This suggestion takes me back to remembering my elderly Mother when she lost her sense of taste as well as smell. It is probably nature’s way of reducing sensations in preparedness for departure to another realm. So this idea isn’t quite as fanciful as it might at first appear.
My first thought, if I had to loose one flavour initially was for the sweetness of sugar, as is so bad for one. All of those delicious sweet tastes: cakes, biscuits, pastries, chocolates, pavlovas with cream and passion-fruit, jams, and the endless list goes on. True, I don’t eat as much of these foods as I once did, but could I live without them completely? I think I’d choose not to.
Reading the list Ben Huberman produced, there’s a word I didn’t recognize, UMANI. Having looked it up, it has many meanings with words like ‘nucleotides’ and ‘L-glutamates’ and ‘glutamic acid’, as well as meaning delicious. Having not known that such a word existed, this is the one I have chosen to give up. It also includes shell- fish, which I’m allergic to, so this makes it a much easier choice. Many of the pre-packaged foods of today include Umani flavours.
I shall stick with fresh fruit and vegetables as my staples which leaves the delicious tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, salty and a little spicy within my repertoire.
Picky Tongues
You have to choose one flavor that your sense of taste will no longer be able to distinguish. Sweet, sour, bitter, salti, Umani, spicy (not taste per se, but we’re generous): which one do you choose to lose? Ben Huberman
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/picky-tongues/
Barbara Pyett 