My son likes very specific foods. He strongly likes and dislikes some foods. It always made me wonder if he will ever develop a wide, refined palate like me. Although he eats most of the veggies but he balks on some specific taste that you may not even notice. He is very specific about his comments, like: does this have cardamom, mayo has a bad after taste, I like parmesan or brie but do not like cottage cheese etc. Me being an all eater, I try to widen his choices, sometimes in vain.
It made me wonder if there is some difference between him and me physiologically. And look what I found on the net. I have written about this in my "Food for life" blog too. So it may be a repeat for some of you. Wiki: A supertaster is a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average. This obviously, leads to picky eaters. And the other end of the spectrum are non-tasters. Non-tasters eat wider range of foods and mind you, have higher BMI's. Now, this is completely contrary to what I thought right.
Research says that, whether you're a non-taster or a supertaster or somewhere in-between depends on your sensitivity to a bitter chemical called 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Non-tasters can't taste the bitterness of PROP at all. Medium tasters sense the bitterness but do not mind it, while supertasters find the taste of PROP revolting.
Children taste PROP more strongly and therefore taste the bitterness of foods more. I guess when we say that people acquire taste for bitter vegetables once they become adults, only means that our taste buds become less sensitive to PROP once we grow up. I pity my children for all those times that I forced them to eat their veggies and the bitter ones too.
Supertasters are not only sensitive to the bitter tastes but also to overly fatty, salty and sugary foods. What I gather from this is that, it helps them make healthier choices in foods, but at the same time sometimes keeps them away from foods high in flavonoids as they can be bitter tasting. All in all, supertasters are believed to have better health than non-tasters. So all you mommies stop worrying and look at the big picture.
It made me wonder if there is some difference between him and me physiologically. And look what I found on the net. I have written about this in my "Food for life" blog too. So it may be a repeat for some of you. Wiki: A supertaster is a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average. This obviously, leads to picky eaters. And the other end of the spectrum are non-tasters. Non-tasters eat wider range of foods and mind you, have higher BMI's. Now, this is completely contrary to what I thought right.
Research says that, whether you're a non-taster or a supertaster or somewhere in-between depends on your sensitivity to a bitter chemical called 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Non-tasters can't taste the bitterness of PROP at all. Medium tasters sense the bitterness but do not mind it, while supertasters find the taste of PROP revolting.
Children taste PROP more strongly and therefore taste the bitterness of foods more. I guess when we say that people acquire taste for bitter vegetables once they become adults, only means that our taste buds become less sensitive to PROP once we grow up. I pity my children for all those times that I forced them to eat their veggies and the bitter ones too.
Supertasters are not only sensitive to the bitter tastes but also to overly fatty, salty and sugary foods. What I gather from this is that, it helps them make healthier choices in foods, but at the same time sometimes keeps them away from foods high in flavonoids as they can be bitter tasting. All in all, supertasters are believed to have better health than non-tasters. So all you mommies stop worrying and look at the big picture.
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