Some foods make our mouth water, and some food makes us gag. Because of different tastes. There are five tastes that we detect. They are sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Umami is also called savoury.
Foods that are stale or spoiled are not good for us. They generally have a bad or foul taste. Most of the poisons are also bitter in taste. This foul taste alerts us not to eat it them. We find it difficult to swallow foods that taste bad. Thus, our sense of taste actually acts as a guard against spoiled food and keeps us safe.
Taste buds
We detect taste with sensory organs called taste buds. Look at your tongue in the mirror; you can see some bumps on its surface. These bumps are called papillae which contain the taste buds. Taste buds contain very sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli. Those tiny hairs transmit messages to the brain about how something tastes.Most of the taste buds are on the tongue. But some clusters of taste buds are present on the roof of the mouth, cheeks and the throat. There are some 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds on the tongue depending on our age.
There are taste buds for all five taste groups on the inside of the mouth. But one kind of taste buds seems to be clustered in one particular place. For example, taste buds for sweet are present on all parts of the tongue, but they are clustered at the tip of the tongue. The buds for sour tastes are present on the sides of the tongue. The taste buds for salty taste are on the front. Bitter taste buds are on the back of the tongue.
Taste buds fail to work when we eat too hot or frozen foods. The taste buds are replaced every two weeks. As we grow our ability to replace the taste buds slows down. So old people need more of the same substance to create the taste sensation. Therefore, children cannot eat spicy food because the same amount of spice creates more sensation in a child’s mouth than it does in an adult’s mouth.