불교문헌에서 욕계의 음식 중 단맛 음식으로 가장 잘 알려져 있는 것 은 천상계 음식인 수타(須陀)와 인간계 음식인 환희단(歡喜團)이다. 이 두 음식은 그 달콤한 맛으로 천상계와 인간계의 중생들에게 선호되는 음식 임과 동시에 그 달콤함으로 인해 인간계에서 유혹의 도구로 사용되거나 천상계에서 천자들로 하여금 방일한 삶을 영위하게 하여 후생에 고통과 괴로움을 당하게 되는 낮은 세계에 재생하게 하는 원인을 제공하기도 한 다. 인간계 단 음식인 환희단은 그 단맛으로 모든 사람들이 선호하는 음식 이자 잔치에서 사용되거나 귀한 손님을 접대하고 수행자들을 위한 보시 음식으로 묘사된다. 이러한 실물음식으로서의 기능과 더불어 불교문헌에 서 환희단은 그 맛에 빠져 인간들에게 어려움을 야기하거나 혹은 유혹의 음식으로도 등장한다. 천상계 음식인 수타는 욕계에서 가장 많은 선업을 쌓은 중생이 태어나 는 천상계 중생의 선업에 걸맞게 모든 맛을 구비한 욕계 최고의 음식으 로 설명된다. 수타는 천자(天子)의 선업에 조응하여 그 색과 맛과 향과 식감을 구족한 음식으로 천상계 천자는 천녀(天女)들과 더불어 천상계 음 식인 수타, 천상계 술인 천주(天酒)을 향유하면서 방일의 생활에 빠지게 하는 주된 요소로 기능한다. 수타와 환희단의 예에서 보듯이 불교문헌이 단맛 음식에 대하여 그 부 정적 측면에 보다 많은 언급을 하고 있는데 반하여 밀교의례에서 단맛은 불부(佛部), 연화부(連花部), 금강부(金剛部), 삼존(三尊) 중 최상의 존격 인 불부의 상품에 반드시 올려야 하는 맛으로 강조되고 그 가장 상징적 인 단맛식품으로 ‘흰 설탕’을 명시하고 있다.

This study examined the sweet taste perception, perception of sugar reduction, and utilization of nutrition labeling according to the awareness of the self-perceived sugar intake reduction of university students in Chungbuk Area. The subjects (n=419) were divided into two groups: Awareness of Sugar Intake Reduction (ASIR) group, male=110, female=109; Non Awareness of Sugar Intake Reduction (NASIR) group, male=115, female=85. The overweight/obesity was significantly higher in the ASIR group than in the NASIR group for both male and female students. The sweet taste perception was significantly lower in the ASIR group in male students than in the NASIR group. The purchase level of a product with reduced sugar instead of the original products was significantly higher in the ASIR group in male students than the NASIR group. Beverage purchases after identifying the sugar content were significantly higher in the ASIR group in male students than in the NASIR group. The necessity of nutrition labeling education was significantly higher in the ASIR group both male and female students. Based on these results, the correct perception of sugar reduction and continuous and practical nutrition education of sugar intake reduction need to maintain healthy dietary habits in university students.

Increasing sugar intake of population has become a nutritional issue in Korea. Sweet taste perception may be related to behaviors such as eating sweet food including high sugars and total sugar intake. This study aimed to evaluate objective and subjective sweet taste perception and the association among objective sweet taste perception, dietary behaviors related to eating sweet snack food including high sugar, and total sugar intake from the snacks. Participants were 261 healthy female college students (mean age: 21.0±1.6 years), who were divided into three subgroups based on oral sweet taste evaluation using a sweet taste assessment tool provided by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: sweet-seeker group (n=139), medium sweet-seeker group (n=54), and unsweet-seeker group (n=68). There was no significant difference in weight and body mass index (BMI) among the three groups; however, the sweet-seeker group had significantly higher sweet taste preference than that of the other groups. Though more people in the sweet-seeker group thought they tended to eat sweet foods than the medium sweet-seeker and unsweet-seeker groups, over half of the sweet-seekers did not think they tended to eat sweet foods. The sweet-seeker group was more likely to eat sweet snacks such as breads, chocolate products, sugar-sweetened milk, and so on than the unsweet-seeker group. Total sugar intake from the selected sweet snacks was 44.4 g for the sweet-seeker group, 34.4 g for the medium sweet-seeker group, and 28.0 g for the unsweet-seeker group with a significant difference. These results indicated the absence of relationship between objective sweet taste perception and the obesity index; however, significant associations were detected among objective sweet taste perception, eating sweet snacks and total sugar intake from the snacks. We also found high disagreement between objective and subjective sweet taste perception of the subjects. The present study provided the novel insight that measuring objective sweet taste perception may be useful for assessing the risk of high sugar consumption and undesirable dietary behaviors.

Perception of sweet compounds is important for animals to detect external carbohydrate source of calories and plays a crucial role in feeding behavior of animals. Recent progress in molecular genetic studies provides evidence for a candidate receptor (heterodimers with taste receptor type 1 member 2 and 3: T1R2/T1R3), and major downstream transduction molecules required for sweet taste signaling. Several studies demonstrated that the sweet taste signal can be modulated by a satiety hormone, leptin, through its receptors expressed in a subset of sweet-sensitive taste cells. Increase of internal energy storage in the adipose tissue leads to increase in the plasma leptin level which can reduce activities of sweet-sensitive cells. In human, thus, diurnal variation of plasma leptin level parallels variation of taste recognition thresholds for sweet compounds. This leptin modulation of sweet taste sensitivity may influence individuals' preference, ingestive behavior, and absorption of nutrients, thereby plays important roles in regulation of energy homeostasis.