My Amazing Body 3-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
How do I taste different flavors?
Ice cream is sweet. A lemon is sour. A pretzel is salty. They all go into the same mouth. So how can I tell them apart?
3 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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Your tongue is covered with tiny bumps.
Thousands of taste buds hide inside them. They are too small to see.
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Each bit of food fits its own taster cell, like a key in a lock.
Your spit washes tiny bits of food down to the taste buds. Click! A quick message zips along a nerve to your brain.
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Your nose helps too.
When you chew, the smell of your food floats up into your nose. Your brain mixes taste and smell together. That mix is called flavor.
For grown-ups: Each taste tells the body something. Sweet says "here is energy", savory says "this helps you grow", and bitter says "careful" - many plants that can make you sick taste bitter. That is why little kids often dislike bitter food.
The five main tastes
- Sweetlike honey
- Sourlike a lemon
- Saltylike a pretzel
- Bitterlike dark chocolate
- Savorylike soup or cheese (umami)
Buddy's five food-bit friends in the video are these five tastes.
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Hold your nose!
You need: one fruity candy
- Hold your nose and pop a fruity candy in your mouth. Chew.
- You can tell it is sweet. But which fruit is it?
- Now let go of your nose. Surprise! There it is.
What happened? With your nose closed the smell can't reach your brain, so you only get the taste. That is also why food tastes plain when you have a cold.
Did you know?
The "tongue map" is not true! Some people say the tip of your tongue tastes sweet and the sides taste sour. Every part of your tongue that has taste buds can taste all five.
Taste buds wear out, and your body makes new ones all the time. Each one is replaced about every two weeks. So if hot soup burns your tongue, don't worry.
Your guide in this video
I'm Buddy, a tiny taste bud. I live on your tongue!
Buddy is rosy pink, bud-shaped, with three short hairs on top. His five food-bit friends are the five tastes.
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