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How does smell affect your taste? 

5/31/2015

76 Comments

 
Author: Maddie Van Beek

I’m sure you know that we all have five senses: Taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight. Even though the senses of taste and smell are separate, they are so close to one another that they are intertwined. Taste and smell work together to help you fully experience food. 

Picture
http://www.nuclearconnect.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/senses.png
Have you ever had a cold and tried to eat your favorite food, only to find that it tastes relatively dull and boring compared to what it should taste like? Because your sense of smell is not as strong due to your stuffy nose, your sense of taste is also dulled. Why does this happen? 



Let’s find out!



You have somewhere between 5,000-10,000 taste buds that detect tastants, the chemicals in your food that are sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or savory. The nerves in your taste buds then send messages along your cranial nerves to your brain. 

While your taste buds detect tastants, a membrane along the roof of your nose detects odorants. The sensory cells along this membrane send messages olfactory bulb, which then combines that information with information from your taste buds to create the perception of flavor. 


Picture
http://www.wysinfo.com/Perfume/picts/0_wysinfo-smell%20drawing2_550_1.JPG
Picture
http://www.tastescience.com/foodchartwhite.jpg


Your taste buds can detect five different tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (www.innerbody.com). While your tongue tells you which category food is in, your sense of smell aids you in deciphering specific taste differences. When you take away your sense of smell, your brain has a much more difficult time determining the difference between specific tastes, especially if you cannot see the food! 

Picture
http://www.brainfacts.org/~/media/Brainfacts/Article%20Multimedia/Sensing%20Thinking%20and%20Behaving/Senses%20and%20Perception/Taste/TasteSmell.ashx


Activity: In the following activity, you will see why it is difficult to determine similar foods when you lose your senses of sight and smell. 



YOU WILL NEED:

  • Potato
  • Apple
  • Knife
  • An assistant
  • Glass of water



Here’s what to do!

  1. Peel the potato and the apple.
  2. Cut a small piece of apple and a small piece of potato. Make sure they are the same shape and size. 
  3. Have your assistant tie the blindfold around your head so you cannot see. Have your assistant hand you a piece of potato or apple, but do not have them tell you what it is. 
  4. Hold your nose so that you cannot breathe out your nostrils and eat the first piece. Make sure you hold your nose the entire time you are chewing and swallowing. Take a drink of water to clear any remaining taste out. 
  5. Hold your nose and eat the second piece. 
  6. Take your guess... which was the apple and which was the potato? 
  7. Part of what made this so difficult to discern the difference was that the texture of the potato and the apple are so similar. What other food items could you compare? Make sure you choose items that similar in texture AND category of taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty). 
  8. For example, you could use:
    1. ketchup vs. steak sauce
    2. juice vs. kool-aid
    3. chocolate pudding vs. vanilla pudding
    4. lime jello vs. cherry jello
    5. carrot vs. broccoli stalk 



Another way you could do this is to mix water with other flavorings to represent salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. For example, you could create salt water, sugar water, lemon water, and coffee. Have your participants close their eyes and see if they can identify each drink. Record your observations. 




References: 

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chtaste.html

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/smelltaste.html

http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/senses-and-perception/articles/2012/taste-and-smell/

http://www.innerbody.com/image/nerv12.html

76 Comments
Angela
1/13/2016 08:21:13 pm

awesome man

Reply
Em
2/2/2016 06:33:34 pm

Very helpful

Reply
lol link
5/31/2016 05:28:43 pm

useless

Angielina
12/5/2016 07:53:55 am

Stop being mean it was very helpful to me your just talking nonsense.

victor
4/23/2017 03:12:31 pm

how man?!

carlo
9/12/2017 11:37:29 am

lol

Mia khalifa link
2/17/2019 12:43:23 am

Lmao this is lit

mr.fancy pants link
2/14/2018 05:30:58 pm

omg lol

Reply
eee link
4/26/2018 01:37:35 pm

hi

Reply
demosthenes
11/11/2018 06:44:13 pm

this was pretty ok i guess

Reply
sammy jr davis
5/6/2019 03:26:27 pm

cooooooolllllll

Reply
weader
2/26/2016 04:22:57 pm

good enjoyed it

Reply
aserfghytrfgh
4/18/2016 07:41:21 am

The picture of the basic tastes is WRONG. You wrote bitter twice and you didn't write sour. Otherwise it's really helpful thanks :)

Reply
Dr. E
4/18/2016 07:57:24 am

You made an excellent point, and we've removed the image. Thank you!

Reply
me
6/2/2016 04:50:41 pm

ok

Laelia link
11/13/2017 10:47:55 pm

WOW LOL BRB $-$ !-!@_@^-^*-* i AM A Girl !!!!!

Reply
Natalie
9/13/2019 12:41:22 pm

hahahahahahahaha

Kayty link
5/13/2016 01:58:20 am

It was very interesting

Reply
Love link
6/4/2016 09:08:21 pm

I agree

Reply
harmony link
5/15/2016 07:36:23 pm

this was a very helpful sight, especially for all the homework for science i have to do!

