Category Human Body

The tongue has thousands of taste buds, but these receptors can recognize only five different basic tastes.

Bitter

Tasting something bitter can stop us eating harmful food. But some people enjoy bitter tastes, like coffee. Furthermore, there are cases where some bitterness could be healthy. Antioxidants, which aid in metabolism, account for the bitter taste in dark chocolate and coffee.

Dark chocolate shavings on top of your favorite holiday dessert could be a great addition to create a fun bitter flavor party.

Salty

This taste comes from sodium, which helps regulate muscle contractions, nerve signals, and keeping the right balance of water. As a flavor enhancer, adding salt to traditionally sweet dishes is necessary to amplify the sweet notes. A pinch of salt is core to most baked dessert recipes. Even if it is not listed in the ingredients, sprinkling some sea salt flakes or smoked salt over holiday ginger bread cookies brings out the sweetness of the sugar and enhances the ginger flavor.

Sour

Acidic foods, such as lemons and vinegar, taste sour. Humans are the only animals to enjoy sour food. The sour taste can also be obtained from foods soured through fermentation such as sauerkraut and yogurt, or through the addition of vinegar.

Many salad dressings feature vinegar as a key ingredient, which is a perfect way to add sour notes. You could also try adding lemon or orange zest to vinegar or even cream based dressings. Or, simply zest the top of your salad to help drive this craveable flavor sensation.

Sweet

Sweetness is naturally attractive as it indicates that presence of sugar, which provides a swift energy boost. Furthermore, when used in a combination, sweet complements well with the other basic tastes. Adding sweetness such as a drizzle of sweet balsamic glaze to a traditionally salty vegetable dish like roasted brussel sprouts would take it to the next level.

Umami

This is a mouth-watering savoury taste, found in foods such as grilled meat, mushrooms, or soy sauce.  In the early part of the 20th century, a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda attempted to identify this taste common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat. But, not one of the four well-known tastes could describe it adequately. What he pinpointed was the presence of glutamic acid, which he renamed “umami”, Japanese for “good flavor”. Though one of the core flavors of Eastern cuisine imparted by soy sauce and MSG (monosodium glutamate), it wasn’t accepted as a basic taste in the West until 1985.

Picture Credit : Google

We use our senses of smell and taste to ensure we don’t eat harmful things. Our sense of smell can also detect other potentially dangerous substances, such as smoke or toxic chemicals. The brain processes these smells and warns the body to steer clear.

Doctors used to be able to sense when a person had a serious disease. Some people say they can sense when others are going to die.

Although researchers had studied effects on plants and animals, not much has been done in this area on humans. One reason is that it is more difficult to be subjective with human tests.

This small study may provide further scientific insights around conscious and non-conscious responses to threats. But the claimed connection between this research and humans having some type of ‘sixth sense for danger’ is as slender as a spider’s thread. 

This was a highly experimental scenario and it is not clear if these findings would be representative of the general population in real-life fear situations.

Warning signal!

When fresh foods such as milk go off, the sour smell quickly lets us know. Wrinkling the nose in disgust partly blocks off unpleasant, potentially harmful odours.

Picture Credit : Google

The tongue and nose act as gatekeepers to the body, sending signals to help the brain decide whether or not substances are safe to allow into the body. Millions of sensory receptors lining these areas can detect more than one trillion different smells and tastes.

Molecules in the air we breathe attach to receptors lining the sensory cells of the nasal passages, while molecules in the food we eat attach to taste receptors on the tongue. When “good” molecules are detected, the brain sends messages to the digestive system to prepare for an intake of food. More saliva is produced in the mouth, and the stomach may rumble in anticipation.

Combined senses

Smell and taste act as combined senses in the brain to create the perception of flavor. But the sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than taste. To understand how much enjoyment of food comes from the smell, pinch your nose closed and eat your favourite food.

Picture Credit : Google

Different shaped teeth perform specific tasks. Sharp-edged incisors at the front cut into foods, while pointed canines are good for tearing. The cut food is then pushed back to the molars and premolars for grinding and chewing.

