Pleasure from Food: Different perspectives on aging

There is increasing awareness that dietary intake is an important factor in the process of aging. An important determinant of dietary intake is the pleasure we experience in response to visual or oral presentation of food products. Individuals are aware of which foods they like and dislike. However, they remain unaware of bodily (e.g., hunger) and psychological (e.g., emotions and memory) processes that determine whether they like or dislike a food product. Although manipulations of characteristics of food product have been related to aging (e.g., the relation between vitamin B and memory), processes that underlie the pleasure we experience in response to visual or oral presentation of food products in young and older adults remain elusive. The study of these processes are described in this thesis titled ‘Pleasure from Food’.

The results presented in this thesis show that taste sensation (the perception of taste intensity) is similar between young and older adults. The effect of age on pleasure experienced in response to tastes seems to result from changes in the complex interaction between taste sensation, emotions and information stored in memory. To understand the relation between taste sensation and adequate dietary intake with respect to aging, more insight into changes in processes that underlie whether a food product is liked or disliked, such as emotion and memory, is crucial.