How+does+your+sense+of+taste+work?+Part+1

Contributed by: Mary Grace S. Date of Creation: 9/30/11 The Sense of taste, where would we be without it? Imagine life without saying the word yummy or gross. Where would we be? To start off, without your tongue there would be no taste. The tongue is an organ, or body part, in the mouth. It is made up of muscles. Also it’s used for chewing and swallowing. The tongue is attached to the bottom of the mouth.
 * HOW DOES YOUR SENSE OF TASTE WORK?**

Without your taste you wouldn’t know whether something is spoiled or rotten. That’s because adults have about 9,000 taste buds. Believe it or not babies have more taste buds than adults, that’s why babies are very sensitive about what they eat. They like normal not really flavored things so no salt or sugar is necessary. Have you ever been in the ocean and a big wave comes crashing down and your mouth quickly fills up with water? Salt water and fresh water are just one of the things your taste buds can taste. Taste buds aren’t only on the tongue but also on the roof of your mouth and your throat.

Taste begins with your taste buds and cells in your throat. Then the taste buds send a signal to the brain. When you open up your variety of food you increase the increase of your taste and likes. Often when people are taking medicine or something they don’t enjoy they hold their nose to keep from smelling it. This doesn’t help at all. If you’re very interested in mixing chemicals to make flavors you should become a flavorist.

Next time you pore a glass of milk be thankful you have taste buds. You may not like them because you have to take yucky medicine or nasty juice. Without taste you couldn’t eat doughnuts or M&M’s. Taste is something amazing we should be thankful for.



Figure 1- This is a picture of a tongue and the mouth Figure 2- this explains where flavors reach

Figure 3- Taste buds sending signals to the brain


 * GLOSSARY**

Flavorist - A scientist who mixes chemicals to get a flavor.

Taste buds – Bumps on your tongue that tell your brain what flavor something is

Chemicals – A substance made by a chemical process

Dineen, Jacqueline. The five senses. Englewood, New Jersey. Schoolhouse Press, 1988. Print.
 * CITATIONS**

May, Mike. //"Sensation and Perception".// New York, New York. Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print.

"**Tongue.**" //Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia//. //Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition//.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2011. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.

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Weiss, Ellen. //"the sense of taste".// Danbury, Connecticut. Children's Press, 2009.Print.

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