Hormone dulls a tongue’s taste for sweets

The sweet tooth that compels some people to snack on candy and sugary foods is really more of a sweet tongue. A new study of mice by Japanese researchers suggests that the same hormone that the brain uses to regulate appetite can also lessen a tongue’s penchant for sweet substances.

By doing so, the hormone, known as leptin, provides the body with another way to control its intake of calories, speculate taste physiologist Yuzo Ninomiya at the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and his colleagues.