Taste Buds

Scientists have found three levels of taste bud ability: nontasters, tasters, and supertasters.  Tasters make up about 50% of the population with nontasters and supertasters taking up 25% each.  Supertasters tend to have lower cholesterol and are less obese.  To the supertaster, bitter tastes more bitter, salty more salty, and sweet more sweet.  Ginger, alcohol, carbonated beverages, and chili peppers all create a more intense sensation of burning on the supertasters tongue. They tend to have an advantage against weight gain, some research shows that they find fatty and sugary foods too intense and avoid them.  Nontasters eat a wider variety of foods than the other two groups.  They also have a tendency to eat more hoping that by charging their tongues with quantity they will experience pleasant tastes.  However, quantity does not equal quality, and they should instead over-season their food. To find out which level you are, you first need to get some phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) paper from a local chemical supply store.  Tasting this paper strip will let you know if you can taste something called PROP.  If it just tastes like paper, than you might be a nontaster. If it tastes extremely bitter you are probably a supertaster. Just slightly bitter and you are a taster. To finish, swab your tongue with blue food coloring, then take one small circular reinforcing sticker used for protecting notebook paper holes and place it on the center of your tongue near the tip.  Use a mirror to count the number of papillary bumps (the blue sticks to everything but the bumps).  The more bumps you have, the more of a taster you are.  Nontasters have around five bumps, supertasters can have thirty or more. This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.