ENJOY THE TASTE OF EATING RIGHT
NATIONAL NUTRITION MONTH ® 2014
March has been designated as National Nutrition
Month® by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
The theme this year is “Enjoy the Taste of Eating
Right.” Part of eating right is how we perceive the
taste of different foods. This newsletter will
explore the difference between taste and flavor,
what influences them, and how to enhance the
flavor of nutritious foods.
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What is the difference between taste and flavor?
Taste beats nutrition when it comes to why you buy
one food or another. Taste is the sensation
stimulated in the tongue’s taste buds when foods,
beverages, or other substances come in contact with
them. Sweetness, sourness, saltiness and bitterness
are considered the four basic taste sensations.
Flavor is strongly connected to all five senses that
is, smell, touch, sight, taste, and hearing. You may
still remember the tasty apple you ate in the fall. It
made a crunch sound when you bit into it or it had a
cool temperature and crisp feel in your mouth.
Smell receptors located in our nasal passages pick
up food aromas. This can also affect your
perception of food and its flavor. Some cheeses, for
example, may have strong odors that make them
seem less appealing.
What influences our taste and flavor of food?
• Age-How intense we taste certain flavors
depends on how many papillae (tiny red
bumps with clusters of taste receptor cells)
one has on his or her tongue. As we age, the
number of papillae decreases and therefore
our taste sensitivity declines. Children have
more papillae, which may be why they are
considered to be picky eaters.
• Illness-Taste and smell may be altered when
you have a health problem such as cancer or
liver disease. If the pleasure of eating is
reduced, then your appetite is lessened,
which can lead to poor nutrition.
• Medications-Sometimes medicines have a
bitter taste that affects saliva, which in turn
affects the flavor of food and beverages.
Medicines may also affect your appetite by
decreasing your sense of smell and taste.
Some drugs cause a dry mouth or nausea,
which may affect your appetite.
• Emotional Health-Research has shown that
not all taste perceptions are related to the
taste receptors of the tongue. One study
showed that subjects who thought about love
reported that the water they tasted was
sweet. Some believe that love and the
physical sensation of sweetness may go back
to infancy. After all, babies start their lives
drinking breast milk or formula. Since this
first source of nourishment is sweet tasting,
the infant may connect that taste with their
mother’s love.
March/April/May 2014
• Smoking-It is really the loss of the sense of
smell that reduces the ability to taste.
Inhaling the fumes of cigarette smoke is
toxic to the senses. It is difficult for
smokers to realize that foods do not taste
like they used to, because the process is
gradual and hard to notice. When smokers
quit smoking, the sense of smell eventually
returns.
• Alcohol-Alcohol changes brain activity,
which affects bodily functions, including the
senses. The sense of taste and smell
becomes dull. The cells of the mouth and
nose do not perform at full capacity.
Initially the drinker may be in an excited
state, and foods may taste amazing. As one
continues to drink, the senses become less
acute and food may not taste as good as it
was before drinking alcohol.
How to boost the flavor of food to eat right
Now that you know what the difference between
taste and flavor is and what affects both, below are
some suggestions that may help you enjoy your
food more.
• Use spices, herbs, fresh citrus juice, and
seasoned oils when cooking meats, fish,
poultry, vegetables, rice and pasta.
• Try cooking with stronger seasonings such
as basil with pork and beef, oregano with
chicken and veal, curry with eggs and fish,
tarragon with chicken and vegetables, and
mint with lamb, but be careful of using too
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much as it may over-power the taste of the
original food.
If you want to exchange fresh herbs in a
recipe for dried herbs, substitute three parts
fresh herbs for one part dried herbs, as dried
herbs are more potent.
Increase texture of dishes by adding dried
fruits and nuts to salads and warm cereal.
Be careful with food temperatures- while hot
foods enhance aroma and flavors, extreme
heat causes flavor loss.
Flavor soups, stews and sauces, and stir fry
with aromatic vegetables, such as onion,
scallions, garlic, peppers and celery.
Choose colorful, edible garnishes such as
tomato wedges, oranges slices, and parsley
flakes.
Bottom Line
How our food tastes to us has some influence as to
whether we eat right or not for our health. There
are many reasons such as illness, medications,
aging, emotional health, smoking and drinking
alcohol that will affect our sense of taste. We can
take charge of our eating by addressing these issues,
for example, stop smoking. In other cases, such as
when taste sensitivity declines with age, we can
enhance the flavor of our food by using more spices
and herbs in our cooking. So whatever your state
of life, please remember to “Enjoy the Taste of
Eating Right.”
To learn more about National Nutrition Month,
taste, and increasing the flavor of food visit and
read the following:
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http://eatright.org
http://www.cookinglight.com
http://www.diabetes.org
365 Days of Healthy Eating from the
American Dietetic Association, Roberta
Larson Duyff, MS, RD, FADA, CFCS
Need a Dietitian?
Registered Dietitians are here to help you with your nutrition
questions. To make an appointment call 412.692.4497 (Oakland
location) or 412.623.2421 (Shadyside location).
March/April/May 2014