Sensitive Taste

Do you tend to find coffee too bitter, desserts too sweet, broccoli just too nasty to eat? If so, you may be what doctors call a SUPERTASTER. While you might think it makes you special, scientists believe that as many 25% of people are supersensitive to taste. It is medically known as HYPERGEUSIA. This is an inherited trait that endows you with more taste buds than other people have. Women are more likely to be supertasters than men, and more South Americans, Africans, and Asians are supertasters than people of other regions.

Because supertasters tend to shun strong tasting foods, such as Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, they may lack adequate amounts of antioxidants and other important nutrients found in these vegetables.

Interestingly, people who are hypersensitive to taste are often hypersensitive to pain as well. Supersensitive taste may be a sign of Burning Mouth Syndrome, which is caused by nerve damage from a viral infection, hormonal changes, or both.

But there is an upside. Supertasters are less likely to smoke or abuse alcohol than others. And while your picky tastes may make dinner parties a nightmare for both of you and your host, there is a good chance that you will be a lot thinner than your fellow guests.

You can actually count your own taste buds. Dip a cotton swab into blue food coloring and coat the front of your tongue with the dye. Move your tongue around to spread the dye. Using a magnifying glass, count the blue-dyed taste buds in an area the size of a paper punch hole. If there are more than 20, you are a supertaster. If there are 4 to 6, you are a non-taster. Anything in between means you are plain normal.

 

Taste and smell cells are the only sensory cells that are replaced tthroughout a person's lifetime. Taste cells last about 10 days and are then replaced.