More than just taste.

We all know about taste buds, they are small clusters of cells, specialized proteins we call "receptors" on the tongue and the roof of the mouth.  These taste buds detect 5 basic tastes: bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami (savory).  On average we have about 10,000 taste buds on the tongue, each one is made up of 50 to 150 taste receptor cells.

One of the roles of our taste buds is defense, to stop us eating things that are off, or might harm us in some way.  The receptors on the tongue send signals about the food and it's flavors to the brain, which decides if you should swallow or not.

Nothing new here...

Except researchers have recently found that taste buds may play an important role in protecting us against disease.  They have found taste receptors in organs throughout the body, from the brain to the lungs to the bladder...

As I said above, taste buds detect 5 basic tastes, but the receptors that have been found in places other than on the tongue have much more complex roles than just detecting these basic tastes.

The theory behind the role of taste receptors in other areas of the body is one of immune response, that is the body's reaction to foreign invaders such as bacteria.

The taste receptors on the tongue send signals to the brain, however the taste receptors in other areas of the body send signals to nearby tissue and organs instead of sending the signals to the brain.  They do this to set off a physiological response in a localized area.

For example; scientists at the University of Iowa discovered that the cilia (hairlike structures found

 in the airway that help eliminate harmful particles) have BITTER taste receptors on them.  To the brain, bitter means unpleasant and receptors have evolved to recognize potentially harmful chemicals that have a bitter taste.  Recent studies have found that when the receptors on the cilia recognize the bitter taste they activate the movement of the cilia to increase speed and trigger and immune response to kill the intruding bacteria in seconds or even minutes.  Much faster than with immune cells that can take hours, days or even weeks to create antibodies.

In other organs such as the lungs, bitter compounds are detected by receptors that recognize them as certain compounds secreted by bacteria.

Bitter is definitely the chief "taste", we have 25 different types of bitter taste receptors on the tongue and around the body, and only one type of taste receptor for sweet, salty, umami and sour.

These bitter receptors have been found in the brain, nose, sinuses, windpipe, heart, breasts, lungs, small intestine, colon, testicles and urethra.

People who are very sensitive to bitter tastes, and avoid bitter foods could have better immunity, as these receptors will detect harmful bacteria more efficiently and trigger the response to kill it much more quickly.

The fact that these internal taste receptors have been discovered to have a more protective role means that there may be a way to help patients who are vulnerable to lung infections.  Studies suggest that people who have a strong response to bitter tastes, have a more powerful immune response against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections (Pseudomonas aeruginosa is found in hospitals and can cause skin infections, high temperature, blood infections and chronic sinusitis) and stronger clearance of the bacteria, this means that when they get and infection such as sinusitis, it will be less severe.

This information could lead to new treatments in upper respiratory tract diseases.

SWEET receptors have been found to have different roles, for example, those found on cells in the intestine are believed to be involved in the secretion of insulin from the pancreas.  So, there is still a long way to go, but this is just another example of how connected everything is within the human body and how it is all focused on helping you stay healthy.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

If you're a geek... get in the kitchen!

I mean no disrespect to all those hackers, programmers, engineers, gamers, techies, and nerds collectively known as "geeks", for the sake of writing the word geek just makes things easier - I even married one!

I grew up in the kitchen helping my mother cook.  We were very close, and it was time I had to myself with her as neither of my siblings wanted to be involved in food preparation.  It also had the added benefit of not having to do the washing up afterwards!  In our house, if you helped cook the meal, your "compensation" was not having to wash up.  That time spent in the kitchen with my mother gave me a love and understanding of food which led me to become a Clinical Nutritionist, and dedicate my life to improving people's health through food.

To my husband's credit, he has recently begun to venture into the kitchen and not just to route out a Diet Coke or packet of biscuits.  He can now cook 2 recipes; paella and pasta with tomato sauce - we're getting somewhere!

Geeks are portrayed, in general, as fairly unhealthy beings.  They spend endless hours everyday (and most of the night) in front of a computer screen surviving on Red Bull, popcorn and pizza.  General opinion would have us mere mortals believe that a geek wouldn't know how to find the kitchen let alone cook in it.  But what if I told you cooking "has the same types of hard constraints that code, hardware, and most science disciplines do?" (Jeff Potter).

Geeks are extremely intelligent, creative people, so why not apply that creativity and intelligence to improving health through a balanced, healthy eating regime?

In 2010, Jeff Potter published his book "Cooking for Geeks".  Which leads any self-deserving geek into the kitchen to discover a whole new world which isn't as terrifying or boring as it may seem to someone who doesn't cook.

To the non geek (like me), this book is both surprising and interesting and looks a lot like a user manual for a piece of hardware!  Jeff Potter presents the art of cooking from a Geek mindset, with chapters such as; Hello Kitchen! (calibrating your instruments, kitchen organizing...), Choosing your Inputs: Flavors and Ingredients (different tastes and combinations), Time and Temperature, Cooking's Primary Variables, Playing with Chemicals and Fun with Hardware.

It is also packed full of interesting tasty recipes, practical tips on how to do things and different types of measurements (explained in geekspeak) and it even tells you how to cook a whole salmon in the dishwasher!  Yes, you heard me correctly, in the dishwasher!  It is all presented from a very scientific point of view, explaining different cooking methods and how to choose your ingredients, the different seasonal foods and lots of interesting interviews with fellow geeks such as Adam Savage.  It will teach you to cook for one or to cook for others and the different cuts of meat - absolutely everything someone who has never cooked before needs to know.  So there really is no excuse to not spice up your life and become healthier through Cooking for Geeks.

The Skillet-Fried Potatoes sound delicious not to mention the Mean Chocolate Chip Cookie!  I shall leave you to discover the rest!

So here is my challenge.  I challenge all of you geeks out there to get in the kitchen - then send me your favorite recipes.

You can find out more on:

www.cookingforgeeks.com

Or follow on Twitter @cookingforgeeks using #c4g for general discussion

One of the book's suggestions is @cookbook Maureen Evans posts recipes on Twitter.