Josh Bishop
Supertasters
Supertasters by Josh Bishop
Taste is a sophisticated and interesting sense of the body that the majority of humans rely on every day. From the time we are born we like or dislike food and drink based on how they taste. Some people have disliked many particular tastes since they were born. Most of these people are known as picky eaters, but is there more to being a picky eater than disliking many foods and tastes? This report will cover the sense of taste, taste buds and how they work, the effect of the number of taste buds on flavor perception and its impact on our lifestyles, along with the concept of a supertaster.
The sense of taste is extremely complicated and complex. When food is tasted, the body not only uses the tongue but also
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Women and people from Asia, Africa, and South America are more apt to be supertasters (“Science of Supertasters” 1).
One way to identify people as being non-tasters, medium tasters or supertasters is based on their sensitivity to the bitter chemical 6-n-propylthiouracil
(PROP). Non-tasters do not taste the bitterness of PROP, medium tasters can taste the bitterness but do not mind the taste, and supertasters find the taste of PROP unbearable (“Science of Supertasters” 1). Young people are also strongly affected by PROP. Children, unlike adults, taste PROP’s bitterness every time. This could be a reason why children tend to be more picky eaters than adults (“Science of Supertasters” 1).
It may be that genes are affecting our taste perception. Recent studies have shown that humans can taste fat and this may influence our food choices (Tepper/Keller 1). This could be a reason for the recent obesity epidemic (Tepper/Keller 1). This could also relate to the fact that obese people may be more likely to be non-tasters or medium tasters. “A great deal of progress has been made in identifying the genes that may contribute to obesity.”
Research on taste aversion in rats led to the discovery that suppression of the immune system can be influenced by:
Modern human brain sizes are significantly smaller than Neanderthal’s and so are their brain cavities. TAS2R38 is the gene that controls taste. For Neanderthals, having a bitter taste “system” could have kept them from poisoning themselves by accident.
The human body is, in its simplest observation, an extensively vast web of cells. The human body is one of the most complex productions in the world. Looking at just one part of the body such as the eye makes it apparent the complexity of the body’s makeup. The body is comprised of cells that come together to make tissues. These tissues fit together to make organs. The organs coexist to form organ systems. These organ system make up the entire organism that is man.
According to Gans in his book Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste (1974), people make choices from the available content provided by a homogenous society and the relationship between the choices exist because they are based on similar values and aesthetic standards. This constitutes why there are diverse taste cultures and taste publics in America. Rather than belonging to one taste culture, I consider myself an omnivore because I “often make cultural choices from any menus (9),” meaning that I embody bits and pieces of different taste cultures.
Napoleon Dynamite is one of the best movies portraying loneliness and nerds. It is the story of Napoleon in high school and his lonely adventures. All the main characters feel separated, misunderstood, and have nobody to relate to. Napoleon has no friends and lives in his own fantasy land. He is avoided by everybody. His brother seems to be mislead, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time hopelessly trying to find love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she lives her own life right beside them. They live next to a huge field, reinforcing their isolation. Practically every home in the film is
... (I never get tired of eating it). As a human I find food tasting better when I am hungry. In addition, I must admit I am a picky eater, which sometimes prevents my mom from cooking different types of food. Possibly the best thing about being an eater is that you avoid the difficulties of preparing the meal, especially when you are known to cause messes in the kitchen.
Omnivores are very interesting creatures. We are able to digest most plants and animals and therefore have a wide range of food available to us. However, when faced with new potential foods we are “torn between two conflicting emotions” (Pollan 288). These two emotions are neophilia and neophobia. Pollan defines neophilia as “a risky but necessary openness to new tastes” (288) and neophobia as “a sensible fear of ingesting anything new” (288). These two emotions are easily seen in humans, especially myself. Whenever I am introduced to a new food I immediately feel both of these. I am very tempted to try the new food since it might taste good, but on the other hand it may not taste good and may even give me a stomach-ache or food poisoning. The final decision when trying a new food usually depends on how it looks. In Rozin’s studies, he observed these two emotions in rats. The rats would nibble on the new food and wait to see if it affected them negatively, learning not to eat it if it hurt them. Pollan believed that Rozi...
I did not realize I had a taste aversion until I read chapter 7 in Exploring Psychology starting on page 257. Taste aversion is explained as becoming violently ill after eating, tasting or drinking a consumable item
Hydrophobic part of protein interact with lipid. The interaction can be strong and it is difficult for lipid to be removed from protein. When lipid has a flavor or if it reacts to produce flavor, the protein might be considered to contributed to the flavor of the prooduct. Most of the flavor compound are volatile and lipid soluble. Protein degradation also contribute to the flavor of the product. It is usually has a negative effect for the product and result in a bitter taste. Further degradation may lead to the formation of unpleasant odors. The interaction between protein and amino acid with fatty acid will produce pleasant odors compound.
Eating behaviour is a complex behaviour that involves a vast array of factors which has a great impact on the way we choose our meals. Food choice, like an other behaviour, is influenced by several interrelated factors. While hunger seems to drive our ways of food consumption, there are things outside of our own bodies that influence our food choices and the way in which we eat. The way we eat is controlled by and is a reflection of our society and cultures. I explore this idea through a food diary I created over a few weeks and the observations made by several anthropologists that I have studied.
Santich, B 2009, ‘On Gastronomy’, Looking for flavour, 2nd edition, Wakefield Press, pp. 212-221, Kent Town, SA
The world is full with different ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own traditions, beliefs and food habits. These have been passed on from generation to generation. Food choices are mainly influenced by your ethnicity. People develop eating habits that are similar to those of their parents because they have been raised around them. The food choices that people make daily are usually ones that they are familiar with. A person’s social and cultural beliefs are also influenced by their ethnicity. Everyone has different food choices because they have been raised in a certain manner with different habits and traditions, therefore your food choice will always depend on the society or ethnic group that you grew up on.
Addiction is a psychological condition that comes up when a person takes a drug or engages in an activity, which becomes compulsive and interferes with the ordinary responsibilities in life (Leshner, 1997). The addicts in most instances do not know that their behaviors affect others, and that it is out of control. Addiction is a physical addiction, or the biological state, whereby the body adapts to the presence of a drug to the extent that the body becomes tolerant. Because of the tolerance, there is always a reaction when an individual stops the consumption of the drug. However, the majority of the addictive behaviors is not related to the physical tolerance or exposures to cues. In most of the times, people have a compulsive need to use the drugs as a form of reaction towards emotional or psychological stress that they face. Since addictive behaviors are psychologically based, most of the people tend to switch from one form of drug to another.
The amount of stories of inadequate foods people have consumed with sickness or even death as a result is astonishing. Having a bad experience such as getting sick after eating something would certainly create a negative thought about that food, causing one to avoid it in the future. Another common reason for not eating certain foods is for the lack of nutrients contained. There are very few foods that I don’t eat because of bad experiences; therefore, most of the foods I avoid are a result of the small amount of nutrients contained in those foods.
Do you prefer coffee or tea? Most people will choose one or the other; and only a few enjoy drinking both. It is often said that what we choose to drink, coffee or tea, depends on our personal preference and the environment. However, whoever said that probably did not look at their receipts and realize how often they ordered the same drinks. Social researchers found out that our personality and our lifestyle might have an impact on and influence what we drink. Though both tea lovers and coffee drinkers are somewhat similar in terms of they are both obsessed with their drink, they differ in that tea people are more relaxed and leisurely and coffee people are more productive and have a faster pace of life.