Why does your palette change

Initially, a high nicotine dependence correlated with a lower taste sensitivity in study participants. As the study period progressed, the researcher observed improvements in taste bud function in as little as two weeks. Outside of illness, aging, or other causes, taste perception is generally constant. However, adult taste bud regeneration occurs frequently both on a cellular level and a functional level.

According to animal research from , our taste buds themselves turnover every 10 days, while further research from suggests that approximately 10 percent of the cells inside these taste buds turnover each day.

A sudden change in your taste buds or a sudden loss of taste can indicate an underlying medical condition. Some medical conditions that can cause a sudden change in your perception of taste include:. Most causes of a sudden loss of taste, such as an upper respiratory infection or common cold, are not serious and can be treated at home. However, in some situations, certain viral or bacterial illnesses can overwhelm the immune system.

If you are having trouble eating, drinking, or breathing, you should seek medical attention right away. When damaged taste buds are caused by an underlying medical condition, they can be repaired by treating the underlying condition.

Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics, while viral infections can be managed with plenty of rest at home. For more serious conditions, such as those that cause long-term nerve damage, treatment may not necessarily restore the function of the taste buds.

When medications are the cause of loss of taste, your doctor may choose to adjust or change your medication to alleviate this side effect. They can assess your medical history and if necessary, run further diagnostic tests to determine the underlying cause. Taste bud changes can occur naturally as we age or may be caused by an underlying medical condition. Viral and bacterial illnesses of the upper respiratory system are a common cause of loss of taste.

In addition, many commonly prescribed medications can also lead to a change in the function of the taste buds. In some cases, a more serious underlying condition may be causing a change in the perception of taste. Impaired taste is the absence or altered sense so taste, such as having a metallic taste in the mouth. These flavors — plus the sensations of heat, coolness, and texture, combine inside the mouth to give us a sense of taste. Along with how it tastes, how food smells is also part of what makes up its flavor.

When food tastes bland, many people try to improve the flavor by adding more salt or sugar. This may not be healthy for older people, especially if you have medical problems like high blood pressure or diabetes high blood sugar. People who have lost some of their sense of taste may not eat the foods they need to stay healthy. This can lead to other issues such as:. Eating food that is good for you is important to your health.

If you have a problem with how food tastes, be sure to talk with your doctor. Many things can cause you to lose your sense of taste. Most of the time there are ways to help with the problem. A new loss of taste is a symptom that can occur with coronavirus infection. Medications, like antibiotics and pills to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, can sometimes change how food tastes.

Some medicines such as those for high blood pressure, depression, and bladder-control issues can make your mouth dry. Having a dry mouth can cause food to taste funny and also make it hard to swallow.

Talk to your doctor if you think a medicine is affecting your sense of taste. There may be different medicines that you can try. Whereas scientists generally agree that there are anywhere from four to nine basic tastes, there are thousands upon thousands of distinct aromas, only a single molecule of which you need to light up one or more of our hundreds of olfactory receptors.

From an evolutionary standpoint, our sense of taste tells us whether we ought to swallow or spit out the food we put in our mouths. Our sense of smell is critical to the far more complicated tasks of telling us what that food is and finding it again later. It's our sense of smell that tells us whether we're sitting down to a meal of lamb on basmati rice or beef on jasmine rice.

Ever notice how sensitive some kids can be to strong perfumes, or turn up their noses at an overcooked, sulphurous bowl of cabbage? Yep, that's right: As with taste buds, kids have super-powered senses of smell. As the man said , youth is wasted on the young. As we grow out of babyhood into childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, our senses lose the sharp edge they started off with, but they won't yet suffer the drastic physical decline that comes later in life.

That's not to say, however, that physical changes don't make a difference yet. Chemical pollutants can gum up the works and deaden our senses of taste and smell, sometimes for the long term. Cigarette smoke is an especially egregious offender. The more important change that's happening during this period, though, is that we're becoming more adventurous eaters, and expanding our taste experiences.

As we grow older, taste becomes more a matter of our minds and memories than our physical reaction to sweetness or bitterness. This is when we're likely to overcome our aversion to beets or cauliflower. Even the most sensitive eater can overcome an aversion to a food by becoming familiar with it, or because of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with how many taste buds he still has in his mouth.

It's all cultural stuff. Former sugar addict Cat Baldwin is a prime example. Growing up in suburban Oregon, she loathed bitter foods almost as much as anything sweet, and rarely had the opportunity to try foods more exotic than "red sauce" Italian.

But once she was out on her own with college friends, her culinary experiences expanded dramatically. And as for her childhood aversion to bitterness? She's now a big fan of dark greens and dark chocolate. It all starts to go downhill around We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. At the same time, our remaining taste buds also begin to shrink, or atrophy, and do not function as well.

This results in decreased sensitivity to taste, typically affecting salty or sweet , and eventually sour or bitter foods. Around the same time, our sense of smell may also start to decrease, which can contribute to the loss of taste.