Dear Susan,
Cats aren’t usually big veggie-eaters. But working with humans means that I get to taste all kinds of new delicacies—like Brussels sprouts.
I talked about food preferences with my friend Carolyn Ross. She’s a chemist and food scientist at Washington State University.
She told me that some people are extra sensitive to how foods taste. They’re called supertasters.
“Supertasters actually have more taste buds,” Ross said. “We’ve found that people who are supertasters are particularly sensitive to bitterness.”
Bitterness really strikes at a supertaster’s fungiform papillae. Those are the mushroom-shaped lumps on your tongue that house your taste buds. Because of their heightened sense of taste, supertasters may be especially sensitive to bitter greens like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.
This is what the taste buds look like. They sit inside different kinds of rounded projections called papillae. Cells in the taste bud interact with nerves. They change the chemical “taste” into an electrical signal. That signal zooms up to the brain via the nerves so you can figure out the taste. Image: Open Stax/Wiki
Supertasters probably don’t just avoid bitter veggies. They’re also sensitive to sweetness. So, they tend to avoid treats like cake and candy because they’re way too sweet.
It turns out supertasters super-taste everything. That includes all five basic tastes that humans perceive. Those are bitterness, sweetness, sourness, saltiness and the savory, brothy flavor called umami.
That’s what Dr. Ross studies in her lab. She uses an “electronic tongue” tool that can taste the five basic tastes plus spiciness and metallic. The idea is to give a numerical value to those perceptions.
For instance, we all know that soda is sweet and bubbly. But Ross’ e-tongue can tell us how sweet it is, on a scale from 1 to 50. Some people say soda tastes spicy. The e-tongue can tell us if the syrupy nectar is truly spicy on a chemical level.
That works because how something tastes is all about chemical reactions. When a food or liquid hits your tongue, little chemical reactions happen. We recognize the resulting sweet sugars, sour acids, bitter alkaloids, savory amino acids and salty salts.
Brussels sprouts have lots of glucosinolates full of sulfur and nitrogen. The most notable glucosinolate in Brussels sprouts is sinigrin, which gives them their bitter flavor. Some glucosinolates are toxic, so some animals take bitterness as a sign: DO NOT EAT THIS.
But with humans and Brussels sprouts, the benefits outweigh the bitterness. The wee cabbages are packed with vitamins K, C, A, and B-complex, beta-carotene, folic acid, iron, magnesium and fiber. They also have cancer-fighting properties. Which all adds up to: EAT THIS.
So the odds are you’re just a normal taster with an aversion to bitter Brussels sprouts. Ross says it takes about eight tries at eating something before you warm up to it. Plus kids have more taste buds than adults do. So, you may become less sensitive to strong tastes as you grow.
Maybe someday that bitter veggie will seem super-tasty.
Sincerely,
Dr. Universe