Milk teeth

A set of milk teeth consists of 20 teeth – 10 each in the upper and lower jaw. There are four molars for chewing food, but no premolars.

Ways to prevent milk tooth decay are similar to those for preventing adult tooth decay and include maintaining good oral hygiene and not allowing an infant or child to fall asleep with a bottle containing formula, fruit juices or sweetened liquids.

Healthy milk teeth help a child to eat, chew and speak normally and decayed teeth can hamper the child’s ability to eat normally, therefore affecting growth and development. In addition, a decayed primary tooth can lead to infection that may damage the permanent tooth growing underneath.

Permanent teeth

By the age of about 11, a child has a set of 28 permanent teeth. In the late teens, four more molars – the wisdom teeth – may appear, making a set of 32.

Permanent teeth can last a lifetime and it is very important to maintain them to prevent tooth decay developing and damaging them. Tooth decay can be prevented through brushing and flossing daily and attending regular dental checkups. These maintenance techniques prevent plaque from forming across the teeth and eroding the enamel and causing decay of the material inside.

Picture Credit : Google

When we bite and chew food, three sets of powerful muscles work together to move the lower jaw. As the muscles move the jaw up and down and from side to side, food is ground down by the molars in the back of the mouth.

Temporal muscle

Temporal muscle pulls the lower jaw up. Along with the medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid and masseter muscles, it belongs to the group masticatory muscles. The temporalis muscle runs superficially, from the temporal bone to the coronoid process of mandible.

Pterygoid muscle

Pterygoid muscle pulls the hinge joint that opens the jaw. It belongs to the group of masticatory muscles, along with the lateral pterygoid, masseter and temporal muscles. 

Masseter muscle

The masseter muscle is a facial muscle that plays a major role in the chewing of solid foods. The muscle is shaped similar to a parallelogram, connecting to the mandible (lower jawbone) and the cheekbone. Masseter muscle closes the jaw with great force.

Jaw muscles

The chewing muscles, which are attached to the skull, can exert great force. The lower jaw can withstand this pressure because it is the strongest bone in the face.

Picture Credit : Google

Incisor

The incisors are chisel shaped teeth located anteriorly within the oral cavity. Their name originates from the Latin word ‘incidere’, which means ‘to cut’. Hence, their main function is to cut food during mastication. The incisors are used for cutting and biting.

Canine

The canines tear and shred food. The first baby canines come in between the ages of 16 months and 20 months. The upper canines grow in first, followed by the lower canines.

Lower adult canines emerge in the opposite way. First, the lower canines poke through the gums around age 9, then the upper canines come in at age 11 or 12.

Root

The roots are normally buried in bone, and they serve to anchor the tooth in position. The roots are covered with a thin layer of bone, and they are inserted into sockets in the bone of the jaw. The long, pointed root anchors the tooth firmly in the jawbone.

Permanent tooth

The permanent teeth ate tucked up into the facial bones until they are ready to emerge. Permanent teeth can last a lifetime and it is very important to maintain them to prevent tooth decay developing and damaging them. Tooth decay can be prevented through brushing and flossing daily and attending regular dental checkups

Dentine

Dentine gives shape to the tooth and supports the enamel crown. Its strong, honeycomb structure helps the tooth withstand the powerful squashing force created by our jaws when we bite into food.

Parts of a tooth

The part of a tooth that you can see is the crown. It is coated in enamel – the hardest substance in the body. Beneath is a layer of bone-like tissue called dentine. The pulp cavity at the centre contains the tooth’s blood vessels and nerves.

Premolar

Premolar teeth are between the canine front teeth and the molars. These are transitional teeth; teeth that transition between the tearing function of the canines and the grinding function of the molars. Those grinding teeth only appear in the permanent set.

Molar

This is a permanent molar, which has recently emerged. Like premolars, these crush and grind food. Molars are designed to sustain great amounts of force from chewing, grinding, and clenching, and each molar is anchored to the jaw bone with two to four roots.

Picture Credit : Google