Taste this!

Ever thought about why foods taste different? It's kinda amazing. Your tongue and the roof of your mouth are covered with thousands of tiny taste buds. When you eat, saliva in your mouth helps break down your food. This causes the receptor cells located in your tastes buds to send messages through sensory nerves to your brain. Your brain then tells you what flavors you are tasting.

Taste buds probably play the most important part in helping you enjoy the many flavors of food. Your taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue; the sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue; and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.

Everyone's tastes are different. In fact, your tastes will change as you get older. When you were a baby, you had taste buds, not only on your tongue, but on the sides and roof of your mouth. This means you were very sensitive to different foods. As you grew, the taste buds began to disappear from the sides and roof of your mouth, leaving taste buds mostly on your tongue. As you get older, your taste buds will become even less sensitive, so you will be more likely to eat foods that you thought were too strong as a child.

What if you could not taste anything? Things like medications, smoking, not getting enough of the right vitamins, injury to the head, brain tumors, chemical exposure, and the effects of radiation can cause taste disorders.

More interesting but totally useless facts:

1. We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths; even on the roofs of our mouths.
2. Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts. (that is mildly disturbing)
3. Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.
4. In general, girls have more taste buds than boys (the wife always told me she has better taste than I do)
5. Taste is the weakest of the five senses.

Taste is that exotic sense that can create joy or sensory overload. I have tasted a lot of things in my life and some can bring back vivid memories:

1. Spicy food – jalapenos, peppers, horseradish, General Tso Chicken, Wasabi Peas, Spicy Chicken wings. I’ve burnt my lips on a wide variety of foods in life that have brought me to tears. Life lesson 104: When handling jalapenos, never rub your eyes.


2. Sweet – honey, maple syrup, candy. In honor of Valentine's day today - remember your sweetie.


3. Sour/bitter/tart – some sour tastes are good (lemon, lime, vinegar, sauerkraut) while others are bad (milk, wine, cheese). One of my favorite sour tastes is a Whiskey Sour. Here’s a challenge: Try to describe what sour tastes like to someone who has no sense of taste.


4. Salty – crackers, chips, pretzels, popcorn, bacon. I’m one of those guys who loves salt. Fortunately, I inherited some of the good genes from my momma and have very low blood pressure.


5. Hot – hot chocolate (or cider, tea, coffee, spiced wine) on a cold, snowy day. After a cold snowy day skiing the slopes (or shoveling the driveway), a cup of hot chocolate was a favorite treat.


6. Cold – ice cream, popsicles, ice cold beer. Cold is something we appreciate down here on the coast especially during the long hot summer months. Temperature can vastly change the flavor of food/drink and affect your enjoyment. Ever try a warm beer?


7. Chocolate – dark, sweet, milk. For some, chocolate has been elevated to an almost erotic experience. Almost everybody loves chocolate in some form or another. While I am really not as much of a fanatic as my wife, I have my favorites. M&Ms and Whoppers are some of the ones I would prefer. I will avoid some of the more exotic brands (cherry filled).


8. Scotch/whiskey/bourbon (hey, this is my meme and I’m listing my favorite tastes) – Over the years, I have acquired a taste for good scotch. There is a difference between the cheap, mass produced swill and a bottle of single malt scotch (think Macallan).


9. Beer – I have had a chance to taste a variety of beers from around the world. For almost 5 years, I lived in Germany which is considered, by some, to be the Valhalla of beer. I’ve tasted dark beers, ales, bock beer, wheat beer, stouts, porters, lite beers, pilsners, pumpkin beer, cherry beer (ugh), and one particularly nasty variety called a rauchen (smoke) beer. Trust me; do not try that one - even on a dare. (Hmm, I’m thinking a beer meme for later).


10. Food – of course, what good would a taste meme be without some reference to food? I have a thing for Chinese & Italian food. German food is great but a bit heavy (wiener schnitzel and spätzle ain’t light cuisine).

Taste is one of those senses we all secretly enjoy to some excess. Whether it is too much chocolate or too much salt or too much bacon (impossible), some tastes are indulgences. Remember the motto:

If it tastes too good, it is probably bad for you…

Soft touch

Touch - I’ve had a harder time trying to verbalize this sense. While the other four senses (sight, hearing, smell, and taste) are located in specific parts of the body, your sense of touch is found all over. This is because of many tiny nerve endings in the dermis which give you information about the things with which your body comes in contact. They do this by carrying the information to the spinal cord, which sends messages to the brain where the feeling is registered.

The nerve endings in your skin can tell you if something is hot or cold. They can also feel if something is hurting you. Your body has about twenty differnt types of nerve endings that all send messages to your brain. However, the most common receptors are heat, cold, pain, and pressure or touch receptors. Pain receptors are probably the most important for your safety because they can protect you by warning your brain that your body is hurt!

Some areas of the body are more sensitive than others because they have more nerve endings. Ever bitten your tongue and wondered why it hurt so much? It’s because the sides of the tongue have a lot of nerve endings that are sensitive to pain. However, your tongue is not as good at sensing hot or cold. That is why it is easy to burn your mouth when you eat something really hot. Fingertips are also very sensitive.


