Emily's Food Science 2015/16
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What I Learned
This page talked about all the main tastes. The sensation of taste resides in the brain. A single sensory neuron can be connected to several taste cells in each of several different taste buds.
A single taste bud contains 50–100 taste cells representing all 5 taste sensations. Sour receptors detect the protons liberated by sour substances (acids).
This page talks about graduate students that wanted to prove something that researchers have not yet proved. Researchers were unsure if sour had specialized receptors. They did numerous tests on mice and concluded that sour taste receptors show up in neurons of the spinal cord.
Sour is the only taste that affects the neurons of the spinal cord. This interested me and actually gave me some ideas about what to do for my actual taste project.
This page is very interesting. Each type of taste receptor can be found on all parts of the tongue, not just the areas that have been identified, although where the specific areas for the different tastes emphasize the type of taste, but is tasted all through the tongue.
I learned that you can taste all the different tastes throughout the whole tongue.
This page talks about what makes us taste sour. Carboxylic acids cause the sour taste in substances such as fruit, vinegar, dairy products and processed meat. This function of the acid is to enhance food flavor, and to lower its pH level.
While reading this article, I learned that products we eat and drink on a daily basis that doesnt (nessisarily) taste sour actually has a chemical in them, so the pH level is low. I also learned that acid acts as a curing agent, especialy for meat and fish.
This article is about biologists discovering how we detect taste. In addition to being found in the taste buds, the researchers discovered that the sour protein receptor is also found along the entire length of the spinal cord in nerve cells that surround and reach into the central canal.
This is the second article I have read that involves how sour taste receptors affect the spinal cord. I've learned while reading this article that mice can't detect sour taste, but they can detect all other tastes. This is why they can't tell that they are eating poison.
This article talks about taste buds, small organs located on the tongue in terrestrial vertebrates that functions in the perception of taste. On average, the human tongue has 2,000-8,000 taste buds. To every taste bud there is 50-150 taste receptors.
I learned to every taste bud there is 50-150 taste receptors. I also didn't know that a taste bud was considered an organ.
This article is talking about what you are experiencing when you have a sour taste in your mouth and you havent eaten anything sour. When you get a sour taste in your mouth, it is usually because of heart burn.
I have never experienced heart burn before, so I learned that with heart burn you could potentially get a sour taste in your mouth.
This article talks about how kids prefer more sour things than adults. It also gave the procedure to an experiment so you too can prove that more children prefer sour taste than adults do.
I learned that Americans and Europeans prefer mint flavored toothpast, while people in China and Japan prefer fruit flavored toothpaste.
This article talks about a "miracle fruit" that turns sour tastes into sweet tastes. This little berry contains a special protein, called miraculin, which attaches to sweet sensing taste buds. Reaserchers are trying to use this fruit to make an artificial sweetener.
I learned that this fruit was descovered in tropical West Africa in 1725 by a European explorer.
This article tells you the acids in the Warheads that make them so sour. The sourness is due the the malic acid along with citric and ascorbic acids.
I didn't know that malic acid is in apples. It is also the acid that gives green apples their bite.
Along with environmental and cultural factors affecting our food choices, there is evidence that genetic makeup influences how we experience taste. Most of our food loves and hates are learned.
I had no idea that our DNA could have anything to do with our food preferences. I also didn't know that fetuses and breastfed babies could actually taste what the mother has eaten.
This article is about a new protein that scientists have descovered called PKD2L1. They believe that this protein is the reason behid the puckering flavor of lemons, vinegar and sour candies.
I learned that PKD2L1 is a specialized protein in taste bud cells, but doesnt show up in any other taste than sour.
This was not really an article, but it did say that if you want to dim down the sour taste in your food then add sugar. Adding sugar reduces the acidity of the dish.
I learned adding water can reduce acidity along with sugar. I think this is why some people like to put sugar in their lemonade.
This article was talking about how the PKD1L3 and PKD2L1 proteins work together to form sour taste receptors. These proteins work together to make sour taste more intense.
I learned that there are many proteins in your taste buds. The two proteins that effect sour taste are the coolest in my opinion.
This article talks about what yeasts brewers use to make sour beers. Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, or Pediococcus is used to impart sour taste. Lactobacillus turns sugar into lactic acid, providing the sour taste.
I found this article very interesting. It explained the history of sour beer and I did not know lactobacillus turned sugar into lactic acid.
This article tells you what ingredients to use if you want your sourdough bread to have more or less acidity. It also says what temperature to cook the bread depending on how acidic you made it.
I learned that using rye flower gives bread more tang. Rye flower in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.