Love Carbs? Blame Your Tastebuds (Video)

Scientists figured out we might have an extra taste, just for carbs. Buzz60’s Aidan Kelley has the story.

If you’ve gone for seconds, or even thirds, on your housemate’s rather average homemade pasta, there’s a chance your taste for starch might have more to do with your freaky taste buds than their culinary skills.

Following up on earlier discoveries of an additional gustatory sense specific to complex carbohydrates, researchers have now found some of us more sensitive to the taste than others, which could be helping to fill out some of our waistlines.

Scientists are now pretty certain our tastebuds can actually detect the long chains of sugar making up the complex starches found in food items such as bread, pasta, and rice.

So even though we still only have five ‘official’ tastes, we can actually list the sensations caused by chemicals dissolving in our mouth as sweet, salty, umami (savory, meaty favors), bitter, fat, sour, and… starchy.

While we’re on the subject, forget that tongue map nonsense you might have learned as a kid, too. Even though most of us might be able to detect bitter flavors better down the throat, our entire tongue reacts to all of these sensations.

That said, taste sensitivity varies significantly across the population.