Science is now telling us that we are divided into two kinds of people: supertasters and normal tasters. The super-sensitive tasters among us have more fungiform papillae on their tongues – bumps – that hold our taste buds. Supertasters can taste bitter substances that normal testers can’t, and many tastes are much more intense for them.
The way that scientists discovered that humanity is divided into supertasters and normal tasters is a fascinating look at how science stumbles upon discoveries. This one happened at a DuPont chemical lab in Wilmington, Delaware in the 1930s: a bunch of chemicals exploded and one scientist not only smelled the chemicals, but tasted them. The other scientist didn’t detect anything.
In November 1931, A.L. Fox, the chemist who made the discovery, presented a paper at the National Academy of Sciences:
“Some time ago the author had occasion to prepare a quantity of phenyl thio carbamide, and while placing it in a bottle the dust flew around in the air. Another occupant of the laboratory, Dr. C. R. Noller, complained of the bitter taste of the dust, but the author, who was much closer, observed no taste and so stated. He even tasted some of the crystals and assured Dr. Noller they were tasteless but Dr. Noller was equally certain it was the dust he tasted. He tried some of the crystals and found them extremely bitter. With these two diverse observations as a starting point, a large number of people were investigated and it was established that this peculiarity was not connected with age, race or sex. Men, women, elderly persons, children, negroes, Chinese, Germans and Italians were all shown to have in their ranks both tasters and non-tasters.”
According to an article in live science, about a quarter of the population qualifies as supertasters; they have many more bumps on their tongues. Another quarter of the population is so lacking in these bumps that they qualify as nontasters. Linda Bartoshuk, a physiological psychologist at the University of Florida, says, “Supertasters live in a ‘neon’ taste world, while others live in a ‘pastel’ world.”
For supertasters, bitter tastes are more bitter, but sweet tastes are also sweeter. “Supertasters are more sensitive to the burn from ethanol, the sweetness of sugar, the burn of chili peppers and the astringency of red wine,” said John E. Hayes, a professor of food science at Penn State.
These variances matter because they influence how and what we eat when we’re kids and help to determine our eating behaviors as adults. Researchers still don’t know which genes determine how many tastes buds we have but evolution may provide a possible explanation for the variance.
Bartoshuk speculates that when our nomadic ancestors entered a new environment, they had to find out which native plants were safe to eat. And because plants often contain defensive toxins that taste bitter, the supertasters detected the bitterness and avoided those plants. “A supertaster is safer in a new environment, because they can pick up those bitters,” said Bartoshuk, “but a nontaster eats better in a safe environment, because they like more foods.”
Women are more likely to be supertasters than men – 35 percent of the population compared with 15 percent of men. Bartoshuk noted that the higher percentage of supertasters among women may be due to an instinctive protection of a fetus when a woman is pregnant.
I found this research fascinating. It takes one of our five senses and illustrates how that sense has evolved in an extraordinary way in some people so that it’s become a kind of psychic sense. In ancient times, this sense would make it unlikely that you would die from eating a poisonous plant. Maybe in the 21st century its purpose is the same: to detect certain chemicals or toxins in food that, if ingested, would harm us in irreparable ways.
In fact, now I may have a supertaster in my new novel, Fastwalkers. It takes place in a dystopian world where people with psychic ability are considered to be mutants and are rendered mute. The general populace is oppressed and contained by a certain kind of terror campaign run by Enforcers. I can see how the oppressed may decide to poison Enforcer foods. The synchro for me, I think, is that in my search for news about new discoveries in the quantum world, where it seems that synchronicity is born, I stumbled upon an element I can use creatively.
I love it when this kind of stuff happens.
I want to add that it’s very, very true that when we lose one sense, another one becomes stronger. For me, the audiologist at the office of my ENT physician said that of the thousands of patients she’s tested over the years, my hearing is the most sensitive. She said I can hear a flea sneeze at 100,000 paces, and this is true. She also said I could hear “frequencies” that no other patients had been able to hear, especially in my left ear, and one of the implants is behind that ear. (They don’t know that.) So although I have no physical sense of smell, my hearing is so acute that often it is actually painful. I can’t tolerate noise at even a normal level for most folks. It disorients me. So it’s a trade-off, and not always pleasant.
A couple of syncs here for me.
Re:
“These variances matter because they influence how and what we eat when we’re kids and help to determine our eating behaviors as adults.” and
“Women are more likely to be supertasters than men – 35 percent of the population compared with 15 percent of men.”
My wife was forced to eat fish as a child (Whiting) and refuses to eat seafood as an adult whereas I love seafood,,but she loves bacon and I don’t eat pork.
Anyway,I did a post about Bundaberg,a town in Australia getting flooded from cyclone Oswald
https://brizdazz.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/bundaberg-and-bears.html
and featured this ad in the post from a Bundaberg Rum commercial –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ATuN5RABJk8
about the catfish,which according to the commercial is Nature’s super-taster.
I don’t eat pork either. Or beef. I eat chicken and fish, not a childhood thing, just a choice. Interesting about your wife, Daz.
Off to see this video about Nature’s supertaster!
really interesting post – i’ve always been fascinated with evolutionary adaptations etc – for me, i’ve always been ultra sensitive to both smell and taste – for example, i can be sitting in my car with the windows rolled up, at an intersection where 3 lanes are stopped and i can smell the tobacco smoke from a car in the 3rd lane over [with its windows rolled up] – that’s but one example – i’ve even had doctors make chart notes when i complained about this or that odor/smell in a hospital setting – “the patient said she smelled….but there was no evidence of ….to anyone else” – same thing with taste – after i had a pretty massive surgical removal of an oral bone tumor, i was told that a large percentage of my taste would be gone – however, what i discovered, was that taste was actually heightened post surgery – beats me – that’s just the way it turned out – anyway, very neat post –
Strange story, Gypsy. But it figures your sense would be heightened by surgery!
Didn’t realise that there were two kinds of tasters, imagined there would be many differing grades. Interesting!
Very interesting post. I lost my physical sense of smell several years ago, for no apparent reason. I had had an extremely senitive sense of smell, and then woke up one moring with none at all, and it never returned. The doctors have no idea what happened. In PD, it occurs more slowly, This was instant and permanent. However, I TASTE smells. make sense? Nope. But that’s how it is with me. Other folks smell things….I taste those things. However, I do have an acute sense of psychic smell, and can smell things that no one else can smell, that are coming from other diensions.
Weird, huh. Again, interesting and informative post. Looking forward to that new book.
I sometimes take my senses for granted! No more, after reading this.