You probably already know that your taste buds have something to do with your food preferences, but you’ll likely be surprised to learn how deeply those preferences are rooted in your body’s survival instincts…
For example, sniffing a chocolate doughnut will send a scent message through your nostrils to one part of your brain, and eating it will send a different type of scent signal to a different part of your brain. It is the scent message from eating that combines with taste to create flavor. However, according to Dr. Bartoshuk, the scent message from smelling with your nose is not involved with flavor at all (your brain knows the difference between the two)…
Taste buds go through a life cycle where they grow from basal cells into taste cells and then die and are sloughed away. According to Dr. Bartoshuk, their normal life cycle is anywhere from 10 days to two weeks. However, “burning your tongue on hot foods can also kill taste buds,” she says. “But they grow right back, which is why the ability to taste doesn’t diminish with age.” Though Dr. Bartoshuk notes that taste remains robust as we get older, the ability to taste bitterness does decline in women with the onset of menopause…
http://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/sense-of-taste-changes-aging
When you bite into a luscious red tomato, you’re interpreting a dizzying array of signals—physical, neurochemical, memory-based—that ultimately help you decide whether you like tomatoes, or what combination of the five fundamental tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, or umami) comes through for you. (There’s growing support for the idea that fat is a distinct taste, too; other candidates include soapy and metallic. Spicy heat, on the other hand, involves a chemical short-circuit in our thermal detectors, and isn’t considered a taste.) …
Brain scans of perfumers have found that the olfactory parts of their brains actually grew more developed as they got older, not the other way around, as with most people. That suggests that actively differentiating aromas and seeking out new ones may help reverse the normal effects of aging on the sense of smell. You may, in other words, be able to teach yourself to get more flavor from food as you get older…
http://www.hellawella.com/some-it-hot-facts-and-myths-about-your-taste-buds
Myth: Eating spicy food damages your taste buds.
Fact: The substance capsaicin is found in spicy foods and works by binding to pain receptors in the brain, sending a hot, burning signal to the body. While they can be temporarily damaged by extreme spice or temperatures, taste buds grow back every two weeks, so it’s generally nothing to worry about…
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