When Do We Lose Our Sense Of Taste?

Compared to the other sensations our taste sense (in particular smell) is not very sensitive. It is estimated that a person needs 25,000 times as much of a substance in the mouth of taste it as is needed by the smell receptors to smell it. However, inspite of this, the combination of the four types of taste buds responding to the basic tastes of salt, sour bitter or sweet, enable a wide range of sensations to determined as the brain analyzes the relative strength of the tastes. If we were to lose our sense of smell, almost all taste sensation would be lost as well. For instance, eating oysters, where the smell is so important, would become a totally dull and tasteless experience. That is why we some times lose our sense of taste when we have a cold because our nasal passages become blocked. We will gradually lose our sense of taste as we grow older, which is one reason why elderly people may no longer enjoy their food so much.