Tune into sweet sound of sugar

Banishing excess sugar and salt from diets is a goal for many but the thought of bland, tasteless food often puts people off ditching the additives.

But researchers at Oxford University, in the UK, believe you can have your cake and eat it simply by listening to sounds that increase the sense of taste.

It has been dubbed "sonic seasoning" and works by tricking the brain into perceiving that a flavour is more salty, sweet or sour than it actually is.

Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, believes that it could allow cooks to cut down on unhealthy ingredients without losing any of the richness.

"It would definitely work in the short term," he said. "You could make a dish appear up to 10% more sweet or salty through sounds, which could be big enough to have a health impact.

"You can prime the brain for sweetness by playing a high pitched sound. Tempos and instruments do seem to matter. Changing the environment can have a great effect on flavour.

"In the future we may see companies creating sensory apps that play while you are eating their product to alter the taste.

"In a way it's all in our head, but then so is taste. Perhaps you could think about reducing the sugar in food by changing the music in the background."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) advises adults to eat no more than 12 teaspoonsful of sugar a day but is considering dropping the level to six because it is so harmful.

There are no proteins, essential fats, vitamins or minerals in sugar, just pure energy. Not only does sugar rot teeth but it causes weight gain and can lead to type-2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Spence first carried out experiments into how sound could alter food at television celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant in England in 2011.

He discovered that diners believed cinder toffee tasted sweeter when listening to "sweet" sounds and more bitter when listening to "bitter" sounds.

Low-pitched notes played by brass instruments are associated with the bitter taste of caffeine, whereas high-pitched notes played by the piano are associated with the taste of sucrose. So they can be used to stimulate the sensation of sweet and bitter.

The bitter recording in the 2011 experiment was made from a single trombone note mixed with the rumble of car traffic through a tunnel. The sweet recording was created by a grand piano.

He believes that the sound of "bitter" may be hard-wired into the human brain from the noise of gagging that we make when rejecting bad food.

And music can create the same effect as the synthesised noises. The classical composer Erik Satie's Trois Gymnopedies would make food taste sweeter whereas Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze would promote sourness.

Previously Spence discovered that wine tasted better with appropriate accompanying songs.

A cabernet sauvignon should be paired with Won't Get Fooled Again, by The Who, to bring out its depth, whereas a chardonnay will slide down more easily accompanied by Atomic, by Blondie. A merlot really needs The Dock of the Bay, by '70s soul singer Otis Redding

Spence also believes the phenomenon explains why air passengers often choose to drink a Bloody Mary on a flight. Its taste is one of the few strong enough to be perceived over the sound of the engines , he suggests.

"It seems to retain its taste in a way that so much of the airline food clearly doesn't at 35000 feet," he said. "It is probably why many people who would never drink Bloody Mary or tomato juice on the ground do on a flight."