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HOW'S YOUR TASTE, BUD? Did you know a cast of thousands is eagerly awaiting your next meal? Approximately 10,000 taste buds live inside of your mouth. Once you chow down, they’re ready and to transmit some tasty information to your brain. The Taste Test Look closely at your tongue in the mirror and you'll see that it’s covered with hundreds of tiny bumps called papillae (puh PILL ee). Several taste buds are located on each of the papillae and they are tiny! Each taste bud is about 1/750 of an inch in diameter. This is where the taste process begins. When food molecules touch the receptor cells located in your taste buds, signals rush to your brain to help it identify the food. Your mouth has several groups of taste buds and each is sensitive to different kinds of taste. The tip of the tongue detects sweet tastes; the back of the tongue and soft palate are sensitive to bitter tastes. The sides of the tongue are most sensitive to salty and sour tastes. Essential Ingredients We can't taste food unless it dissolved in liquid first. Here's a simple test you can use to prove this. Dry the top of your tongue with a towel. Then place one-half teaspoon of sugar on the tip of your tongue. It should taste sweet, right? It won't as long as your tongue remains dry. But if you allow your saliva to flow over your tongue, the sugar will begin to dissolve and produce its sweet taste. Apple or Potato? Smell is also an important part of the tasting process. You really can’t taste well without the smell. Think about the last time you had a bad cold. When your sense of smell is affected by a cold, food often tastes different or has no taste at all. Try this experiment. Cut an apple and a potato into small pieces. Next, put on a blindfold and hold your nose shut with your fingers. Have a friend put different pieces in your mouth without identifying them. See if you can tell which is the potato; which is the apple. With your nose blocked, it's hard to tell the two apart. Both will taste sweet, and have the same feel when chewing. But if you remove your fingers from your nose, they will be easier to recognize. The combination of taste and smell becomes the flavor we associate with foods. Watch What You Swallow In
addition to alerting us to the flavor of food, our taste buds also
as a watchdog for dangerous foods. Many bitter tasting substances
are often harmful or poisonous. Bitter taste is a danger signal
throughout the animal kingdom, so the bitter taste buds at the back
of the tongue act as our last defense before we swallow. |
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