Hummusgirl's Blog

So in case you don’t know, the taste buds are sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and we have been introduced to a new one in the past century called umami.  I didn’t know what umami was (I thought it meant spicy for awhile), but looked it up and it describes a pleasant savory taste.  It describes a lot of foods, like breast milk, cheese, beans, grains, green tea, and Japanese foods.

So if these are the only taste buds, they don’t really cover all the foods we have, do they?  I mean meat doesn’t really fall under any of these does it?  Maybe umami covers it, but since umami was only found 100 years ago, it must be under some other taste bud, or mixture of sweet and salty or something.

It seems odd that we have a whole taste bud for salt, when salt use is usually (or supposed to be) minimal.  Maybe because we over salt our french fries or soups or whatever, people think we have a taste bud for it.  And who really eats sour foods?  Those are only citrus fruits or really disgusting candy.  The more I think about it, the more the umami taste bud seems to cover more than we think it does.

So, if we really do have all these taste buds, maybe because we have the salty and sweet ones right on the tip of our tongue, maybe that’s why we’re so attracted to salty and sweet foods.  The umami taste bud seems to cover the whole tongue, and doesn’t seem as overpowering as the other ones.  Maybe that’s the way food should be.

However, I am reading a book about the science of cheese, and the author goes into detail about the senses.  Taste isn’t just the be all end all to food.  Appearance, aroma, flavor, sound, and texture all come into play when eating food.  Some of those aspects surprise me, such as appearance and sound, but they shouldn’t because being in the business of food in this country is so competitive, everything matters.

If you notice on the picture, there’s a big spot right in the middle.  I wonder if this is the umami taste bud?  Maybe nobody knows what this is.  Any guesses out there?

I love to exercise.  But I don’t do it as much as the die hard people do.  I try to do something every day more or less.  I dance, walk, bike, swim, and vacuum (yes this counts).  But I mainly walk.  Now, I do drive, but I live with my parents currently, and they live in a town where you can walk everywhere and so I take advantage of that.

I don’t see a lot of people out walking.  I see a lot of cars and people who drive very short distances when they could be walking.  Walking is so easy and so practical too.  You don’t need a gym membership and when you look at New York City and all the walking people do there, it’s no wonder everyone is so slim there.

Sometimes I think if we got rid of cars and started making everything walkable (or bikeable) we’d have a lot more environmentally friendly people.

When I’m at the gym and see an overweight person drinking sugar water while exercising, I feel like telling them, you can’t do that to yourself if you want to lose weight.  You’re not going to get better unless you start caring about what you put into your body!!!

I have always exercised.  I was a pretty outdoorsy type person growing up (still am) but have sometimes had a problem with weight gain.  It was when I started to care about every little thing I put into my body, that I started to enjoy exercise more or at least got better at it.

I read years ago that fidgeting keeps weight off, and if this is true then that explains why I stayed skinny when I worked at a library for 6 years.  I was constantly keeping myself busy and didn’t have time to think about food.  Maybe this is the problem with people who have issues with weight gain.  We’re constantly bombarded with food messages every day and we can’t avoid them if we watch TV or are on the internet.

So if you are tired of all the food messages contradicting themselves wherever you go, then I challenge you to put your frustration into exercise.  Trust me, it works!!