How the sense of taste changes with age
It isn’t easy to describe the complex nature of taste. The sensation is not experienced through one sense (like when we use our sight to see something) but by combining all five. The first visual inspection of the food determines if it is something we will consider eating. When we eat, the smell and flavor of food combine to give us a sense of taste. The combination of ingredients, texture, and temperature can also influence how we perceive it.
This means that if we lose any sense, especially smell or taste, it can affect our enjoyment of eating. Imagine the last time that you had a blocked or cold nose. The temporary loss of taste and smell may have affected your eating habits, reduced your appetite, or even caused you to overeat in order to satisfy yourself.
Is a similar phenomenon that occurs as we age. By the age of 60, the way we taste begins to change. Our sense of smell will also start to decline. This becomes more severe after the age of 70.
Contributing senses
Can affect our taste perception when our senses of smell are less sensitive and unable to discriminate and detect different odors. It is believed that the decline in the importance of smell as a number of factors causes us age. These include a decrease in the number of olfactory cells in the back part of the nose, which recognize different molecules of odor.
The structural changes of the taste papillae can also cause a decline in taste as we age. These bumpy structures are home to taste buds on the palate, the tongue, and the mouth. As we age, the number of these papillae that contain high levels of taste buds decreases and changes shape to become more closed. The more open the papillae are, the easier it will be for food chemicals to interact with receptors and create taste. Closed papillae decrease the surface of contact between food compounds and receptors. This results in a reduced perception of taste.
Change of taste
Another factor contributing to a low sense of taste is poor chewing. Some people lose teeth due to poor oral hygiene or aging. Many resort to dentures. Dentures can have a negative impact on the way you chew and break down food compounds, especially if they are ill-fitted. It can reduce the amount of food compounds that are dissolved in saliva and the level of contact with sensory receptors on the taste buds. As we age, the saliva can also decrease. It means there is less fluid available to transport food compounds to taste receptors and less liquid to help dissolve food compounds, which results in a poorer taste.
The general health of an individual can also affect their sense of taste. As we age, exposure to these factors increases.
However, not everyone’s taste sense declines the same. The changes are different for men and women, and they do not all show the same degree of impairment. While some things will always be inevitable, we can do something to reduce the loss of taste. According to our preliminary research, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating a balanced diet, and having a moderate intake of sweet, salty, umami, and bitter tastes can help slow down the loss of flavor.
