In technical terms, the taste is a chemical form of reception from which the taste of a substance is recognized. The sense of taste is closely linked to the sense of smell, and are both two senses rather weak compared to the rest of our body.
Through the sense of taste we can experience all the flavours of food, and this is coordinated by various organs. First taste comes through the taste buds of the tongue. Palate also involved in this, and the epithelium of the pharynx and epiglottis. These sensations are transmitted to the receptive centers in the lobe of the brain.
Importantly taste is responsible for stimulating the secretion of saliva and gastric juices, depending on the type of flavor that we are experiencing. There are several diseases of taste. The Ageusia is the loss or reduction of taste due to diseases of the tongue. The dysgeusia is a disease that makes us confuse the flavors of foods and beverages. Finally, Hypogeusia relates to poor basic ability to taste flavors.
Something interesting to note is how the sense of taste is closely linked to the perception that cultures are the same. We traditionally recognize four tastes (sweet, salty, sour and bitter), cultures of this hemisphere added spicy flavor and umami, discovered in the twentieth century. In fact, more recently some neuroscientists have added the metallic taste and the taste of water known to all tastes.
The taste is an advanced way to ensure a varied diet. We need certain nutrients to survive. There have to be ways to guide us to ensure that we get enough of these macro and micro nutrients. Nature itself we solve that problem by providing us with the ability to distinguish flavors in food.
The different macro nutrients tend to have different flavors. The bread, potatoes and pasta are more similar to each other than meats. If you eat potatoes, after trying about 200 grams and not want as much as when started eating, so there has been a decline in the desire for what you have already eaten, but without diminishing the eating other foods. Luckily, we do not need a degree in nutritional science to achieve a balanced diet.
The flavor just do not feel it with your tongue. The five senses, taste, smell, touch, sight, sound, in addition to temperature, the pungent component experienced by eating certain foods as a pepper or horseradish arising from stimuli within the body, are all involved in together in creating a broader sense in our brains, we call taste.
Some people have more taste buds than others. They are called ‘super-tasters’ (super testers). That means not skilled or ‘connoisseurs’, but are much more sensitive to bitter taste than other people. Do you hate the taste of Brussels sprouts? Then you can be a super-taster.
Our taste for the flavors to develop before birth. A recent study looked at 24 pregnant women, divided into two groups. One group received a diet containing anise and the other received a diet without this component. Shortly after the babies were born, they were shown a cotton ball soaked in anise. Newborns whose mothers had consumed anise during pregnancy showed no aversion to it, while those whose mothers had not taken anise, showed a strong hostility by the aroma.
Why when we are bored and go to the fridge, eat more foods that have carbohydrates, such as chocolate, ice cream, cakes, or something left over from previous days. We do not choose those who are “healthy” or low calorie. Ever we stopped to think that this happens to the majority and only turn to food to fill that empty feeling we feel, that feeling that nothing completes us.
And that’s where the question Why do we eat when we’re bored arises? Is not easy to answer without knowing two things:
Why do we eat?
What is boredom?
The answer to the first question seems to be simple, we eat because we are hungry. Thus, if we take the definition of “eat”, “feed” in the dictionary, we can find two meanings:
Eating :
1. Provide nourishment to the body of an animal or a plant.
2. Provide a machine, system or process, matter, energy or information you need for your operation.
Given the above, we can say that we feed to fuel our bodies, so that all physiological functions develop normally.
Part of this is true.
Now, we do you just eat for our body to function normally or eating is linked to pleasure ourselves know ?
Obviously the food is more than the physiologically feed . One of the pleasures of life and, if possible , he would eat those foods we like and not always available to us . The media are full of propaganda where present , eating for pleasure and , no matter how much we eat , we can be ourselves again with an effervescent magic or simple drops .
Thus, we should keep in mind that feeding will depend not only on how hungry it but , in turn, the previous relationship we have with food and the social circumstances in which they consume .
Given this criterion eating, even we need to explain why we eat compulsively generates boredom. Cannot be answered without knowing it is boredom itself.
Boredom:
Tiredness, boredom , ennui, usually caused by trouble or inconvenience, or for not having something to distract and amuse .
The term boredom appears in the fifteenth century and is synonymous with the disease of the rich , with more to accrue in the nineteenth century. When great misfortunes of history, war, famine , epidemics , no time for boredom. You live so intensely that you forget you are living .
Boredom is related to leisure . The time I spent in the old leisure; was considered creative and productive.
It is also a fundamental question arises what to do with time, when the time depends only on oneself? .
The conditions of the consumer lifestyle of today are very different. Today , thanks to advances where man-made for a greater good , and do not hunt our food but we go to the supermarket, buy frozen and all you need to do is put it in the microwave and where the culture of immediacy is at service of our hands, we do not know what to do with their free time. We anguish and therefore eat.
