Flavor: From Food to Behaviors, Wellbeing and Health

Flavor: From Food to Behaviors, Wellbeing and Health is the first single-volume resource focused on the different mechanisms of flavor perception from food ingestion, to sensory image integration and the physiological effects that may explain food behaviors.

The information contained is highly multidisciplinary, starting with chemistry and biochemistry, and then continuing with psychology, neurobiology, and sociology. The book gives coherence between results obtained in these fields to better explain how flavor compounds may modulate food intake and behavior.

When available, physiological mechanisms and mathematical models are explained. Since almost half a billion people suffer from obesity and food related chronic diseases in the world, and since recent research has investigated the possible roles of pleasure linked to the palatability of food and eating pleasure on food intake, food habits, and energy regulation, this book is a timely resource on the topic.

This book links these results in a logical story, starting in the food and the food bolus, and explaining how flavor compounds can reach different receptors, contribute to the emergence of a sensory image, and modulate other systems recognized as controlling food intake and food behavior. The influence of age, physiological disorders, or social environments are included in this approach since these parameters are known to influence the impact of food flavor on human behavior.

Uniquely brings together multidisciplinary fields to explain, in a narrative structure, how flavor compounds may modulate food intake and behaviorIncludes discussions of chemistry and biochemistry, psychology, neurobiology, and sociologyPresents an extremely current view that offers a wide perspective on flavor, an area of rapidly expanding knowledgeEdited by renowned experts in the field of flavor perception

Part I: Food flavor release in humans 1. Retention and release of taste and aroma compounds from the food matrix during mastication and ingestion 2. Modelling release of taste and aroma compounds from the food matrix and bolus 3. Flavor compounds in biological fluids, in particular amniotic fluid and milk

Part II: Perception of flavor compounds 4. Olfactory perception and integration 5. Taste perception and integration 6. Mouthfeel including fat perception 7. Flavor perception in the gut and other organs 8. Multimodal interactions 9. Central processing of flavor perception 10. Holistic perception and memorization of flavor 11. Prediction of perception using structure-activity models

Part III: Role of flavor perception on food intake 12. Flavor sensitivity (genetic) and food preferences 13. Mechanisms of short and long term regulation of food intake in relation to food flavor 14. Flavor perception and satiation 15. Flavor complexity, familiarity or variety and food intake 16. Early expositions and food preferences / acceptability or neophobia

Part IV: Flavor perception and physiological status 17. Flavor perception and metabolic desease 18. Olfactory disorders and consequences 19. Flavor perception, emotion and wellbeing

Part V: Environmental modulation of perception 20. The learning of human flavor preferences 21. Flavor categorisation and appreciation between socio-cultural groups 22. Sensory and neuro-marketing 23. Influence of price and labelling on flavor appreciation