No. 64 - Taste Buds

Today is another special request day! This time from my very inquisitive daughter. One of the fun things about doing this blog is that each night at dinner we discuss the new "thing" I learned that day. Some of the topics are really fun and keep the kids talking for many days like inukshuk in Post No. 53. Others, like the abortion topic in Post No. 61, are a little more difficult to explain to them. And we ordered a steelpan from Post. No 59. (Thanks Yeti!)

This blog isn't just about learning. It's also about teaching. "Docendo discimus" is a Latin phrase which means "By teaching, we learn." It's easy to learn something new. It's a bit more challenging to explain it to someone else in a simple way so that they too understand it. The "active" process of trying to get a point across to someone changes what you learn from an otherwise "passive" exercise and increases your ability to retain information.

So here we go...my daughter asked me to learn something new about taste buds.

An average person has about 10,000 taste buds on their tongue and they are replaced about every 2 weeks. As you grow older, some of the taste buds don't get replaced. An older person might only have 5,000 taste buds.

Taste buds help you detect the different kinds of tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and savory. But taste doesn't just come from the buds on the tongue. The olfactory receptors in the nose detect smells from the mouth to help create the flavors in food. That's why when you are sick your sense of taste is diminished. You can test this by holding your nose while chewing food. Go ahead and give it a try. You know you want to.