A question I always wondered about taste?

Question

Ok leme tell you what I had for breakfast (yes it was unhealthy) but that's not the point.

I had deep fried oreos and a vitamin water (you know the one carrie underwood sponsors) Well I normally love the drink and it tastes good to me but is not very sweet. When I ate the oreos, the water tasted bitter and discusting. Could it be that the sensors on my toung temporarily got use to how sweet the fried oreo was that it didn't detect the low sugar levels in my water?

What do you think?

Answer 1

Sounds like that's what happened.  How do you deep fry Oreos? In a batter ?

Answer 2

Well I remember at a summer day camp I went to one time, the theme of the week was Your 5 Senses or however they did it.  Anyway,  that's not the point.  The point is,  I learned one day that there are different sections of your tongue that taste different things.  I forget which is where but one section may taste sweet things and one section may taste sour things.  And they also taught me that some things can taste differently if you move them around on your tongue.  For instance, if you take a sour Skittle and put it around the sour area of your tongue, it will be sour.  If you move it around, it may taste sweet, or bitter, or whatever.  It doesn't work on everything though.  But that water you had, maybe that was the case.

I'm not sure.  So if I am wrong, blame my camp instructor.

Answer 3

There are sensors in you nose and mouth whcih react to specific stimulii and send signals to your brain which you interpret as "taste"

These sensors can become tired, blocked or damaged which will affect how things taste (or smell).

Lets say water taste is 3A + 2B - 12C and fried Oreos are

100A + 23C + 34D.  If the nerves for A & C get tired after Oreos the signal they send when you drink water is  -5A + 2B + C + 3D and the water tases way different than it should. Our brain works mostly on contrasts - differences - between stimulii.  Smell is your most flexible sense.  You quickly adjust to the ambient smells and soon no longer sense them.  Your other senses, including taste also have great flexibility.  And of course taste is partially smell, anyway.

Answer 4

tastes tend to stick around