"Researchers at Deakin University, working with colleagues at the University of Adelaide among others, found that fat was the sixth taste people can identify in addition to the five others -- sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein-rich."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100310/lf_nm_life/us_fat_taste_1
When I went to click on this article it had expired, but I definitely think that this is interesting so I did some more research on it. According to Australian research people sensitive to the taste of fat tend to eat less of it and are less likely to be overweight, they found human tongues can detect fatty tastes. They also found that since fat is so common and easily accessible in our daily lives that we may have become desensitized to the taste of fat, which then causes more people to be overweight. I think this is very interesting because I used to watch a show on TLC called "I Can Make you Thin" It was about British guy who retaught you how to eat. He said you can eat whatever you want, but just slow down and eat only when you are hungry and stop when you are full. This is really good advice that is really simple. He pointed out that when American's eat they shovel food in their mouth and barely take a breath before the next bite and he encouraged people to put their utensil down between each bite, it will help your body recognize when it is full faster. He also said that when people he works with eat McDonalds trying these methods they don't really enjoy the taste of it anymore. McDonalds is just a sugar high and that is why we crave it, but the food doesn't actually taste that good. This article reminded me of the show and was very interesting.