Sensory preferences for fats: relationships with diet and body composition.

Little is known about the factors influencing individual selection and consumption of fats or the role of sensory preferences in this process. Thirty human subjects kept diet records for 10 d and then underwent preference testing with fat-containing stimuli: 10 different foods, each prepared with 2-5 levels of fat. The mean preferred level of fat across all foods was used as an indicator of overall fat preference. Analyses indicate 1) wide individual variation in the most preferred fat level for each stimulus, with no consistent correlation among the various stimuli; 2) no consistent relationships among sensory and dietary measures; and 3) a positive correlation between overall fat preference and percent body fat (r = 0.46, P less than 0.01). Although a battery of test stimuli may be used to identify individual and group sensory preferences for fats, relationships between sensory and dietary measures remain unclear.