Did you know there are only four tastes--bitter, sweet, sour, and salt? And those taste buds--you have more than 10,000 of them--are located on very specific areas of the tongue.

Your bitter taste buds are located at the back of your tongue; sweet taste buds in the front; sour taste buds on either side, and you can taste salt everywhere on your tongue. By age 60, you have lost more than half your taste buds. 

When you chew your food, you assume that the taste comes from the food in your mouth, but it's the odor molecules from food that provide most of your taste sensations. Your nose is responsible for 75 percent of what you taste because your taste buds can only detect those four tastes. 

The food smell travels between your mouth and nose to olfactory receptor cells in your nasal cavity. If you have a cold and you're congested, odor molecules can't reach your olfactory receptor cells. Thus, your brain receives no signal identifying the odor, and everything you eat tastes much the same. You can feel the texture and temperature of the food, but no messengers tell your brain what it tastes like. 

Without saliva, you wouldn't experience any taste at all. The chemicals from the food you eat must first dissolve in saliva. Once dissolved, these chemicals can then be "tasted" by your taste buds. 

Saliva does more than just help us chew food. It protects teeth by preventing decay, regulating your mouth's acidity level and keeping the bacteria in your mouth from running rampant. But when saliva's lacking, plaque builds, enamel erodes, cavities quickly form, and fungal growth runs rampant.

For more information about oral health, please call UI Health Access at 319-384-8442, ext. 704, or 800-777-8442, ext. 704.

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