Taste & Smell

How well you taste is impacted by how well you "smell." What you perceive as taste is a complex interaction of tongue-tasting and nose-smelling. Chewing your food forces air up into your nose, which carries chemicals that trigger olfactory receptors. The olfactory receptors are distance chemoreceptors, meaning they do not have to make direct contact with the food itself. They pick up the chemical odors and translate them into electrical signals that travel to the brain via the nervous system. Together your taste buds and olfactory receptors notify the brain of what they are picking up and the sensation of ‘flavor’ is created. The gustatory cortex located near the back of the brain next to centers that control chewing and swallowing, decode taste. Estimates are that about 25% of the population are ‘supertasters.’ They have a heightened sense of taste, due in part to a higher density of taste buds and to subtle brain differences in how taste is decoded. As you enjoy your ability to smell and taste, thank the taste buds on your tongue, the olfactory receptors in your nose—and the decoding centers in your brain. Without them, your life would definitely be lacking in flavor. 

Tongue & Taste

Can you tell me what part of my tongue “tastes” sweet versus sour? My granddaughter asked me that the other day and I couldn’t answer the question. I told her I’d ask you.

No, I cannot answer her question, per se. You may tell her, however, that apparently the tongue appears not to be divided into specific and discrete taste sections as was once believed. Put a bit of sugar or salt on different sections of your tongue and your taste buds can pick up their chemicals anywhere. What can impact your taste? Colds, flu, allergies, or anything that makes your nose stuffy, which reduces the flow of chemicals to your olfactory receptors. Smoking can reduce the number of taste buds you have on your tongue, which can reduce taste intensity. So can the aging process. As you grow older your taste buds may not get replaced properly. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds instead of 8,000-10,000, which can impact the intensity of flavors. 

Thanksgiving!

This year there will only be two of us for Thanksgiving dinner in the USA. I’m struggling to find something for which to be thankful. It’s been such a stressful year!

 My little French Grandmother used to say, “When you think there is nothing to be thankful for, that is the time to choose to be grateful about something.” In the main, she practiced that, too. Neurobiologically, gratitude is right up there with awe and wonder and the benefits are myriad. Doctors have pointed out that when you pause to appreciate and show caring and compassion, the more order and coherence you experience internally. When your heart is in an ‘internal coherence state,’ studies suggest that you enjoy the capacity to be peaceful and calm yet retain the ability to respond appropriately to stressful circumstances. So what makes Thanksgiving Day more unique than any other day? Think of it as being dedicated to reminding us to be grateful. On this day I pause to be specifically grateful for those individuals who love me enough to give me quality time throughout the year by phone, text, email, snail mail—and sometimes in person (how deliciously rewarding). I refer to them as my ‘family-of-choice’ because a gift of time is a personal choice. It is the only thing your brain can give another brain that no one else can. For quality time I am truly grateful. And even in the midst of the chaos of 2020, quality time can be by zoom, phone, email, text—and sometimes in person . . .  Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, my wish for you is that you both give and receive the gift of ‘quality time.’ 

Tasting "Tastes"

Taste buds replace themselves every 10-14 days so you can become accustomed to new foods quite quickly, if you choose to do so. Taste buds are able to sense five distinct tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami or savory. Each on is linked to specific chemicals in foods. Generally, most human beings find salty, sweet, and umami foods quite pleasant. Sour and bitter tastes may register as being rather unpleasant. Three cranial nerves are responsible for carrying the chemicals that your taste buds pick up from food to the brain. Taste is ultimately decoded as flavor in the brain (not in the taste buds)

 The facial nerve carries signals from the front two-thirds of the tongue

 The glossopharyngeal nerve transmits signals from the back portion of the tongue

 The vagus nerve conveys signals from the soft palate and epiglottis

Taste in Your Brain

You “taste” because of messages that are sent to the brain from your taste buds, where they are decoded. Each taste bud, formed from a group of 50–150 receptor cells, is embedded in the surface of the tongue and makes contact with what you eat and drink via a taste pore. Different tongues have differing numbers of taste buds, ranging from 8,000-10,000 on average. Some individuals may have only a few hundred taste buds per square centimeter on the tip of their tongue, while others may have a thousand. Taste sensations produced within an individual taste bud also vary, since each taste bud typically contains receptor cells that respond to distinct chemical stimuli. This means that differing tastes are diverse in a single taste bud. Taste buds have sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli that are direct chemoreceptors. They must come into contact with food and then they translate chemical signals in food into electrical signals that travel to the brain via the nervous system. 

Brain & Taste

I’m looking forward to the tastes and smells that mean Thanksgiving day, but I don’t really understand how they impact each other. I know that when I have a stuffy nose I cannot smell well . . .

Your brain and body is absolutely amazing, although it can be easy to take for granted what they do for you on a daily basis. There are miracles going on in your brain and body every second of your life. Taste and smell are two of them. As you look ahead to the holidays, anticipation of familiar foods may come to mind. Taste and smell are two senses that not only are quite complex but also have a major impact on behavior, perception, obesity, dementia, depression, overall health, memories, and some chronic illnesses. No surprise, they also influence your enjoyment of a great many things including the romantic impact of your partner along with the pleasure you receive from foods and beverages. Taste and smell work together hand-in-hand to create flavors in the brain. 

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