Super Taster

Okay people. I'm learning about the body, and oh is it fascinating! Get ready to take notes people. This is some pretty cool stuff.

So your tongue... It is pretty much amazing! You know those bumps on your tongue? Those aren't taste buds... Sorry your whole life is a lie. They are papillae, which contain the taste buds. Then each taste bud has about 50 taste cells, and it gets more complex. There are 5 general categories of tastants, which cause the taste cells to recognize a change: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and umami (savory).

Anyway, the amount of papillae on your tongue changes your sensitivity to tastants. In my class, we dyed our tongues blue to see the different papillae, and measured a small circle, about 1/4 inch wide. Then we counted the papillae within these circles. There are three main categories of "tasters": nontasters, regular tasters, and SUPER TASTERS.

 If you had between 5-15 papillae within the circle, you are considered a nontaster. Nontasters need lots of flavor to taste something, and usually dump salt or sugar on their food. Nontasters can handle super spicy foods, and find most foods bland. If you had between 15-35 papillae within the circle, you are considered to be a regular taster. You can handle most foods, and can sense most flavors without a problem. People with over 30 are considered to be fairly sensitive to tastants.

Then there are the super tasters. Super tasters have at least 35 papillae within the little 1/4 inch circle, and can taste things without excessive amounts of tastants. Super tasters had the biological advantage back in the dinosaur days, as they were sensitive to bitter plants that ended up being poisonous. Now super tasters are just considered to be picky eaters. Which leads to me. Guess how many papillae I had? 38! That was the class record. It was kind of awesome, people were super surprised that somebody could have twice as many as most of the class.

I'm sorry if you found this post boring, but I thought it was so cool to learn something that explained part of the way I live! I'm super picky, and super sensitive to spicy foods or super sugary foods. It is just so incredible to learn the little things that you didn't think had a logical reason! Anyway, I hope y'all have a great day, and maybe learned a little something about yourselves. Tudles!