The New Taste Bud?
Taste and smell are huge parts of food selection and eating. I'm intrigued by the continuing new research in the area of taste and smell, and how it relates to our day to day eating.
We all remember learning about those four basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Many years ago, I recall being in elementary school, and seeing the drawings of the tongue, sectioning off where each of these "taste areas" occur. We dipped a Q-tip in lemon juice and put it on different areas of our tongues- and only one part registered a sour taste. This was repeated with some sugar water, salt water - and I can't recall what was used for the bitter taste. Different areas of the tongue picked up the sensation strongly, and others did not. it was amazing to me, both then and now, how we really are biologically "wired" for taste in four specific areas.There's been a lot of information gathering in the last decade or two, about something often referred to as the "fifth taste bud". Referred to as "umami", it's a taste hard to describe, but referred to with words like "savory, flavorful, and meaty". It turns out there are also places on the tongue that respond to this specific taste. It had previously been thought that this taste was just a combination of the other four.
It seems that the stimulation for "umami" on the tongue comes from the amino acid (building block of protein) called glutamate - naturally found in tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and wine, among other foods. It's also found in fishy types of foods (to the American preferences), like seaweed and fish broth, but also extend to beef and chicken broth.
I always love to see nature's connection to food selection - and the biology of taste and smell is certainly part of that! What do you think about this "extra taste bud? Do you notice this flavor in your own daily eating?
