumption of sucrose. Copyright © 2013 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.