12 unusual facts about smell and taste

Smell and taste expert debunks senses myths.

The associate director of the Center for Smell and Taste at the University of Florida, Steven D. Munger, Ph.D, has answered some questions posed to him on Reddit, on how we taste and smell things. Here is what we have learned from him, as shared by BuzzFeed.

strong>1. Smell is associated with memory.

The scent of baby cologne may make you feel light, but it is not the scent that is making you feel this way, but the memory associated with the scent such as your childhood, is what causes you to feel happy.

2. There are people who have more taste buds than others.

This state is called hypergeusia. A patient with hypergeusia has a heightened sense of taste and usually craves for something sour or salty.
 
3. The tongue map illustration was all wrong.

This map still exists today in textbooks, which is unfortunate, as this actually shows the wrong translation from an early 20th century German manuscript.              

4. People who dislike vegetables might be sensitive to sulfur compounds.

There are people who don't like eating vegetables as these vegetables are too bitter for their taste. Their bitter receptor might be sensitive to sulfur compounds found in broccoli and other similar vegetables.
 
5. Your sense of smell and taste is processed by your brain.

Every time you eat, your tongue detects chemicals from your food, giving you a sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami taste. The smell of the food passes through the back of your mouth to your nose. Then the brain processes all these signals to give you the idea of flavor.

6. Try eating without smelling your food.

Hold your nose while eating something. This gives you an idea as to why we can't taste the food we eat whenever we have a cold and our nose is stuffy.

7. Bitter taste in food might mean something.

When you eat or drink something, check first if it tastes bad or okay. There are bitter compounds that could be in your food and drink and could be poisonous or bad for your health.

8. There are people who have an odd way of smelling.

There are people who can smells odors that are usually not there. This is called the "olfactory hallucination."

9. Certain smells can make you feel sick.

A severe form of this is called a conditioned taste aversion. If you ever threw up from beer, there is a possibility that you will vomit next time you drink beer.

10. The taste of sugar seems to be the preferred taste by many.

Some people even try to increase their sugar intake, because it is a preferred taste.

11. There is such a thing as a phantom smell.

Phantom smells are associated with epilepsy.

12. People have different preferences in smell.

One's preference in smell is different from another. A thing that might smell good for you might be unpleasant for others.

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