Every healthy person has five senses: vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste. No matter how much we would like it, we cannot train our eyes to see like binoculars or a telescope. We also cannot strengthen our hearing on our own to such an extent that we can hear our neighbors’ conversations through thick walls. The same goes for our sense of smell and touch. However, there are people in the world who taste foods several times better than most of the world's population. Such people are called “supertasters,” and the ability to taste a wide range of tastes can both ruin their lives and bring a lot of pleasure. Many people have not even heard of this ability of the human body, so we suggest we delve a little deeper into this topic. At the end of the article, you will learn how to check if you are one of these superhumans!
Approximately 25% of the world's population are supertasters
Who are supertasters/
The term “supertaster” appeared relatively recently, in 1990. Its author is considered to be psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, who, together with her colleagues, conducted experiments to study the human taste organs. During the experiments, they found that some people practically do not feel the taste of the substance 6-n-propylthiouracil, while others, on the contrary, consider it unbearably bitter.
Further study showed that in people sensitive to this substance, on the surface The tongue has many more fungiform papillae than other men and women. This is the name of tiny formations that contain taste buds that transmit information to the brain about the taste of certain products.
Interesting fact:in addition to the mushroom-shaped ones, on the surface of the tongue there are filiform, cone-shaped, grooved and leaf-shaped papillae.
Supertasters are able to taste a wide range of tastes
From this it follows that supertasters are people who have more fungiform papillae on their tongue than others. Scientists believe that only 25% of the world's population has this feature. The remaining 75% are simply “tasters” or “non-tasters.” The latter have such a poor sense of taste that the substance 6-n-propylthiouracil seems like a dummy to them.
Most often, women are supertasters; in men, high sensitivity to tastes is less common. Perhaps women have a better sense of taste due to hormones. It has been scientifically proven that during menopause their sensitivity decreases – during this period the level of female hormones drops.
Read also:Should you use a tongue scraper – here's what scientists say
Sensitive tongue in humans
In some cases, men and women with a sensitive tongue experience great discomfort. For example, the company may call them too picky because many products seem bitter to them. Supertasters often do not notice any difference between different types of alcohol. They also cannot eat spicy foods because the large number of taste buds means they experience the burning sensation more.
Some supertasters love salty foods. This is because sodium chloride helps reduce the bitterness of some dishes.
Supertasters use salt to cut through bitterness
But there are also advantages to having a large number of fungiform papillae on the tongue. Supertasters get unimaginable pleasure from their favorite foods. Imagine that you are eating a juicy burger, and it is a hundred times tastier than usual – 25% of the population of our planet experiences this pleasure every day.
Blind people can “see” the world with the help of their tongue.
Blind people can “see” the world with the help of their tongue.
Blind people can “see” the world using their tongue. strong> How is this possible?
Tongue sensitivity test
If you are very sensitive to bitter tastes and a pickier eater than everyone else, you may have many taste buds. But there is one way to know for sure whether you are a supertaster. To do this, you will need blue food coloring and a piece of paper with a hole punch.
The tongue sensitivity test consists of five steps:
- Apply blue food coloring to your tongue dye.
- Look at the tongue in front of the mirror using a magnifying glass. You will see small circles with a diameter of 1 millimeter that appear lighter than the rest of the surface of the tongue – these are the fungiform papillae.
- Take a small piece of paper and make a hole on it using a hole punch, the diameter of the circle should be about 6 millimeters.
- Place this circle on the tip of your tongue in the middle or side.
- Count how many fungiform papillae are in the circle.
You can pass the supertaster test using blue food coloring
If there are only 15 light circles in a circle, then There are very few taste buds on the tongue, and you are a non-taster. If their number is up to 35 pieces, you are a taster. If there are more than 35 fungiform papillae, congratulations, you are among the 25% of supertasters. It's worth emphasizing that you may need a magnifying glass to see the tiny dots.
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Did you like the material? Want to know even more interesting things? Read another article on a similar topic, “Where else are taste buds located, besides the tongue, and why are they needed?”