June 4, 2024 – Sofia Spieler, a Boston-based PR skilled who lost weight with Wegovy, said her “snack monster” has virtually disappeared after a lifelong penchant for sweets.
“I used to get excited when I heard words like 'Sour Patch Kids'. Now I don't feel the need to treat myself. I do crave a little treat from time to time, but a piece of chocolate or a glass of wine usually fills me up.”
New research suggests that Spieler is just not alone.
Semaglutide, present in the load loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, has been shown to enhance taste sensitivity, which can explain one other way the drugs help change food preferences and result in weight reduction.
These drugs, also generally known as GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists, also altered gene expression within the tongue liable for taste perception, changing the brain's reward response to sweet taste, researcher Mojca Jensterle Sever, PhD, of the University Hospital of Ljubljana, Slovenia, explained to attendees of ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting held in Boston on Saturday.
The study was small, involving only 30 women with obesity, but in a press conference, Sever said it builds on previous research.
“Some studies report that people with obesity often perceive taste as less intense”, she said. Other Research suggests that people who are more sensitive to certain tastes are likely to consume less of those foods, and those with lower sensitivity may eat more. “Populations prone to obesity naturally have increased cravings for sweets and energy-dense foods,” Sever said.
Study details
To investigate the effect of semaglutide on taste perception, researchers randomly assigned 30 women with an average age of 33.7 years and a BMI of 36.4 (any BMI over 30 is considered obese) to receive either 1 milligram of semaglutide or a placebo.
The researchers measured their taste sensitivity for 16 weeks using taste strips at four concentrations of sweet, salty and bitter. The brain's responses to a sweet solution dropped on the tongue before and after a meal were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Small tissue samples were also taken from the women's tongues.
In people taking semaglutide, taste sensitivity and renewal of taste buds on the tongue improved compared to those taking a placebo. In response to the stimulus of sweet taste, people taking semaglutide also showed increased activity in an area of the brain that provides feedback about reward, which may be reduced in people with obesity. Shifting the feeling of reward from a neutral feeling toward taste could be important for weight control.
Sever predicted that her findings would apply to both obesity doctors and patients taking GLP-1 drugs. But in an email interview, she said, “At this point can not Generalize that those taking semaglutide may now perceive sweets in the same way as people who are not obese and therefore do not experience cravings for sweets [and other calorie-dense foods].”
Although the consequences on taste were clinically detectable of their study, it is just not known whether these are “clinically meaningful” because the consequences on food preferences or dietary changes weren't studied.
Perspective: In real life
The latest research reflects what she hears from a few of her patients who take GLP-1 drugs, says Megan Melo, a family medicine and bariatric physician at Phinney Primary Care and Wellness in Seattle. They tell her they've less interest in sweets, salty or unhealthy foods. “They need to eat vegetables and fresh foods as an alternative.”
There has not been enough research to date on this aspect of obesity, she said, which she describes as “excessive cravings for food, especially highly processed foods, that reach the 'bliss point.'” When people [taking the GLP-1 drugs] They not have cravings or chatter, not only do their eating habits change, but lots of brain energy can be released.