What do we mean when we say "palatable food"?
The word palatability and related words have not been used in a consistent way. Palatability may be a property of a food, of the organism eating the food, or both. Investigators have failed to distinguish different possible meanings of the statement: "palatable foods increase intake". This may indicate: (1) a simple observation that some foods stimulate more intake than others, (2) an innate response to the taste of foods that alters appetite, (3) a correlate of food intake that does not itself affect intake, and (4) a link in a causal chain involving prior associations between foods and their postingestive consequences.
Ramirez
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Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308.
D001066:Appetite; D004435:Eating; D005502:Food; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D013649:Taste; D009626:Terminology as Topic