Our tongues have the ability to taste and are sensitive to sweet, salty, bitter, and sour foods. Why is it that an item of food tastes a certain way? Do all human beings get the same type of sensation when eating the same foods? Explore with us the five main basic tastes.
Type of Taste #1 – Sweet
Oh, and how sweet it is! Anytime we taste something sweet; this is because of the presence of sugar. It has often been connected to ketones and aldehydes and is detected by some G protein-coupled receptors. At least two different varients of these sweet receptors need to be activated for your brain to register the taste of something sweet.
Type of Taste # 2 – Sour
A taste that is sour is your tongue’s way of detecting acidity. The receptors that taste salt are very similar to the ones that allow us to eat things that are sour. Hydrogen ion channels are the ones that detect the concentration of hydronium ions. These ions can go through the amiloride-sensitive sodium channels, as well as the potassium channel. The combination of the two is what case the taste cell to go off in this specific way.
Type of Taste #3 – Salty
Anything that taste salty is usually because of the presence of NaCl. This is referred to as sodium chloride or salt. Sodium and other ions of salt can directly pass through ion channels in your tongue.
Type of Taste #4 – Bitter
While acids are associated with sour food, bitter is how we can detect items that base. Bitterness, just like sweetness, can be sensed through G proteins coupled to G protein gustducin. Many alkaloids taste bitter, and many people tend to find the taste the most unpleasant out of all the states. However, scientist believed that the distaste for bitter items might have enabled human beings to avoid being accidentally poisoned. Any foods we eat now were once tested by some unfortunate human being!
How Does It Taste?
Do you have a particular taste that your fond of? While some people enjoy the sensation of sour, others are put off by the body’s reaction to the flavor. We wonder how many tastes are out there that humans aren’t able to detect. What do you think?