The sense of taste

DEFINITION

- Taste is the ability to detect the flavour and temperature of substances such as food.

- Our sense of taste comes from the taste buds that are on our tongue, but the sense of smell also affects our taste.

- We need our tongue to eat and taste, but also to produce sounds when we speak.

HOW IT WORKS

- Humans receive tastes through the taste buds. There are about 10,000 taste buds that are located mainly on the back and front of the tongue. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds.

- Taste buds are constantly regenerating. So you don't have to worry when you burn your tongue with hot soup.

- When you eat something, the saliva helps to eat the food. Then the receptor cells that are in the taste buds send messages through nerves to your brain. After that your brain tells you what flavours you are tasting.

- We taste different flavours: sweet from the tip, salty from the sides, sour from the back sides, bitter from the back and the rest is umami.

PARTS

- The taste buds, also called papillae, have about 50 and 150 taste receptor cells. These cells have microscopic hairs called microvilli, which sends messages to the brain about the taste.

- Underneath the tongue is a soft, thin and smooth skin called mucous membrane. The tongue’s muscles need a lot of blood because they are working all of the time.

- At the back of the mouth are the tonsils, which help to catch and destroy germs.

- Your tongue is fastened to the jaw bone and to the front of your throat, where is the pharynx.

FUN FACTS

- The biggest tongue of the world is 10.1 cm long.

- Most of the taste buds are on the tong but some of them are in the throat.

- If you get fat your tongue gets fat too.

- Every person's tongue is unique like the fingerprints.

- Your tongue can say a lot about your health, it can give information about it.

- Your tongue is also one of the strongest muscles in your body.

- Smoking also can reduce the number of taste buds a person has.