WORLD OF SCIENCE
It's a matter of taste
DR. T. V. PADMA
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There are just a few basic categories into which scientists classify the sense of taste.
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Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you like sweet dishes like gulab jamun and pista kulfi, or do you prefer something sour like tamarind chutney? What sort of food do you like best?
We each have our preference in the matter of taste, but the sense of taste works the same way in all our bodies. In fact, believe it or not, there are just a few `basic' categories into which scientists classify the sense of taste.
Can you guess how many and what these basic tastes are? If you said four and named salty, sour, sweet and bitter, you would be nearly right. For a long time, scientists also thought these were the four main `tastes'. But now, they've decided there is a fifth basic type of taste, which they describe as `meaty' or `savoury'. This type of taste was recognised by the Japanese centuries ago. The Japanese call it "umami".
Taste map
Scientists have also made other new discoveries about taste. For a long time, they thought that different parts of the tongue had different sensitivities to taste. They drew a taste map, in which they labelled different taste pads on the tongue. According to this map, sweetness is detected at the tip of the tongue; sourness is detected on the sides, saltiness along the edges, and bitterness at the back.
Recently, researchers found out that the taste map of the tongue was totally wrong. It was based on a text that had been translated incorrectly by someone at Harvard University. This error in translation was perpetuated and it became so much a part of scientific belief that you'll find drawings of taste maps in nearly every school science textbook in the world. Children all over the world also continue to do `taste experiments' which are based on this incorrect belief.
So if the taste map is wrong, what's the truth about taste?
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