No Smell, No Taste

514 Words2 Pages

When a person has a cold, the food that they eat most likely does not have a taste. Most may think that it is a person’s taste buds that are providing the tongue with flavor, but it is really the nose. Seventy-five percent of what we taste from food comes from one’s sense of smell. From the sweet flavor of strawberries to the spicy taste of salsa, the tongue itself actually tastes only twenty-five percent of it. The average person can distinguish between 4,000 to 10,000 various odor molecules. Although there is not much known about the nasal cavity, one thing is certain: Little can be tasted without a sense of smell. This phenomenon can be explained by the olfactory receptor membrane and the cilia inside the nasal cavity. It can also be explained by the close connection of the nose and mouth. The problem presented is important for the well-being and knowledge a person has for their body.

The olfactory membrane is a portion of the nasal mucosa and is almost fully responsible for a person’s sense of smell. The amount of reliability a person’s sense of smell is depends on the size of ...

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