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These foods are too sweet, too salty, very sour, and so on. That's how you usually respond to the food you are eating. Taste of food! This is what you definitely enjoy when you eat. The taste of good food (in your opinion) can certainly make you eat heartily. However, do you know how the tongue recognizes taste? Find out here.
The tongue has cells that can taste the taste of food
There are four basic tastes that our tongue can taste, namely sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Also, there is another added flavor that we can taste according to recent research, namely the umami taste. You can feel these tastes because there are small receptors in the taste buds. These receptors are present primarily on the tongue, roof of the mouth, and back of the esophagus.
The average adult has 10,000 taste buds that can renew themselves every two weeks. However, as a person gets older, the cells in the taste buds may not renew themselves. An elderly person only has approximately 5000 working taste buds. This is why older people may not taste food as well as young people. One more thing, smokers may taste worse in food. This is because smoking reduces the number of taste buds.
You cannot see these taste buds with the naked eye. The little white or pink colors that are on your tongue are actually called papillae, not taste buds. Each of these papillae consists of an average of six taste buds.
How does the tongue recognize taste?
The tongue can recognize taste because there are taste buds. These taste buds have very sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli. Now, in these microvilli, there are sensory nerves that can carry messages to the brain about the taste of the food you feel, whether it is salty, sweet, sour, or bitter.
The tongue is not alone. Yes, the tongue is accompanied by a nose which helps in tasting the taste of food. How to? At the very top of the nose are olfactory receptors which contain special cells that help you smell food. When you chew, the chemicals from the food are released into your nose. This chemical compound triggers olfactory receptors in the nose that work together with the taste buds to transmit taste information to the brain. By the brain, this information is translated into sweet or salty or bitter or sour taste.
It also explains why when your nose is blocked, you may not be able to taste food well. Every food you eat you may feel a little bland when you are sick. This in turn can lower your appetite.
