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Killing time over in the Food section and got me thinking about if/how our food tastes change as we age.
Spicy is usually the first to go---we eat much less spicy stuff than in the past due to DH's digestion issues. All age-related.
For some unknown reason, I no longer enjoy curry, cinnamon, nutmeg, broccoli, or most vegetables. All fruit juices taste too sweet. Jam/jelly is too sweet and most desserts are too sweet. Sometimes I think food just isn't as interesting to me as it used to be. Don't really "care"....
Anybody else feel like their tastebuds are a-changin'?
PS: Anyone remember Johnny Carson one time saying "I don't care what I eat. Peanut butter sandwich or lobster. Doesn't matter to me". Or something like that. I thought that was intriguing. Now, whether that was age-related, who knows.
I have noticed it too, some food I used to enjoy just doesn't taste all that good anymore. It does make me feel a bit sad. I have loved food for a long time, now can take it or leave it.
PS: Anyone remember Johnny Carson one time saying "I don't care what I eat. Peanut butter sandwich or lobster. Doesn't matter to me". Or something like that. I thought that was intriguing. Now, whether that was age-related, who knows.
Carson was a smoker. Studies have suggested smoking makes food less palatable. Sometimes it dulls or kills taste buds.
Yes, our taste buds have changed over the years. We find commercially prepared foods and most restaurant foods being too salty or too sweet. This is why we rarely eat out and make our own foods.
It seems contradictory for me to consume less sugar and salt when the number of my taste buds decreases as I age. It’s likely that my disliking of too much salt and sugar is due more to our ‘healthy’ eating habit than the numbers of taste buds.
You have about 10,000 taste buds. Your taste buds sense sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami flavors. Umami is a taste linked with foods that contain glutamate, such as the seasoning monosodium glutamate (MSG)
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The number of taste buds decreases as you age. Each remaining taste bud also begins to shrink. Sensitivity to the five tastes often declines after age 60. In addition, your mouth produces less saliva as you age. This can cause dry mouth, which can affect your sense of taste.
I love spices but have never liked foods which are too spicy. If anything, we have enjoyed foods and drinks more in retirement. I now have more time to cook, try out new regional/international recipes and to experiment with new ways of cooking, preparing foods.
Our new hobby of grape growing and wine making getting us deeper and deeper in wine appreciation. I think my sense of wine tasting and smelling have developed with learning and concentration. I am getting quite good at making all the minute chemistry adjustments to make our wine less acidic, getting rid of sulfur smell etc.
I would hate to lose most of my taste and smell senses. Life will certainly be much less enjoyable.
There is a Brit program "Pie In The Sky" where the husband is a police detective and accomplished chef, yet his wife has anosmia (although it is never mentioned as such) and prefers salty junk food. It took me a while to recognize that it was a medical condition and not just some affectation written into the scripts.
I have thought the same thing. I love garlic.....now no matter how much of it I use, it is very bland. I blamed it on the garlic.....but maybe it is just me. I have been using fresh basil, and I have the same issue with that too.
I haven't noticed any change. I have always hated hot peppers and I still do, but there are simply more of them around these days. It's getting worse: everything seems to have hot peppers in it. I can remember over 20 years ago with my ex that we left a restaurant because there wasn't much choice of anything without hot peppers so hating getting my mouth burned is nothing new.
As for the salt in prepared foods and the sugar, I don't think they were there before. Until recently I thought if I ate regular cereal like Cheerios and not some sugar pops (or whatever kids eat) I wasn't getting sugar. Then I read the label. And you buy corn chips and they include sugar too!
Prepared foods usually taste too salty but I think that's because many of us are more conscious of salt (and sugar) and we don't add them to our foods when we cook. But if you buy a prepared meal or eat out, the food usually tastes too salty. I think it's the foods that have changed--sugar and salt to get us addicted to their food.
Men's taste buds tend to dull with age (I'm 66) Tabasco is my friend.
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too bad
