• Question: Why do we have tase buds?

    Asked by sebadam to Mike, Pip, Tim, Tom on 4 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      It’s very important for us to know if a food is good to eat or not. If something tastes ‘off’, or particularly rancid, then it is probably not good to eat. Also, we can crave certain flavours of food when we are particularly deficient or in need of certain things (for example, pregnant women often crave chalk!)

    • Photo: Philippa Bird

      Philippa Bird answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      And also to make eating pleasurable so we want to eat, which is important for survival.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      I’m glad that eating’s pleasurable!

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