ChatterBank91 mins ago
taste
why is it when you have a blocked nose or you hold your nose, that you cant taste your food properly?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.To a scientist, taste is the sense detected by tastebuds on the tongue. In humans these have traditionally comprised sweet, salt, sour and bitter. Recently, some scientists have postulated a fifth taste for glutamate. All true tastes are made up of combinations of these.
However, what we subjectively call 'taste' is more than that and includes texture and aroma. Texture is derived from touch and pressure sensors in and around the mouth. The aroma is from molecules entering the nasal cavity from the throat and stimulating the smell sense organs in the nose. The sense of smell is not as limited as the sense of taste and contributes a great deal to what we call 'taste'.
Blocking the nose prevents a flow of air from bringing molecules to the smell sense organ so that contribution is cut off. All you are left with is the texture and the true taste (sweet, salt, sour and bitter) so your food doesn't taste anywhere near as good as you remember or expect.
One advantage is that it then enables you to swallow bad tasting medicines.
However, what we subjectively call 'taste' is more than that and includes texture and aroma. Texture is derived from touch and pressure sensors in and around the mouth. The aroma is from molecules entering the nasal cavity from the throat and stimulating the smell sense organs in the nose. The sense of smell is not as limited as the sense of taste and contributes a great deal to what we call 'taste'.
Blocking the nose prevents a flow of air from bringing molecules to the smell sense organ so that contribution is cut off. All you are left with is the texture and the true taste (sweet, salt, sour and bitter) so your food doesn't taste anywhere near as good as you remember or expect.
One advantage is that it then enables you to swallow bad tasting medicines.