Taste question licked - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, August, 2003

Ever wondered how you can test your taste buds' ability to tell the difference between cheap plonk and fine wines? Now there is a taste bud test you can conduct at home, says Yale University research.

Around 35 percent of women are super-tasters--compared with just 15 percent of men. They're born with more taste buds than other people, meaning that they are better able to distinguish between various tastes and experience tastes much more intensely.

The difference in taste ability is thought to be genetic and was first described in a 1931 issue of the journal Science.

To test your taste buds, you need blue food coloring, a piece of paper with a 7-millimeter-wide hole punched through it and a magnifying glass. Swab some food coloring onto the tip of your tongue. The tongue will take up the dye but the papillae--structures that house taste buds--will stay pink. Place the piece of paper on the front part of your tongue, and, using the magnifying glass, count how many pink dots are inside the hole.

Fewer than 15 papillae means you are an insensitive non-taster, and between 15 and 35 indicates an average taster. But more than 35 papillae indicates that you are a supertaster--as are many professional tasters and chefs. Super-tasters often find coffee, grapefruit and green vegetables too bitter to swallow.

Ongoing research by Yale's Linda Bartoshuk, PhD, suggests that around a quarter of the population are non-tasters, 50 percent are tasters and the rest are super-tasters.

The research serves as a reminder that--despite popular belief--taste is not a reliable guide to what the body needs at any given time.