Salt taste responsiveness and preference among normotensive, prehypertensive and hypertensive adults

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Abstract
A taste dependent marker for prehypertensives was sought in white American adults. Direct measures for NaCl taste responsiveness and preference were judgements of the intensity of suprathreshold aqueous solutions, judgements of the intensity of and preference for salted tomato juice or rice, and ad libitum salting of low sodium tomato juice. A questionnaire provided an indirect measure of NaCl acceptability and intake. Sucrose-sweetened fruit-flavored beverage was a control taste stimulus. Blood pressure criteria, supplemented with family history, relative weight, heart rate, and salt-use, segregated subjects into normotensive, prehypertensive and untreated hypertensive groups. No statistically significant differences between groups were found in mean taste responsiveness or preference towards NaCl or towards the sucrose-sweetened beverage. NaCl acceptability and intake were also similar. The results suggest that NaCl suprathreshold taste responsiveness and preference are not useful predictors for hypertension in the population studied.

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