Interesting but useless facts:

• The least sensitive part of your body is the middle of your back.
• The most sensitive areas of your body are your hands, lips, face, neck, tongue, fingertips and feet.
• Shivering is a way your body has of trying to get warmer.
• There are about 100 touch receptors in each of your fingertips.
• Rattlesnakes use their skin to feel the body heat of other animals

Touch is one of the lesser senses that we don’t really appreciate how important it can be. The sense of touch or feeling adds texture to our lives. To feel the softness of a baby or the hardness of cold steel is something we can remember for a long time. Some feelings or touches I recall from my life are:

1. Holding a newborn child – indescribable feeling of holding a tiny soul in your hands and knowing you are responsible for him/her.
2. Petting a dog – Petting my dog (and cat) was always soothing to me. No matter how crappy my day was or what challenges life had put in front of me, Shadow always seemed to understand the situation and was available for some spiritual renewal. Nothing like a good belly rub or scratching his head seemed to make a lot of problems smaller.
3. Tickling – I am not overly ticklish, but my wife is. Some people find it funny while others find it torture.
4. Pain –What does not kill us, makes us stronger. Pain, while it may build character, sucks. I have had my fill of pain lately with my shoulder injury. In the ER, they ask you to give them some indication of how bad is your pain by drawing a circle around a facial expression (happy face = no pain, grump face = mild pain, screaming face = severe agony). I was hurting but I rated it as mild when compared to the others in the ER. Perhaps if I had rated it higher, I would have been treated sooner, but, honestly, there were other people in there with worse injuries/illnesses than I had. That little trip was over a month ago and I am still hurting. Just did anther round at the therapist and my arm hurts. I don’t mean to whine, but I am living on Advil and scotch this evening.
5. Hot – Don’t touch that. It’s hot. Ever been burned? When I was young (~4), I pulled a full cup of coffee off the table down onto my arm & leg and got scalded. That kind of pain takes a long while to recover from.
6. Cold – I hate the cold. Oh, I love snow and snow skiing. Even lived in New Jersey and Germany for years, but I still hate the cold. One winter while in the Army on maneuvers in Hoenfels, Germany, my feet got wet and I almost got frostbite. Ever since then, I am very sensitive to cold temps. That’s why I live in Texas.
7. Rough – toilet paper. Need I say more?
8. Sticky – cotton candy from the state fare.
9. Soft – feather pillows on a king size bed with a down comforter. Soft leather jacket.
10. Hard – as a diamond. Hard candy. Hard hat. Hard ass.

Did you see that?

Continuing with my theme of the 5 senses. I thought I would ponder the miracle of sight.

Sight is one of the most wonderful things we have been blessed with. Colors, textures, all play a symphony with our senses. There are many things I have seen in my 51 years on this rock, some of which have left an indelible impression on me:

1. Birth – watching any birth leaves me we with some sense of renewal and hope. The birth of my son is something I will never forget. I was truly humbled to hold such a precious gift in my hands and know that I had a part in his arrival. The scary part is looking down on that innocent soul knowing that life had a bigger meaning.


2. Getting married – Standing at the head of the chapel and watching the love of your life walk down the aisle is both awesome and terrifying. You stand upon the brink of a major change in your life and you are both excited and scared shitless. I had a million thoughts running through my head at the time, one of which was: “Don’t screw this up.”


3. Death – watching a loved one die is something that that we all must face, but are never prepared for. Recently, we put our dog Shadow to sleep and I had to look him in the eyes as he slipped away. That memory still haunts/pains me to this day and I don’t think anything will ever make it go away or less painful.


4. Sunrise – I have seen the sun rise from the top of the Tooth of Time at Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico, and it is a humbling experience. Sitting on top of a peak at 9028 feet at 0500 in the morning while waiting for the world to wake up is awe-inspiring. I’ve had the pleasure/luck to do it twice and would do it again in a heartbeat.
5. Sunsets – I’ve watched some spectacular sunsets when we were in Hawaii. I don’t recall a bad sunset, but some were downright photogenic. Nothing like ending a day with a Mai-Tai watching the sun set over the ocean waves.


6. Accomplishment - Watching your child accomplish a major feat – I don’t care if it is watching them walk for the first time, score a goal, hit a home run, doing their marching band routine or watching them graduate, seeing your children succeed makes all of the trials/tribulations/frustrations worth it. I’ve see the highs and lows and been with him every step of the way and the only thing I can say is I am proud of how far he has come. I’m not sure which gives me more pride: Watching him graduate high school top of his class with honors or getting awarded his Eagle Scout rank. He’s done a lot in his short life and I am confident he will succeed in any task he undertakes.
   
7. Tragedy – with today’s media/communications, we’ve seen tragedy on display that seems to leave a mark on us. Somehow, we can recall when and where we were when tragedy struck. When I was 5 years old, I remember watching TV at home in New Jersey when they announced JFK had been killed. I remember standing in line watching the TV in the credit union as the Challenger blew up over Florida. I remember seeing the news reports at the office coming out of New York/Washington on 9/11. Images like these and others (2004 tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina & Ike) stay with me for a long time.
   
8. Miracles – we’ve seen miracles. Not in the biblical sense, but miracles nonetheless. The recent miracle on the Hudson brings to mind that all news/events are not tragic or horrific. It was amazing to see a plane crash land into the river and everyone walked out alive.


9. Joy – Have you ever seen joy? Joy in the face of an athlete when they win a race. Joy in the face of people who graduate. Joy in the face of a child. Joy in the faces of newlyweds. Joy when you accomplish a major task. Nothing is more inspirational than to see someone beam with joy (even if you do not know them).


10. Terror – ever seen something that scared the snot out of you? As an amateur roller coaster rider, I’ve crested the top of a few hills and looked down and questioned my sanity. Sitting on the precipice always gives me a chill. I’ve done a few things in my short life that have pushed the boundaries (rock climbing, rappelling, flying, parachuting) that have given me that adrenalin rush. As a young Army Lieutenant, I had the privilege of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane and can tell you that few things compare to standing in the doorway of a C-130 plan with a parachute strapped to your back as your roar over the fields of Georgia waiting for your turn to “exit the plane”. Driving the freeways at rush hour seems to pale in comparison.

Always drink upstream from the herd...