Some people experience a loss of the ability to taste food after having weight-loss surgery, a side effect that could help them lose even more weight, a study suggests.
In a study following 55 patients who underwent bariatric weight-loss surgery, researchers conducted tests to measure their taste sensitivity before the surgery, then again at three, six and 12 months afterward, comparing the results to those obtained from 33 normal-weight people.
Eighty-six percent of those undergoing the surgery reported changes in their ability to taste food, and 42 percent said they found food wasn't tasting as good and they found themselves eating less, researchers reported at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Boston.
"In our clinical experience, many patients report alterations in their perception of taste after bariatric surgery," says study author Dr. John Morton, head of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "However, little evidence exists as to how and why these changes affect weight loss after surgery."
Obese people do taste their food differently -- with less intensity -- than do people of normal weight, the researchers found.
That may have led them to become obese because they are compensating for the loss of taste through increased volume of food consumption, they said.
"That's how they get satisfied," Morton says.
Study participants whose taste intensity decreased after surgery lost 20 percent more weight three months afterward than those who reported increased taste intensity, the study found.
To ensure they don't eventually gain the weight back with the ongoing lack to taste sensitivity, mindful eating practices could help recover some pleasure in taste in a way that doesn't contribute to recurring weight gain, Morton says.
In other news presented at the society meeting, researchers reported that patients with type 2 diabetes who undergo laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery have a low risk for complications or death.
"The perception has been that gastric bypass is a very risky operation, but the reality is, it is as safe, if not safer, than many of the most commonly performed surgeries in America," said Dr. Ali Aminian, a clinical scholar of advanced metabolic and diabetes surgery at Cleveland Clinic, co-author of a study published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
In the gastric bypass procedure, the size of the stomach is reduced and food bypasses part of the small intestine, reducing the amount a person can eat at any one time, and the absorption of the feed eaten is limited.
"The risk-to-benefit ratio of gastric bypass for diabetes and obesity is very favorable," Aminian said. "There's significant weight loss, diabetes improvement or remission, and a relatively low complication and mortality rate."
