Significance of each tastes

 

"Good food is like music,you can taste,

color you can smell.

there is excellence around you.

You only need to be aware to stop and savour it"

  -Gusteau 

Reading time:3 mins 

Surprisingly, the taste of food can ruin a dish for us. How fascinating!
 I always knew only 2 tastes- sweet and savory, but I learned that there are 6 tastes namely sweet, bitter, sour, alkaline/salty, pungent, and astringent.

We generally eat food for our body's fuel. But have you ever craved something sweet after eating a meal...I know I have. I crave subway sandwich and caramel popcorn RN.😍

Funny story: Once I heard from a teacher that Pizza is healthy. It has carbs(bread), veggies(fiber, vitamins, and minerals), cheese(fats). Since it has all the macro-nutrients it should be healthy, right? I swear I believed him until recently I realized he was sarcastic.😂You might ask if the taste of food is so important; Pizza, fries, cold drinks taste so amazing, why can't I have them daily? I agree😢they taste so good. But they add unwanted sweeteners or excessive salt, and consumption of it can be bad for our health in the long term.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness might not have tasted Maggi with ketchup*chef kiss*😂

Let's taco about how these flavors are significant to our body:

Sweet: Milk, fruits, oils, some vegetables like potatoes have a sweet taste. Protein, fats, and carbohydrates are present in sweet taste foods. Sweet taste foods help to enrich nutrient-filled blood, bone formation, semen formation, relieves thirst, give complexion to skin and hair. But they say too much nectar is poisonous. Too much sweetness cause fatness, lethargy, hypersomnia(too much sleep), mucus, cold, constipation, etc

 

Sour: Foods like lemon, orange, mango, tamarind, vinegar have a sour taste, which indicates fermentation and acid. It gives flavor to foods, helps to build cells, produces saliva, moistens foods, and helps to move food downwards through the food pipe. But too much sour food can increase thirst, and heat causing watering of the eyes. It can even cause a burning sensation in the mouth, chest, and heart.

This kid grew out to be Superman

Alkaline/salty: These include black salt, green leafy vegetables. They help to digest, fight constipation, and body stiffness and give taste to foods, and purify any toxin items in the blood. Salt can balance both sweet(salt and sweet popcorn💓) and bitter foods(sprinkle of salt is added to cucumber to reduce its bitter taste)
But too many salty foods can dehydrate your body and cause premature wrinkles, grey hair, and thirst.

Pungent: Foods like ginger, pepper, cloves, onion, cinnamon have a pungent taste. Pungent foods give a sense of freshness to the mouth, ignite digestion, remove mucus, help to excrete wastes. Too many Pungent flavor foods can cause watering of eyes, giddiness, burning sensation.

Fun fact: Spicy foods can make you high..

Bitter: Foods we all hate like bitter gourd, neem is bitter foods. I don't know who you are if you eat these foods. ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN? Eating it sucks but it helps to purify the blood, useful for inflammation, diabetes, etc. Too MUCH use can dry blood cells, affects nerves.

Astringent: Foods like amla, pomegranate, ladyfinger, unripe bananas are astringent. It is soothing and helps in diarrhea, but due to its dry nature, it can dry the mouth, constrict blood vessels, intestine and uterus.

What is your weird food combination? and why do you like them?