Group items tagged

An individual's unique sense of taste is partially inherited, but factors such as culture and familiarity can help determine why one person's favorite food made be hot and spicy while another just can't get enough chocolate.

Taste occurs when specific proteins in the food bind to receptors on the taste buds.

Taste buds for all four taste groups can be found throughout the mouth, but specific kinds of buds are clustered together in certain areas. Think about licking an ice cream cone; taste buds for sweetness are grouped on the tip of our tongue. The buds for sour tastes are on the sides of the tongue and saltyon the front.

 The tongue is basically a muscle. This muscle helps the digestive process by doing several things: Move food to the teeth for chewing. Mix saliva into the food. Move food to the back of the mouth for swallowing.

As mentioned above, the tongue mixes the food with saliva. As the saliva mixes it is also spreading the solutions and chemicals from the food into the grooves between the papillae on the tongue. The taste buds are located on the papillae and the taste receptors respond to the chemicals from the food. When triggered, the receptors send impulses along the nerves in the tongue up to the brain for processing.

ARE YOU A SUPERTASTER? To find out, put blue food coloring on your tongue. Blue dye doesn't stick to taste papillae, so if your tongue doesn't get very blue, you're probably a supertaster. The bluer it gets, the greater the chance you are a subtaster. More hot sauce!

People who have a lot of papillae—the bumps on our tongue, most of which house our taste buds—often find flavors overwhelming. They're "supertasters," and as such they add cream to their coffee and order food mild instead of spicy. Subtasters, on the other hand, have low papillae density and prefer their chicken wings "atomic."

Most toxic plants taste bitter, and nomadic groups that came into contact with a variety of plants would have, over time, developed a variety of receptors. People from malaria-infested parts of the world tend to carry a gene that makes them less sensitive to some bitter compounds, specifically those that contain cyanide.

In recent years, scientists have expanded the definition of taste, allowing one, and possibly two, primary tastes into the original canon of four -- sour, bitter, sweet and salty.

The sense of smell is extremely important in attracting cats (and us) to food and also in aiding tasting food. Cat’s noses are many times more sensitive than our own, so it is believed that their heightened sense of smell assists a great deal in their tasting of different flavors.

When you have a cold or allergies, and your nose is stuffy, you might notice that your food doesn't seem to have much flavor. That's because the upper part of your nose isn't clear to receive the chemicals that trigger the olfactory receptors (that inform the brain and create the sensation of flavor).

Want to find out just how much you use your tongue? Try eating an ice-cream cone or singing your favorite song without it. You need your tongue to chew, swallow, and sing. And don't forget talking and tasting!

There's a famous myth that the tongue is the body's strongest muscle. It's not really true -- and not by any definition of strength. But that shouldn't make the tongue any less impressive.

The tongue is an accessory digestive organ which, along with the cheeks, keeps food between the upper and lower teeth until it's sufficiently masticated, or chewed.