Food Preference in Parkinson's Disease

Several studies have reported that persons with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit a preference for sweet foods. However, because many people favor such foods, this study investigated whether the preference for sweet foods was stronger among patients with PD than among those without PD.

We analyzed 150 patients treated in the neurology department of Nippon Medical School Hospital between July 2021 and November 2021. Forty-nine (33%) had PD and 101 patients (control group) did not. Participants were asked to rate three sweet foods, three salty foods, and three bitter foods (total, nine foods) on a questionnaire where a score of 3 indicated "like", 2 indicated "neutral", and 1 indicated "dislike". The score for each taste preference was defined as the sum of the scores for the three foods representing each taste. Differences in baseline characteristics and taste preference scores between patients with and without PD were then statistically analyzed.

The PD group was significantly older than the control group. The PD group obtained a significantly higher sweetness score than the control group (8 [6-9] vs. 7 [3-9], p<0.01). There was no difference in scores for either saltiness (7 [3-9] vs. 7 [3-9], p=0.49) or bitterness (7 [4-9] vs. 7 [3-9], p=0.25). The sweetness score was not significantly correlated with L-dopa dose, L-dopa equivalent dose, or PD disease duration.

Patients with PD were more likely than those without PD to prefer sweet foods. These results are important new information on the taste preferences of persons with Parkinson's disease.