We are able to taste various flavours of food using specialized receptors on our tongue called taste buds.  They can detect four fundamental tastes - sweet, salt, sour and bitter.  All other tastes we experience are combinations of these.  Frequently, sensations from other kinds of receptors contribute to this mix.  For example, the taste of ice cream involves cold receptors.  Substances like lemon juice have an astringent action on the mucous membrane, which adds to their sour taste.

Each receptor is sensitive to only one kind of taste.  The taste buds are grouped at various places on the tongue:  the sour taste receptors occur primarily along the sides; the sweet and salt taste receptors cluster more on the tip; the bitter taste receptors, towards the back.  The centre of the tongue has little ability to taste.

The most sensitive taste buds are for bitterness.  They can detect substances when only one part in two million is present.  For sweetness, one part in two hundred is required before it can be perceived.

Solid food must be dissolved in saliva before we are able to taste it.  On average, we produce about ten thousand gallons of saliva in a lifetime.

Even though our taste buds are quite sensitive, our sense of smell is stronger and often overwhelms our sense of taste.  

So next time you serve a tough tasteless steak, make sure it has that hickory smoked fragrance.

MOVING BEYOND MATTER
by Ron Hughes

When you think about all of the things that add pleasure to our lives, surely tastes must be near the top of the list.  This lifts food from merely functional (nourishing the body) to pleasure giving.  

The sensation of pleasure that we get when we eat certain things prompts us to eat more of it.  We seek out those flavours which suit our taste.  In the broader scheme of things, we apply the idea of taste metaphorically to many other things.  We talk about our taste in music, art, entertainment, or literature.  When we do that, we're simply indicating what we like generally.  It's all about what pleases us.

Broadening one's taste broadens one's ability to enjoy.  Finicky eaters are hard to please, because the range of food they enjoy is so small.  But it takes some self-discipline to widen your taste in food (or anything else).  Many of my favourite flavours fall into the category of what we call "acquired tastes" – that is, they take some getting used to.  When something doesn't suit you the first time you try it, don't give up on it right away, it might one day be one of your favourites.

Now our ability to taste is a wonderful gift.  For most of us, it goes far beyond function and reaches well into the realm of pleasure I mentioned earlier.  We get real enjoyment from the many different flavours we encounter in our food.

The process of tasting is quite complex and is one of the things that points to an Intelligent Designer who made us with such systems fully functioning to help us select appropriate nourishment and to add enjoyment to our daily lives.

The Bible uses taste as a metaphor in an interesting way.  We are invited to "taste and see that the Lord is good."  God invites us to turn to Himself for spiritual nourishment.  He is the One who can feed us spiritually giving us the resources we need to face the tests and trials that come to us every day.  Beyond that though, our "tasting the Lord" will convince us that God is the author of pleasure.  We'll prove that "In His presence is fullness of joy; At His right hand are pleasures..."