Sweet Taste Rats

There are multiple things that are related to the way things taste. To put every single factor that goes into being able to taste things in detail, one should just say goodbye to their loved ones because it could take forever. This paper is only about how food is able to change tastes when other factors such as sound and other foods are used. On your tongue there are these things called papillae. In the papillae there are taste buds, and within the taste buds are taste receptor cells. Children have more taste receptors than adults and the number of taste receptors declines with age. The taste receptor cells detect the five different types of tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami/savory [1].

Everybody's preference for sweet taste may be because sweet foods are able to provide a quick source of energy. The sweet taste in food comes from mostly glucose and fructose, which is found in sucrose, or sugar. However, sweet taste can also be found in non-carbohydrates, such as aspartame, saccharin and certain proteins. Some chemical compounds, produce a sweet taste by binding taste bud receptors that are combined with G-proteins. G-protein activation starts signaling cascade that produces the sweet taste [2] [3].

Sour taste is produced by acidic foods.

The acids in food release hydrogen ions, or protons. The concentration of hydrogen ions determines how sour the food is. Hydrogen ions join with acid-sensing channels in the membranes of taste cells. When the channels are activated, they cause nerves to signal the brain [2]

[3].

People often crave saltiness because sodium ions are necessary for many bodily functions. Saltiness in food is primarily derived from sodium chloride, or table salt. A pleasant salty taste is produced when sodium ions enter a sodium channel on the surface of taste cells. A hormone, called aldosterone, increases the number of sodium channels on taste cell when there is a deficiency of sodium. Sodium channels on taste cells are characterized by sensitivity to the chemical amiloride and differ from sodium channels on nerve and muscle [2] [3].

Bitter taste have evolved to protect us from poisons. Many alkaloids, which are usually toxic, produce a bitter taste. Bitter substances, just like sweet substances, bind to G-protein-coupled receptors, leading to nerve activation. People have forty to eighty types of bitter taste receptors that detect a variety of substances. Children often dislike vegetables, which may be due to the production of bitter compounds by plants to protect themselves from being eaten. Sensitivity to bitter compounds is also dependent on genes that code for bitter taste receptors. Variations in these genes prevent some people from detecting bitterness in some compounds [2] [3].

Umami/savory is when taste receptors detect amino acids. The receptor interaction activates ion channels and generates a signaling cascade similar to ones produced by bitter and sweet compounds. The basic taste categories and signaling mechanisms for bitter, sour, salty, sweet and umami are well-established and researched, however our understanding of tastes for metallic and fatty substances is far from complete [2] [3].

There are multiple things that can change the way foods taste, like seasonings and how you prepare the food. Although there are only a couple foods that can change another food’s taste completely. One of them being the Miracle Fruit or Miracle Berry. The Miracle Fruit is able to make sour or bitter things like lemons and apple cider vinegar sweet like lemon candy and apple juice. What causes the fruit to be able to do that is a protein called miraculin and there are two theories behind how it works. The first one, miraculin changes the shape of the sweet receptors. The proteins are normally activated by sugars, but miraculin changes them so they become activated to sour things too. The other theory is miraculin attaches to the sweet receptors for around an hour. During most of the hour it “silences” the receptors. When you eat something acidic or bitter, miraculin gains extra protons and changes shape. It would also change the shape of the sweet receptor it’s on, sending multiple random signals to the brain [4].

An alternative to the Miracle Berry is Lumbah. Lumbah uses neoculin instead of miraculin. Neoculin and miraculin are unrelated. They have different features and are made from different chains of amino acids. They also stick to different parts of the sweet receptors. Neoculin has a sweet taste to it, unlike miraculin which has almost no taste. Neoculin also makes the reaction more intense. What makes the two so interesting is that they evolved in two completely different ways, but are able to do the same things [4] [5].

Another thing that can change the way foods taste is sound.
As participants ate toffee, the researchers played them high and low frequency sounds and asked them to rate the tastes. According to Amy Flemming at the Guardian, higher notes made things taste sweeter, and lower notes made the candies taste more bitter.
There was a test that took place where people would buy a cake pop and with their purchase they’d get a phone number that would let them choose if they wanted to hear a bitter noise or a sweet one.
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