Targeting Sweet Taste as a Strategy to Reduce Sugar Reward: Preliminary Evidence from Preclinical and Human Studies

Excessive sugar consumption is a contributor to obesity and disordered eating, driven in part by heightened reward responses to sweet taste. Targeting sweetness perception, therefore, represents a novel strategy to reduce sugar-related reward and intake. Here, we combined preclinical and human experimental approaches to examine whether suppressing sweet taste using Gymnema sylvestre –derived compounds attenuates sugar reward across distinct eating phenotypes and levels of sensory engagement. In Study 1, Wistar rats were exposed to continuous or intermittent sucrose access to model chronic sweet taste exposure (CSTE) and binge eating disorder (BED), respectively. Acute administration of gurmarin, a Gymnema -derived sweet taste inhibitor, reduced sucrose preference across groups but selectively decreased intake in rats with intermittent (binge-like) sucrose exposure, whereas chronically exposed animals showed relative resistance to intake suppression. Study 2 extended these findings to humans, examining whether gymnemic acids can enhance sugar reward devaluation during sensory-specific satiety (SSS) in healthy adults. Consistent with the hypothesis, SSS with Gymnema markedly reduced perceived sweetness, pleasantness and desire compared to standard SSS alone, indicating that attenuating peripheral sensory input amplifies the devaluation process. Together, these findings indicate that suppressing peripheral sweet taste signalling reliably weakens sugar-related reward. Targeting sweet taste receptors may therefore provide a mechanistically grounded, low-effort adjunct to interventions aimed at reducing excessive sugar consumption, with greatest efficacy in contexts where intake remains closely coupled to sensory dimension.