Important reminder: "Heavy taste" please be careful

Do you have no appetite if you don't eat spicy food, and can't swallow porridge without some pickles? If you have a strong taste, today's article may bring some "shocks" to your eating habits.

More and more people tend to choose heavier-tasting foods that are spicier, oilier and saltier, but this heavy-tasting eating habit is obviously far from a healthy life.

Is it true that long-term consumption of strong flavors will not cause harm to the body? How did our taste receptors become so fond of strong flavors?

Why do some people prefer strong flavors?

Our perception of taste is mainly through the abundant taste buds on the tongue. The food we eat will first be identified by the taste buds, "Is it edible? What does it taste like? Is it delicious?" After identification, the information will be transmitted to the brain to decide whether to eat it.

The taste sensed by the tongue (including sweet, salty, umami, bitter, and sour) can help the body identify and obtain food, absorb the nutrients needed by the body, and also help us eliminate substances that are toxic and harmful to the body.

For example, we can perceive the sour smell of spoiled food and thus "dissuade" ourselves from eating it.

In addition to the tongue, taste buds are also distributed in the soft palate and pharynx, and they regularly renew themselves, with a new batch of "in-service cells" being replaced every 10 days to 2 weeks.

After receiving the chemicals in the food, the taste receptor cells will convert the chemical signals sensed by the cells into an electrical signal for communication between cells. These electrical signals will be transmitted to the brain area, and then we will have the feeling of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, etc.

The process of taste perception, image source: wikipedia

However, eating strong-tasting food for a long time will make the taste buds dull in their sense of taste. The main reason is that strong-tasting food will stimulate the taste receptor cells, reducing their sensitivity to chemical molecules, creating the illusion that the taste cells need strong-tasting food to stimulate their taste perception.

For example, everyone has heard the story of "boiling a frog in warm water". The temperature is gradually increased, so when the temperature rises above body temperature, it will not feel very hot. The same is true for taste cells. If you keep "boiling a frog in warm water", although your taste buds don't feel anything, they have actually been damaged.

Sour foods have a high hydrogen ion concentration. After entering the mouth, the hydrogen ions will attach to the surface of the tongue, lowering the pH value on the surface of the tongue, and the ion channels on the surface of the taste receptor cells that are sensitive to pH will open; salty foods mainly affect the taste receptor cells through the rich sodium chloride in them.

The sodium ions in sodium chloride can open the ion channels on the surface of taste receptor cells; sweetness, spiciness, bitterness, and umami all have their own exclusive molecules that trigger the corresponding taste receptor cells, and then through complex signal transmission, open the ion channels and trigger our taste perception.

However, strong-tasting foods will stimulate the taste bud cells and reduce their sensitivity to the corresponding flavor ions. Over time, the taste will become stronger and stronger.

Special receptors for sweet and salty tastes, Image source: Wikipedia

It is precisely because of this that every taste sensation requires the corresponding chemical molecules in the food to open the ion channels on the surface of the taste cells, so the saying "opening the taste buds" comes into being.

Will strong flavors cause taste loss?

Eating too much strong-tasting food will not cause loss of taste. As long as you stick to a light diet for a period of time and do not cause lesions in other organs, your taste will gradually return to normal.

Taste cells are renewed every once in a while. As long as you stick to a light diet for a period of time, the stimulation to the taste receptor cells will be reduced. The taste sensitivity will slowly recover. When you first start eating a light diet, your mouth will definitely have no taste, and you will always want to try "new stimulation". However, as long as you stick to a healthy and light diet, your taste will return to normal, and you will slowly be able to feel that light food can also have a delicious taste.

Light diet, Image source: Author

If your sense of taste does not recover after a period of time, you need to go to the hospital to see a doctor. After all, as we age, our body functions are also deteriorating. It is possible that the previous heavy-tasting diet has caused serious effects on the body, and a doctor's intervention is needed to help the body recover.

What are the dangers of eating heavy-tasting food for a long time?

If you eat heavy-tasting food for a long time, your mouth will feel good, but your body will protest everywhere.

Foods high in oil and salt, such as maoxuewang, spicy hotpot, and barbecue, are particularly harmful to the body.

Although salt and fat are essential elements for the human body, salt plays a key role in whether food tastes good or not. However, eating too much oil and salt will have a counter-effect. Eating too much oil will easily lead to excessive intake of saturated fatty acids, which not only cause obesity due to high calories, but also increase blood cholesterol, increase the probability of blood vessel blockage, and induce "three highs".

High-salt foods can also damage the stomach, irritate the gastric mucosa, and cause gastric ulcers and gastritis; they increase the metabolic burden on the liver and kidneys. If excessive sodium ions cannot be metabolized and excreted from the body, they will accumulate in the liver and kidneys, causing liver and kidney diseases; and long-term high-salt foods can also damage the human brain, accelerate the degeneration of human cognitive abilities, and cause a series of chain reactions such as memory loss.

High-salt foods, Image source: colorhub

A moderate amount of spicy food can increase appetite and dispel cold and dampness. However, eating too much chili can easily backfire. After spicy food enters the stomach, it will stimulate the gastric mucosa and ulcer surface, dilate the blood vessels in the stomach wall, and then produce symptoms of stomach pain and gastric bleeding. People with poor stomachs will have diarrhea the next day after eating spicy hot pot. This is because the stomach is weak and the chili is too stimulating to it.

Eating a moderate amount of sweets will cause the brain to secrete dopamine, which makes people feel happy. However, eating too much sugar will increase the risk of obesity, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Studies have shown that if the daily intake of sugar calories exceeds 150 calories, the risk of diabetes will increase by 1.1%. Sugar can also interfere with the normal secretion of insulin and cholesterol, leading to diabetes, fatty liver and other diseases. Excessive intake of sugar can also accelerate skin aging.

The harm of sweets to the human body Image source: CCTV News

In short, strong-tasting food not only stimulates taste receptor cells, but also harms our health if eaten for a long time. A light and healthy diet is the way to maintain health.

All the workers who go out early and come back late should pay attention to their health~

Do you have a strong taste for food? Do you want to adjust your eating habits after reading this article?

END

Review expert: Lu Bin, deputy chief physician, associate professor, Stomatological Hospital of Air Force Medical University.

Editor/Heart and Paper