The impact of micronutrients on the sense of taste

Abstract

Among the most primal of senses (approximately 25), the sense of taste in humans is able to distill down to the basic 5 taste qualities of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami, or savory. The sensation commonly known as taste is in fact a fusion of both smell and taste. The technical term for this amalgamation of sensory experiences while consuming food and beverages is referred to as taste. The term “taste” is intended to be limited to the perceived result of stimulating taste receptor cells on the surface of the tongue. This sense of taste is similar to the sense of smell in that the stimuli chemically interact with the receptors during the encoding process. Spices must dissolve in saliva to interact with taste receptors. Saliva then holds the dissolved chemicals near clusters of receptor cells called taste buds. Without saliva, the performance of the taste buds declines rapidly. The chemical taste receptors are hidden in “bumps” (called papillae) that cover the surface of the tongue. Vitamins are known to generate bitterness, which may contribute to an off-taste or aftertaste for some nutritional supplements. In humans, bitter taste detection is mediated by 25 G-protein-coupled receptors belonging to the TAS2R family.In the following review, analysis will be made of the relationship, including possible regulatory activity, of certain nutrients (namely, vitamin E, A, D, C, B3, B6, B9, B12, Zn, and alpha-lepoic acid) to the already discussed pathways involved in the sense of taste.