What You Know About Your Tongue Is Wrong
August 29, 2006 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Food and Drink, Media, Your Body
According to an article today on Live Science, many of the nuggets of “common knowledge” we hold about our tongues are wrong.
First: We all know that the tongue is mapped out into four distinct areas for tasting. Sweet at the tip, salty and sour on the sides and bitter in the back. This is wrong. All areas of the tongue have sufficient taste receptors to pick up on all these sensations. There is even a fifth specific tatse sensation referred to as umami (identified by a Japanese scientist named Kikunae Ikeda in the early 1900s).
Second: You’re passing along a common urban myth when you say, “the tongue is the strongest muscle in your body.” This is also B.S. The masseter is by far the strongest in your body due to a mechanical advantage using the leverage of your jawbone to crush food. Or maybe you measure strength as the ability to perform continuous work without fatigue. The heart wins here, hands down.
Check out more stuff you’re wrong about, after the jump.
The Tongue Map: Tasteless Myth Debunked – Live Science (pops)
[tags] urban, myth, tongue, muscle, taste, false, wrong [/tags]
Only salt/sour and sweet/bitter? Have you not tatsed Chillies? In India we also count another taste (that of betal nut), which has the effect of neutralising the taste left over in the mouth after eating food. In our culture a sumptuous meal is supposed to include all the six tastes