taste buds

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Think Your Fetus Liked That Salad You Ate? Check the Scan

Ultrasound facial expressions differed depending on if moms-to-be were given kale or carrot capsules

(Newser) - New moms often insist that their infants respond positively to the same music they used to hear in the womb—could the same go for food that their mothers ate while they were still in utero? Scientists out of the UK's Durham University are now wondering the same, after...

The Mice Have Spoken: Taste Is an Illusion

Scientists turn sense of taste on and off by manipulating brain cells: study

(Newser) - That bitter tincture a bunch of mice in a Columbia University lab recently gagged on could have been sweet nectar, or even just plain water. Why they took issue with the taste: For a study published in the journal Nature , scientists fiddled with their brain cells to make them think...

Four Basic Taste Types? Think Again

Salty, sweet, bitter, sour don't even begin to account for basic taste types

(Newser) - Most of us have been taught that salty, sweet, sour, and bitter (that last one added by Greek philosopher Democritus a few thousand years ago) make up the four building blocks of taste. But since the "savory" taste (also called umami) was added as a fifth taste about a...

Why Does Brushing Make Food Taste Terrible?

Its chemicals mess with your tastebuds

(Newser) - Why does brushing your teeth ruin the taste of food you eat afterward? It's not about the mint taste interfering with your orange juice. In fact, it has to do with two chemicals in the paste, writes Daven Hiskey at Today I Found Out . Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium...

Why Your Lukewarm Coffee Sucks

It could be down to how our taste buds work

(Newser) - Coffee's great hot, and it's tasty iced—but anything in between is just disgusting. While there isn't a ton of concrete research into why that is, experts provide Life's Little Mysteries with three plausible theories. First: It could be because of the way our taste buds...

Your Lungs Have Their Own Taste Buds

Scientists find bitter tastes open airways, could treat asthma

(Newser) - The lungs have taste buds, identical to a type found in the tongue, a group of scientists have found. Lungs only have the type of taste bud that can taste bitter tastes, and the taste signals don't travel to the brain—instead, they dilate the air passages more effectively than...

Women Are Better Beer Tasters

 Women 
 Are Better 
 Beer Tasters 
in case you missed it
Jul 3, 2010 12:10 PM CDT

Women Are Better Beer Tasters

So says MillerCoors, which has a lot riding on it

(Newser) - Men guzzle way more beer, but women seem to have a better nose for it. One major brewer—SABMiller, which makes Miller and Coors, among other brands—has concluded that women are better able to discern when a batch is skunky or just right, and as a result, the company...

Tasty Wine All In the Pricetag
Tasty Wine All In the Pricetag
Jan 16, 2008 12:19 PM CST

Tasty Wine All In the Pricetag

Swapping price tags changed drinkers' opinions during study

(Newser) - The price of a bottle wine directly affects our enjoyment of it, a new study concludes. Volunteers were offered three different wines, with four different price labels, mixing up the order to see what effect price had on people’s tastes. Watching volunteers' brains via MRI scan, the researchers saw...

Lots Like It Hot: Taste-Starved Boomers Fuel Spicy Sales

Generation burns for spice as senses fade

(Newser) - Baby boomers and their aging senses are fueling a major sales surge in spicy foods and sauces, turning up the heat on mainstream restaurant menus and supermarket salsa aisles. Market experts theorize that as the generation experiences a diminished sense of taste, consumers are using their enormous buying power to...

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