Food During a Cold - Assignment Example

Our body can do a lot of wonders than we do not always realize. And one of the things that really bugs me is the fact that when I have cold, I could not taste the food that I eat even when my mouth is totally functioning so well. Thus, the question I have always asked myself would be, “Why Can’t You Taste Food When You Have Colds When Taste Should Be Just a Matter of the Mouth?”

Well, to clearly be able to understand further about this scientific wonder, one would have  to know the relationship between taste and smell. First of all, taste is something that is elicited when taste receptors are being stimulated while smell is elicited when olfactory neurons are being stimulated (Taste and Smell, n.d.). Both of these senses play a huge role in enriching the taste of any kind of food as our sense of taste would make us taste food we take in, whether it is bitter, sour, sweet, or salty while at the same time the sense of smell would help us savor food by adding flavor to it. Thus, you can see that there is really a huge connection between taste and smell when it comes to enjoying the food we eat.

Now, getting into scientific terms and understanding of the question why we cannot taste food when we have colds when taste is a matter of the mouth while the nose is for smelling, one of the reason behind is the fact that seventy–five percent of what we can taste when we eat food actually comes from our sense of smell (Taste And Smell, n.d.). That is why, although you do not notice or realize it, while you eat your favorite steak, you feel so good and are so convinced that it was the best steak you have ever tasted because you smell the great aroma of the different spices combined to achieve the certain flavor overall. Also, another fact that would explain this question is that our taste buds which are the feature of our mouth only allows us to taste bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors however, it is the odor molecules our sense of smell collect give us the greatest sensation of taste. This principle would just explain why foul smelling food would not taste so well for people just like jackfruit though a few people are able to go beyond its odor. Aside from that, another source would also say that this is so because as the nose is placed closely with the mouth, the combination of these two functions is the one that makes the brain recognize taste easier and faster. However, when you have colds which makes it not function so well, you will not taste food so well because your brain do not get the normal amount of taste information as the mouth is the only the one working well (Why can't you “taste” food when you have a bad cold? - Yahoo! Answers., n.d.).

Based on all the three sources I have gotten answers to this question from, the two former sources, “Taste and Smell” and at the same time “Taste And Smell” are both very reliable because they are websites where the content were contributed by a professionals who knows about the relationship between the sense of taste and smell and one of which were made to push for educational research. However, the latter source-Yahoo answers would be the less reliable source since everyone could just contribute to any question posted in the site, regardless of whether one is a credible source or perhaps just a mere comment.

Indeed, the net is a very powerful tool where you can get unlimited information. The only thing you would have to do is to choose credible sources which can be determined by the kind of site and at the same time who the contributors are.