This morning I decided to eat more mindfully, that I be more conscious of what I'm eating, what it tastes like, looks like, feels like, and hope that I can train my brain (neural patterns) to have a new and fresh relationship with food. First thing I noticed, I hardly tasted the poached egg and toast. I wasn't aware that I have a cold or anything, and noticed I had recently been noticing this more and more. Am I losing my sense of taste???? That would be indeed tragic. So I googled "improving taste sense", and found this :
I invite anyone to find more articles, bring forth, and discuss this topic. I sure think I might be more satiated with less food if I perhaps tasted more... and, I have a hunch overeating might be spurred on by the lack of really tasting our food!
Last edited by Hermit Girl; 06-16-2009 at 06:42 PM.
I have not noticed my sense of taste declining, but I have definitely noticed my sense of smell declining, and of course I know those 2 go hand in hand. Every morning I give my cat a can of wet food, and my kids can't stand the smell. They are gagging and coughing and refuse to be in the room -- granted, they are clearly dramatizing -- and the funny thing is on most days I can't even smell it. On rare days, I can.
Generally, I feel like I really do taste my food. Although today I took my boys to see "Up" and I decided to try one of my son's Lemon Heads. They literally had no taste. Both my boys kept trying to convince me that they did have taste, but you had to chew them, not suck them. But chewing them made no difference. They had no taste. I just chalked it up to kids' likes vs. adults' likes.
Hmmm... I'll have to pay attention to that one some more and get back to you.
Cute, very ... cheeky Actually, I read in another article that 'hot spices' are not really percieved by taste buds, but more pain nerves. I should think very well I ought to be able to taste an egg on toast, however bland it is. I remember how good an egg can taste. It could also be that the food is getting tasteless, another whole discussion, but worried, I tripped over the article about aging and losing taste. I'm just curious if anybody else here notices .
Last edited by Hermit Girl; 06-17-2009 at 09:18 AM.
quote in the article (in reference to the hot spices for adding flavor);
"A different kind of sensation that we wrongly perceive as one of 'taste' comes from very hot or spicy foods like Wasabi mustard, chili peppers, the gingerols in ginger, piperin in black pepper and the various isothiocyanates in onions, mustard, radishes and horseradish.
These do not have an effect on the five types of tastes; rather the 'kick' or sensation is a function of how much pain it inflicts on nerve fibers in your mouth. Also located in the tongue's papillae, these pain fibers are actually wrapped around the taste buds. We consider them 'hot' because they stimulate only a subset of the pain fibers in your mouth, not all of them."
Last edited by Hermit Girl; 06-17-2009 at 09:38 AM.
Well, I drink hot coffee, and I've seen a woman ask the barista at a coffee bar to heat up her already-hot-coffee so it was even hotter, because she obviously liked the sensation of burning her throat, obviously the brain can crave weird sensations! Harbenero peppers ? Yikes !
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheekiemonkey
hmmmm....since I need to add in the hot peppers a lot does that make me a masochist since it works on the pain nerves???
Okay, so I realize it's my SENSE OF SMELL that's lacking , as NewLeaf pointed out , and the articles. So now, how do I retrieve it? I was viewing the advertisement online of a weightloss product called Sensa , which is supposed to wake up your sense of smell around your food, as you sprinkle it on your food. There are studies that people who have lost their sense of smell , gain weight. I suppose the whole premise is about enlivening your sense of smell so that one's brain can register satiation 'on time', thus not over eat.
Not that I would want to buy the product, but that is fascinating, and now I'm really into researching how to enliven my sense of smell. THe mucas in sinuses is certainly suspect, but other things, like dehydration, also are suspect. I'm going to really start focusing on sitting down withmy food, and smelling it as much as possible even before taking a bite, and LOOKING at it while I eat it... (not at a book, at the computer, or anything else) ...all the things one can do to make the brain recognise that it's eating. I'll let you know how this experiment goes.
That's interesting about the pain nerves and not taste buds sensing the heat in peppers. I've noticed over the last few years that my tolerance to hot and spicy foods isn't nearly as good as it used to be. I used to love hot sauce, but now even what others consider very mild heat burns my mouth badly. I think I still taste things just as well though, no decline there.
Sense of taste declining with age.
Actually, I read in another article that 'hot spices' are not really percieved by taste buds, but more pain nerves. I should think very well I ought to be able to taste an egg on toast, however bland it is. I remember how good an egg can taste. It could also be that the food is getting tasteless, another whole discussion, but worried, I tripped over the article about aging and losing taste. I'm just curious if anybody else here notices .
