
If you are not paying attention to your meal as you eat it because you are distracted by watching TV or working at your desk. There are other reasons why your taste buds don't work to their full potentialġ. Those chemicals are just not able to reach the olfactory receptors. This why any head cold or allergy that stuffs up your nose can make the food you are eating seem less flavorsome.

These work together with the taste buds to create the true flavor of whatever it is you are eating. As you enjoy your food, it releases chemicals that travel straight up to your nose.

Olfactory receptors inside the upper part of the nose contain special cells that help you smell and that also send messages to the brain.

But as a person ages, some of those taste cells don't get replaced.Īn older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds and, of course, smoking can further reduce the number. The average person has up to 10,000 taste buds and they are replaced every 2 weeks or so. Taste buds are sensory organs in the form of little bumps on your tongue that allow you to experience all the different tastes whether they are sweet, salty, sour or bitter by sending messages to the brain.
