Ever wonder why when you were little you didn’t like a certain food but now you do? Did you know that more than 75% of your taste comes from your sense of smell? Molecules in the foods and drinks we consume land on olfactory cells in the nose, which then send a message to the brain to produce a smell. We have roughly 10,000 taste buds; these taste buds combined with our sense of smell are able to give us sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes. So how exactly do our taste buds change?
When you are little your taste buds are fresh and still developing so all tastes are strong making you fear the broccoli and lima beans. Your taste buds do the tasting but your nose interprets that taste so at a young age you’re more likely to turn away from a foul or strong smelling food. As you age, your taste buds age with you and you become less sensitive to taste. Other factors that effect the diminishing of our taste is exposure to smoke or consuming hot liquids.
Interesting factors that can play into the alterations in taste are hormones. According to an article from Woman’s Day, Dr. Bartoshuck stated that pregnant women shy away from vegetables because, “‘the taste of bitter is hardwired to be a cue for poison, early in pregnancy your brain becomes sensitized to avoid it in order to guard your baby.’” Pregnant women instead crave carbs and sweets, foods that are high in energy. In a 2008 Danish study done at The Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Copenhagen 8,900 school children participated in the largest study on taste. The studies found that girls have a better sense of taste than boys; they were better at identifying sour and sweet tastes. Overall, as we grow older not only do our taste buds change but so does our perspective on food. We begin to appreciate healthy foods as our senses mature and taste buds dull.
Works Cited
“The Brain and the Senses.” The Childern’s University of Manchester. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/brainandsenses/smellandtaste/>.
“Do Your Taste Buds Change?” Wonderopolis. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/do-your-taste-buds-change/>.
“Girls Have Superior Sense of Taste to Boys.” Science Daly. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081216104035.htm>.
Greene, Amanda. “7 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Taste Buds.” Woman’s Day. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-your-taste-buds-119709>.
Psychological factors can also contribute to the reason why you might hate a food when you’re younger but like you are older. If you have a bad experience with a food, such as food poisoning, you automatically associate a horrible feeling with consuming that food.
Very interesting. The study is conducted right because the sample size is large. Very odd conclusion was made, I was unaware that females had better taste buds than males. It’s also very interesting that 75% of taste comes from the smell. How exactly does smell transfer to taste? But more studies should be done in order to conclude if girls have better taste buds than boys.
This is a very well conducted study with a large sample size and a very interesting topic. I always wondered why foods change taste as you age. I knew that the nose is very important with the tasting of food, but I didn’t know any specifics. I just started to acquire a taste for cheese but only certain types. Each time i get Mac & Cheese it is always a guess as to if I will like it or not. I guess it makes sense now because each cheese has a different smell.
I was beyond surprised when I was reading some articles and was informed that the tongue doesn’t have zones for different taste buds. When I was in elementary school I remember coloring a tongue with different sections where the different tastes were obtained. I also remember doing experiments with a Hershey Kiss where we were able to see how it tasted different on the tips of our tongue as opposed to the bitter on the back of our tongues. This is a really cool article you may want to check out: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/05/the-tongue-doesnt-have-zones-for-different-tastes/
This topic is extremely interesting! Just the other day I tried a food that I didn’t like when I was younger but now I do like. When I was younger my mom used to tell me that if I didn’t like something then that I should try it when I got older because our taste buds change and I might like that food later on in life. I had no idea she really knew what she was talking about though and this information really hits the nail on the head!
Speaking of taste buds, did you know that babies have more taste buds than we do by the time we grow up! Babies just two months old began to develop taste buds and by the third trimester they have more taste buds than any other point in life!
I found this topic very interesting and informative. I never knew that as a child your taste buds are more sensitive and that it’s the reason why children tend to fear foods like broccoli and beans. I also never really thought about how much your smell contributes to taste. It would be interesting to learn more about why things actually taste “bad” to a person. I found an article that helps to explain it. http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-03/fyi-why-does-some-food-taste-bad-some-people-and-good-others
I never really believed that your nose affects what you taste but after reading this it seems to make sense. I used to hate foods like broccoli and brussel sprouts but now that my taste buds have matured I enjoy both of these vegetable. This blog was eye-opening and I love learning new things about our body. The human body is a crazy creation.
I think the sample size done on this study makes the evidence very convincing. Also speaking from personal experience my taste buds have certainly changed as I’ve gotten older. I found it fascinating that there was a difference with taste between genders, as I have always found myself to be a very picky eater. I think that it would be interesting to see a study done between different ages and to see at what age some of our taste buds develop or change when subjects are given the same food. I also know that illness like strep and mono can be a huge factor in change of taste buds. I wonder if this is because of the lack of smelling or do our taste buds actually change when we are sick.
I find this topic extremely interesting. I feel like I can relate to a lot of the things you said. For example, you said how sometimes people don’t like certain foods but they don’t know why, and that has to do with their smell. I cannot eat basically any breakfast food because the smell in diners bugs me out. I always got sick from the smell of all of those different breakfast foods, so now I can’t eat any of it. Also, I have a friend who does not have a sense of smell at all, he was born that way. So basically he cannot taste much.
This post is really interesting. I had no idea we had over 10,000 taste buds. It’s surprising to find out that more than 75% of our taste actually comes from our sense of smell. I never though this was actually a factor. When I actually stop and think about it most of the foods that I don’t like the smell I don’t like the taste either. Here is an article further describing how our taste buds work.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0033701/
I like this study because it has a large sample size, but it was conducted with children. Does this apply then to adults and teens? It would be interesting to see more studies replicating this setup with other groups.