No matter how hard you try your ability

[Don Giovanni]

No matter how hard you try your ability to taste...it may be just genetic ...?...

It all started in recorded modern history in

In 1931, A.L. Fox, a DuPont chemist, discovered that some individuals found phenylthiocarbamide (PTC)

Some segments of the population could taste this bitter compound, others not...this started the path to the supertaster theory...

The term originates with experimental psychologist Linda Bartoshuk who has spent much of her career studying genetic variation in taste. In the early 1990s,

Women are more likely to be supertasters, as are Asians and Africans. Among individuals of European descent, it is estimated that about 25% of the population are supertasters.

Click On me

Smoking kills the taste buds ability to delineate specific taste...forget about how many taste buds you have ...it's the ability of function that matters when you taste wine...

If both genes are the same, the organism is homozygous for the trait. If both genes are different, the organism is heterozygous for that trait. If one gene is missing, it is hemizygous, and if both genes are missing, it is nullizygous.

Bartoshuk and colleagues discovered that the taster group could be further divided into medium and supertasters. Most estimates suggest 25% of the population are nontasters, 50% are medium tasters, and 25% are supertasters.

So how do you find out if you are a supertaster...? ...

It is also possible to make a reasonably accurate self-diagnosis at home by careful examination of the tongue and looking for the number of fungiform papillae

this I just don't buy into...it's the function of the genes as noted above...not how many taste Buds you have IMVHO...

Edited August 10, 2009 by Don Giovanni (log)