Posts

Showing posts with the label sense of taste

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT YOUR SENSE OF TASTE

                                      Bite into your favorite food, and immediately your sense of taste is activated. But just how does this amazing process work? Consider your tongue –as well as other parts of your mouth and throat –includes clusters of skin cells called TASTE BUDS. Many are located within PAPILLAE on the surface of the tongue. A taste bud contains up to a hundred receptor cells, each of which can detect one of four types of taste –SOUR, SALTY, SWEET, OR BITTER. Spicy is in a different category altogether. In recent years some scientists have added UMAMI to the list. UMAMI describes the unique salts of GLUTAMIC ACID. One of them is, among others, the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate. Spices stimulate pain receptors cells –not taste buds! In any event, taste-receptor cells are connected to sensory nerves that, when stimulated by chemicals in food, instantly transmit signals to the lower brain stem Taste, however, involves more than