What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I’m all about mint chocolate chip, and Squeaks is crazy for strawberry.
Even though I have a favorite flavor, I love getting to try new ones!
Isn’t it great that we get to enjoy so many different tastes?
From ice cream to beets, from peanut-butter-and-sardine sandwiches to bananas and peaches, there are
just so many different tastes to taste!
But taste doesn’t just help us figure out which flavor of ice cream is our favorite.
It also helps us tell if food is good, or dangerous, to eat.
If we get a mouthful of spoiled milk, it’ll taste gross.
The icky taste will tell us to spit it out instead of swallowing it -- which could make
us sick.
So how do we taste tastes?
Well, if you’ve ever licked an ice cream cone, you know that the tongue is an important
part.
Your tongue is actually a muscle, like the muscles in your arms and legs that help you
move!
But it’s a special muscle that can detect temperatures, textures, as well as how oily
or chewy something might be, and of course, flavors.
And there are at least five main flavors that your tongue can taste: sweet, sour, salty,
bitter, and umami, which is sort of a rich, savory flavor.
Together, these five flavors in different amounts and combinations make all of the tastes
we can taste!
So how does the tongue do it?
Well, open your mouth and take a look!
Your tongue is covered in small bumps you can see and feel.
These are called papillae
Those bumps are where you’ll find the most important part of tasting: taste buds!
Taste buds are much much smaller than the papillae -- too small to see!
They sit in the grooves and on the walls of those bumps, and each papilla can have many
taste buds.
Even though they’re super small, these little buds are where taste begins!
Each taste bud is shaped like a teeny tiny pocket, filled with even smaller little things
-- long, thin strands called taste hairs.
These hairs sit at the top of the taste bud, where tiny pieces of food can wander in when
you eat.
The taste hairs are how your taste buds sense the flavor of the food.
Once they come in contact with food, they turn the taste of that food into a signal.
The signal then gets sent to your brain, telling it what you’re tasting.
Some taste buds only sense one flavor, while others can sense all the flavors -- although
some more strongly than others.
So you can only understand the flavor of your food, once your brain has gotten signals from
lots and lots of different taste buds.
Now, you might have heard that different parts of the tongue are sensitive to different tastes,
but that’s not true!
All five flavors can be detected equally well around the tongue.
But the sides of the tongue are much more sensitive than the middle.
That’s something to remember when you’re licking your next ice cream cone!
Try tasting it with the tip of your tongue or the sides, instead of the very middle,
and you could get a stronger sense of the flavor.
BUT!
Your tongue isn’t the whole story when you’re talking about taste!
Have you ever eaten a meal when you have a stuffy nose?
Then you’ve probably noticed that smell is an important part of getting the flavor
of food, too!
As you eat, some of the chemicals from your food make their way up into your nose.
There, you have different kinds of cells that can sense them, and send signals to your brain.
So the taste buds on your tongue, and the smell-signalers in your nose, work together
to tell your brain all about the food you’re eating.
So the next time you’re licking an ice cream cone or snacking on a sandwich, why not take
a moment to appreciate your buddies in flavor: your taste buds!
Without them, nothing would taste well...like anything!
Do you have any questions about food or animals or anything else?
Get help from a grown-up and leave a comment below or email us at kids@thescishow.com.
See you next time!