Whether My Sense of Smell Affect My Sense of Taste? - Essay Sample

Introduction

When food smells sweet for someone, there is a high likelihood that it will taste sweet. There is overwhelming evidence to support the argument that an individual's sense of taste largely depends on his or her sense of smell (Kabadi p.370). Both the sense of taste is closely interlinked in such a way that they help an individual to fully experience food and drinks. As a result, one's taste sensation is actually from their sense of smell. Therefore, there is no doubt to argue that my sense of smell changes my sense of taste. My sense of smell has a lot of impact on my sense of taste because both are part of my chemical sensing system. In this case, the nerve cells found in the mouth nose, and throat are stimulated by the molecules released by the foods I eat.

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Additionally, my sense of smell alters my sense of taste as my taste of food is limited when my nose is clogged. The loss of taste when one has a cold is because the passage to the nasal cavity is blocked by mucus, thus resulting in lack of information about flavor. The human sense of taste provides five different tastes such as sour, sweet, salty, bitter and umami. The abovementioned tastes are detected by taste receptors found in the mouth and the tongue. The taste receptors then send the taste information to our brains. However, the taste becomes inaccurate and limited if the smell receptors found in the lining of the human nose are not involved. As a result, this period proved to be the best time to successfully ingest the undesirable foods such as garlic that I always hated as mucus blocked my ability to smell, thus resulting in loss of flavor perception. This is because both smell and taste work together to bring out the full sensation of taste.

Along with a similar line, I can argue that my sense of smell alters my sense of taste because it is my sense of smell that alerts me of any danger such as spoiled foods. According to Spence (p.30), it is the oderant receptors on the human nose and the taste receptors found in the tongue that work together to alert me to the types of food I eat. Therefore, I am unable to detect a spoiled food when I hold my nose. Besides, loss of sense of smell is associated with a decreased desire to eat. For instance, I once lost my sense of smell after being ill for sometimes and to the best of my knowledge, I ate less compared to other days, and the foods I ate were most times tasteless.

Moreover, my sense of smell alters my sense of taste because the taste of the foods I usually eat passes through my olfactory bulb which is an organ of the smell inside every human being's nose. Both my sense of smell and sense of taste work together to bring out the taste of the foods. The human nose is made up of the smell cells known as the olfactory receptor neurons. These smell cells are found in the olfactory epithelium which is situated in the nose. As a result, loss of these smell cells may result in a loss of taste because it is through the olfactory receptor neurons that the odor enters my nose. Once the odor has entered the nose, the brain is informed, thereby informing the mouth of the exact taste of the food I am eating. Therefore, my sense of smell can impact my sense of taste because they are linked to my body's chemo sensation (Boesveldt & de Graaf p. 307).

Works Cited

Boesveldt, Sanne, and Kees de Graaf. "The differential role of smell and taste for eating behavior." Perception 46.3-4 (2017): 307-319.

Kabadi, Alisha, et al. "Taste and Smell Disturbances in Patients with Gastroparesis and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease." Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility 23.3 (2017): 370.

Spence, Charles. "Just how much of what we taste derives from the sense of smell?" Flavour 4.1 (2015): 30.