We usually have scheduled most of our free time gym, cinema, theatre, outings with friends , unlimited TV , etc. . Now when we have some time without any scheduled activity, we get bored .
In today’s society of immediacy , where the idea is not felt needs , and the target is to be filled no matter what : pictures, food, sounds, etc. Free time becomes a time lacking qualities , sense , color and flavor. All the time we are assuming that we should spend another thing , not what we are experiencing . This is not to accept and not accept failure .
This not only happens to us adults , but our school-age children , our teenagers , Did the bowling , computer games or alcohol are no means of escape , of not knowing what we do with our time? Feeling so something is missing , that nothing at hand can satisfy this empty feeling . What we want something that could fill our aspirations, give us peace , entertainment, all in correctly and effortlessly.
Eating, Anxiety, Stress and Leisure
Having spare time we anguish ( sorrow , grief , anxiety) more than we think . And to soothe the anguish ended up turning to food, nothing better to grab that bag of chips and sit in front of the TV . We can think of nothing but eating , compulsive eating , feeling the taste and pleasure so we are eating , just the act of bring something to the mouth, something to calm the anguish that neither we know it is there , but upset.
So, the food appears to quell the threat of free time, emptiness, nothing, of not knowing what to do with boredom. The style here is to make sense of that free time .
Here we should distinguish boredom than today named as ” Stress” , which appears as a burden , physical process , chemical or emotional stress that a producer can lead to physical illness . We must take into account this difference . It is often easy to confuse because the early symptoms of stress are very similar to boredom.
Now that we eat when we’re bored and we cannot do anything else, this is where we have to take into account the anxiety of us this time, without a scheduled activity. That anxiety appears as a threat, and that threat against resort to food. So is eating is an attempt to solve this time. Since eating is pleasurable, is an immediate pleasure, it is a pleasure we get with very little effort. We try to stay without feeling that something is missing and unable to tolerate feeling this lack, making place and making room for boredom caused by being saturated fully, you can from there back to creative leisure, use of leisure time connected intimately with our desire, our subjectivity and creative aspects.
The sense of taste enables us to know how delicious dinner was us or if something is messed up. It is a sense that is not used to the sight or hearing, and has also been underestimated from the time that eating has become a need and do something quickly. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami, today we want to tell you some fun facts about taste that surely you did not know.
10. Eating More Means Less Enjoyable
Obesity is directly related to a change in taste, taste buds as related to the area of sweet tastes are lost, and the remaining responds poorly. Let us look for a moment the restaurant menu where we will have lunch or dinner. Picking may seem difficult, however, follow a healthy guidelines only has a few secrets. The first secret is that vegetables and salads cannot miss, seizes the opportunities of original and tasty recipes with these foods offered by the restaurant. The second secret is a second dish of carbohydrates and / or proteins to enjoy to the fullest. The third secret is to switch to a light dessert made ??of fruit or yogurt, or even take a tea or coffee instead. This way you can enjoy a great holiday and special food, which is also complete, balanced diet and respectful.
9. Virtual Taste
Scientists in Singapore have developed a simulator that transmits digital food taste virtually the language. Does profit? Try the taste of a dish in a restaurant or something that appears on TV or a video game, and also allow diabetics taste the sweet without eating.
8. Aging is Bad for your Tongue
As we age, our response to the different flavours change: when we are young we like sweet tastes more bitter face, whereas when age is just the opposite.
7. The Tool is Everything
In theory, as the tool to consume, the taste of food changes. If you eat yogurt with a plastic spoon, sorry denser, if the yogurt is white and eaten with a white spoon perceived sweeter. And one more fact: if we eat a cheese knife, a stick or spoon is saltier.
6. Rituals also Import
If we maintain a ritual before eating probably enjoy more than the food. A good example is people who leave food in half, and eat first one side and then another.
5. Eat According to the Setting
Not the same eating a burger in a place than another. The test was done with some knowledgeable people who drank whiskey the same in three different locations, and all found it a distinct flavour. For example, preferred whiskey on site with wood panelling, cedar scent and the sound of rustling of leaves, because he had a woody taste.
4. Alcohol generates a Particular Reaction
If you give a man drinking beer first and then any other drink, we like dopamine in the brain decreases when moving to the non-alcoholic beverage.
3. Always Eat for Pleasure
We discovered that our ancestors, six thousand years ago, managed to make a garlic mustard. This has a very low nutritional level, so effectively not consumed to achieve more strength and health, but for pleasure, contrary to what was believed.
2. The Excess is Always Bad
The taste buds of the animals make, although they like all the flavours, reject too salty, bitter or acidic foods. And last but not least, genetically modified animals can not feel when they are eating something too salty.
1. Mutant Cockroaches with a Sense of Taste Developed
Looks like it there, and have come to stay. Its power lies in the fact that they can avoid the pitfalls that people leave because they have developed revulsion for sweet things.