That's Too Salty! How the Tongue Knows

For my non - fiction response of the month I read a scientific article called, "That's Too Salty! How the Tongue Knows," by Tanya Lewis. It's about how we taste foods through the pores in our tongue. Especially the salty, bitter and sour. I like this article because it explained how the tongue is more effected by bitter tasting foods, than sweeter.

I learned that there are 5 main tastes/ flavors of food that are classified. There are sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. Umami is pretty much the taste of acid, like in tomatoes but aparently also has a meaty tatse. It sounds unfamiliar but I think everyone's probably tried it. I've learned about the 5 sensations of the tongue before but I don't remember the umami one.

Because they're similar in flavor, salty, sour and bitter tastes all trigger the same mechanism on the tongue. Sodium is the main cause, and salt is good for us. It has iron which people need, but it becomes a problem when people eat to  much sodium. I think that this article brought attention to the fact that the tongue is really important in being able to taste. I know from memory that its the same fact for smell, if you plug your nose when you eat, you won't be able to taste. I liked this article and all the facts I learned about tasting and the main ones. Also how the sodium in 3 out of the 5 are making them similar tastes to us.