Evolution and the Bitter Taste
Whether rich or poor, all can share a joy from one of our five known senses: taste. We like food when it has a pleasing flavor. Things we do not need are often added in commercial foods to enhance it. Like our other senses, taste is actually quite complicated.
We have input, processing, and transmission into the brain so we can respond to what we are tasting. This sense works in conjunction with the sense of smell. That is part of the reason a bad cold spoils the taste of good food.
Original image: A Banquet Piece, Franz Snyders, 1620 |
Not all are aware that the experience of tasting the full flavour of our food depends on more than our tongue’s ability to taste (known as gustation). In fact, the tongue can only detect a limited range of tastes—it used to be thought only four: sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. However, in recent years ‘umami’—Japanese for savoury—has been added. . . .Food has a huge range of flavours, sometimes subtle and complex, far too many for just this handful of options (or combinations of them—think ‘sweet and sour’) to encompass.
You can sink your teeth into the entire article at "A matter of taste".