Reply
evelyn
3/11/2017 10:53:19 am

this was very helpful i used it for my science fair experiment

Reply
Sunshine
5/18/2017 12:42:12 am

Same

trish
7/14/2017 11:33:07 pm

ME TOO

Kyra
1/10/2018 06:52:28 pm

Agreed

Trish link
2/6/2018 08:43:20 pm

Me tooooooo

mineman link
5/31/2016 05:30:28 pm

no

Reply
E
5/14/2018 07:07:28 pm

Hater

Reply
cycle link
5/31/2016 05:33:05 pm

lel

Reply
Love link
6/4/2016 09:06:33 pm

This is very helpful for my science fair

Reply
Claire A Mooney
2/16/2017 10:13:40 am

me too!

Reply
Mack link
9/7/2016 04:33:21 pm

Stupid, useless, and does help me at all, try better

Reply
sally
1/17/2018 09:19:59 pm

if it was so useless then why'd you look at the site

Reply
hi
9/30/2016 08:31:14 am

i didnt even care

Reply
lo
10/3/2016 06:00:22 pm

ewwwww

Reply
Sunshine
5/18/2017 12:43:22 am

What???

Reply
school
10/11/2016 09:31:08 am

it was useful until i got here at to do and it gave me examples but im nit sure what it had to do with the site

Reply
School
10/20/2016 08:17:14 pm

This experiment is very cool

Reply
Lexi swift
10/20/2016 08:20:57 pm

This is very helpful and very cool and easy thank you

Reply
unicorn v link
10/23/2018 09:32:32 am

your welcome

Reply
Kid
11/6/2016 01:02:33 pm

Touch and feel are the same sense, it should be hearing, correct?

Reply
Dr. E
11/6/2016 02:02:59 pm

Hi Kid,

You are right (good eye)! We've changed it, thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Dr. E

Reply
Meeee
3/21/2018 03:41:08 pm

This whole thing was ridiculous, abominable, and deplorable

Reply
unicorn
11/14/2016 04:23:43 pm

cool

Reply
Lely
12/1/2016 04:34:34 pm

Thanks this really helped a lot!

Reply
Atari
12/2/2016 09:19:04 pm

This has nothing to do with, how does smell affect taste?

Reply
Sunshine
5/18/2017 12:44:58 am

Yes it does, you just can't see what's right in front of your nose

Reply
no name
8/23/2018 05:04:08 pm

haha good 1

Hi
10/4/2017 05:12:49 pm

Good gob

Reply
yuruyruytui link
10/11/2017 06:13:49 pm

this was very useful to me and thank you

Reply
juke
10/26/2017 01:35:53 pm

hi

Reply
Kewllll link
12/14/2017 03:40:05 pm

cool

Reply
Bill Gates
1/16/2018 04:13:14 pm

Hey good work maybe you should come test me one day

Reply
b
1/16/2018 06:23:57 pm

no it did not help me!):): try better

Reply
taylor swift
1/16/2018 06:26:12 pm

i love it and to all my fans, thank you!

Reply
cool cat
3/11/2018 12:11:40 pm

intresting very helpful scince fair winning here i come

Reply
Nikki and Abby
3/24/2018 02:30:17 pm

This website is great for our science fair project!!

Reply
Neon link
4/18/2018 11:03:37 am

This really helped with my science fair. (A.k.a. stem)

Reply
OwO wahts this? link
4/27/2018 07:49:12 am

This project is amaaaaaaaaaziiiing i luved it thanks bro ur really cool and i thot it was cool like u ~~((((((((((((((:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Reply
KAYA
4/30/2018 04:42:39 pm

SO HELPFUL

Reply
nania link
11/2/2018 02:44:07 pm

omg nice sight soo helpful

Reply
Nive link
11/2/2018 02:42:41 pm

OMG!!! This is a nice sight for all the kids that have science project.

Reply
Caitlyn
1/10/2019 12:08:32 pm

THANK YOU!

Reply
science queen 101 link
1/10/2019 08:50:57 pm

are you suppost to cover your eyes fisrt or you nose and eyes.
and are you suppoat to use diffrent foods ecah time

Reply
Dr. E
1/10/2019 08:56:06 pm

I would cover your eyes (or those of your subject) with the blindfold first, so the food can't bee seen. Then, offer the apple and potato separately, as well as other foods.

Reply
Evan
1/29/2019 08:50:08 pm

Works cited?

Reply
Dr. E
1/29/2019 08:53:03 pm

Hi Evan,

Indeed, a works cited is always important. The references used for this blog are at the bottom, just above the comments.

Reply
Hi
3/18/2019 12:56:04 pm

YG

Reply
Kid
4/9/2019 08:03:48 am

Does the way a fruit feels helps you understand a bit more on what it may be?

Reply
Ron Swanson
5/9/2019 08:25:57 pm

In the sentence, "The sensory cells along that membrane send messages olfactory bulb, which then combines that information with information from your taste buds to create the perception of flavor", would you need to put, "to the" in between messages and olfactory bulb?

Reply
Dr. E.
5/10/2019 07:05:50 pm

Thanks for asking about this blog. We've reworded this sentence, we hope it is more clear now!

Reply
Ron Swanson
5/12/2019 02:28:51 pm

Who is the publisher of this site?

Reply
Dr. E
5/12/2019 02:39:36 pm

Discovery Express Kids, LLC is responsible for all of the content on this site.

Reply
Ow0 niiiiice
10/8/2019 05:17:11 pm

Thanks now i have a project for science faie

Reply
Riley reid
12/12/2019 12:39:48 am

this would only help a third grade science class

Reply
Rafi
1/28/2020 10:08:13 am

Helpful

Reply
ally
2/8/2020 10:25:14 am

Nice

Reply

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