I Found my Tastebuds!

Day 3 - Wednesday, June 16, 2010

When was the last time you tasted food? I mean, REALLY tasted all the flavors, savored every distinct burst of flavor, and enjoyed the sensation of fresh food?

For me personally, it has been quite a while. And the sad part is that I did not even realize that I was not tasting food the way my tongue was designed to savor the differences.

Your taste buds can detect 4 different types of tastes, sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  When you were a baby, you had taste buds on your tongue, as well as on the roof and sides of your mouth.  That meant that you were extremely sensitive to different foods.  But did you know that as you got older, the taste buds on the side and roof of your mouth disappear?  So as an adult, you have less receptors in your mouth to taste the food.  (I guess you can chalk that up to another casualty to living longer!)

Here are some interesting facts about your taste buds:

• We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths; even on the roofs of our mouths.

• Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouth parts.

• Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.

• In general, girls have more taste buds than boys.

• Taste is the weakest of the five senses.

Taste is such an important part of our eating experience.  Some might say that it is the only reason why we eat - because it tastes good.  But others might say that there is more to enjoying your food than just taste. 

Think about baking cookies.  You smell them before you ever take a bite; you see the golden brown cookie before you ever savor the taste of chocolate chips.  You feel the texture of the cooked dough before you ever raise the warm cookie to your mouth.  In my house, I usually hear someone saying, "I want the first one!" before anyone ever enjoys the treat.  Finally, you taste it -- warm, gooey and delicious!

Even though taste may be at the last of the five senses to participate in the food experience, for me, last night, it became the star of my dinner! 

After enjoying four Medifast meals throughout the day, I was ready for my lean and green meal.  I decided to make the Shrimp Tomato Salad and stopped by the store for the ingredients.  Frozen, deveined and peeled shrimp, bell peppers, spinach, and tomatoes were selected.  I also had to find a special salad dressing that absolutely complimented the meal and joined all of the different flavors together - Paul Newman's Sun Dried Tomato Dressing (low fat, of course!)

The recipe was easy (it came from the Take Shape for Life cookbook - a must-have resource for anyone on this program!). Marinate the shrimp in 2 tsp of the salad dressing for 1-2 hours. Then cut up the vegetables; saute the shrimp, arrange on top of the salad and add another 2 tsp of dressing.  Simple, easy and delicious!

I expected to enjoy this salad, but I was totally blown away by the burst of flavor!  The combination of the marinated shrimp, bell pepper and tomatoes with the salad dressing was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.  I could not believe what I was experiencing, and then I realized why.

I had not eaten any processed food in two days!  No salt, no preservatives, no food that had been processed and all the vitamins removed.  And my taste buds were rejoicing!


Rediscovering my taste buds was certainly not one of the benefits of this program that I anticipated.  But there is no disputing what I experienced last night with a simple salad - Heaven!