Fat Has It’s Own Taste Bud?

Well, it’s no wonder we all find fat so darn tasty.  It’s because, as researchers have recently discovered, fat is actually another one of our many senses of taste. In addition to sweet and salty (nothing like a pretzel and chocolate, yum), fat is actually it’s own taste to the human taste buds, and there are actually sensors on the human tongue that can detect the distinctive taste of fat.  Some people, it was found, are actually a little more sensitive to the taste of fats than others are.

The people who are fortunate enough to be very sensitive to these fatty flavors are actually less likely to be obese and to have the desire to over eat.  Because they can pick up the taste of fat so well, they actually don’t want to eat a lot of it.Conversely, people who don’t have all that great of a sense of fat detection on their tongue’s taste buds, tend to over do it on consuming fat because they are just simply less dialed in to the flavor.

I’m not sure where I’d fit in personally on the spectrum. I dare say I’d be considered down the middle of the road on that count. Where do you think you fall?  Oh, and this fits perfectly with one of our last topics, where researchers have found that junk food is just as addictive as drugs like cocaine because of what it does to the dopamine levels in the body, and the intense cravings it creates when someone eats a lot of it at one time.