An April 2020 study by the University of Sydney said,
“The food animals eat can change how they perceive future food.
This response uses the same machinery that the brain uses to learn.
Pathways that can extend lifespan were also involved in enhancing taste perception, and diets in fruit flies that promote long life were also found to enhance taste perception.
Lifespan, learning and sensory perception are linked in ways we are just starting to understand.”
The researchers went on to say,
“We were surprised to find that a protein-restricted diet that makes an animal live much longer also turns up the intensity of sucrose perception for that animal, and that is dependent on the same learning and longevity pathways.”
"The response was also really specific. For example, when we fed flies food that had no sweetness, the animals' sweet taste perception was enhanced, but only for glucose, not for fructose. We have no idea why they specifically focus just on one kind of sugar when they perceive them both as sweet."
"We also found that eating high amounts of sugar suppressed sweet taste perception, making sugar seem less sweet,"