How Many Basic Tastes Do We Have? Four? Five? Six? More?

As children, we all learn that there are 4 basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami (savory) was discovered in 1909, but recognized more generally since the 1980s. But there have been a number of other additional basic tastes also proposed that many may not have heard of: Calcium Fatty (Oleogustus) Metallic Heartiness or Mouthfulness Should one include taste senses due to the somatosensory system, one can potentially include these basic tastes: Pungency, spiciness, h…

8/03/2015 0

Continue Reading

"Bitter" Taste Sense Contributes to Immune Defense

As children, we all learned about the 4 different taste qualities the human tongue can appreciate: salty, sugar, bitter, and sour. Savory or umami was added in 1985. "Calcium" has been proposed in 2008 as well as more recently, "fatty" taste. However, we are slowly learning that "taste" is much more complex than simply the ability to perceive the taste qualities associated with food. That tongue map we all memorized in elementary school? It's a lie... Rea…

10/12/2012 0

Continue Reading

Why Do Humans Have Weak Sense of Smell

Compared to nearly all other animals, humans have the weakest sense of smell. You would think that humans and our closest evolutionary cousins (chimpanzees, apes, etc) would have similar sense of smell, but humans still have a much weaker olfactory sense. Why might that be? Well, research from Karolinska Institutet have discovered that humans are the ONLY mammals whereby no new neurons are formed in the olfactory bulb after birth. Or if there is any, it is VERY little. In all other …

5/27/2012 0

Continue Reading

Another Reason to Stop Smoking... Decreased Sense of Taste

Greek researchers published a study in which they described a significant decrease in taste ability in smokers compared to non-smokers. In the study titled " Evaluation of young smokers and non-smokers with electrogustometry and contact endoscopy ," 62 male Greek soldiers were evaluated for smoking and taste by using two different instruments called electrogustometry (measures taste thresholds) and contact endoscopy (wich evaluated the morphology and density of papillae on the tongue…

8/24/2009 0

Continue Reading