Taste buds, do they change when you eat a healthier diet and take regular exercise?

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  • herbertwest7734
    herbertwest7734 Posts: 52 Member
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    Your taste buds definitely change. I agree they change with sugar (or the lack thereof), but I think even more so with salt and fats. It's like once you stop bombarding your taste buds with these things you can actually taste and enjoy things that used to seem bitter or bland. Like vegetables. I used to cover salads with dressing, but now I would rather eat them with no dressing at all and taste all of the flavors instead of just tasting dressing. I agree very much with DeirdreWoodwardSanders.
  • FlatWet
    FlatWet Posts: 109 Member
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    I agree with all the things said above.
    To add: I also taste SALT like none other now. I don't add it to anything really but I can really really taste it in things.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Mine honestly haven't changed. I can't think of anything I liked before that I don't like anymore... although I like coffee black now, but still would be just fine with a nice sugar/cream coffee. I know a lot of people tell me that now they find a lot of things too sweet... it hasn't happened to me yet. Even after I pretty much cut refined sugar for a few months, the first sweet thing I ate (some ice cream cake) was totally amazing.
  • Basilin
    Basilin Posts: 360 Member
    edited November 2014
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    I think I've become more sensitive to sugar, fat and salt. It is a shame that people slather their lettuce and greens with dressing. Sometimes I'll eat it plain and I can taste saltiness and sweetness in the greens themselves. Sweetened peanut butter is a dessert to me these days.

    Deep fried foods, soda, salty/fatty snack foods like Cheetos and chips, super sweet barbecue sauces, etc. burn my tongue and upset my stomach now.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    FlatWet wrote: »
    I agree with all the things said above.
    To add: I also taste SALT like none other now. I don't add it to anything really but I can really really taste it in things.

    This. I often forget to add salt to my cooking, as I don't need it. Things I purchase often taste very salty to me. For example, I could barely eat the otherwise delicious Alexia chipotle sweet potatoes and veggies because they tasted incredibly salty to me, to the point that I plan to write the company.

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  • forwesst
    forwesst Posts: 6
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    Scientifically speaking, no. They don't change. You usually have a finite amount of taste buds per cubic centimeter and that never really changes. However, after eating healthier for long periods of time, you can end up developing a preference for healthier foods.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    Mine honestly haven't changed. I can't think of anything I liked before that I don't like anymore... although I like coffee black now, but still would be just fine with a nice sugar/cream coffee. I know a lot of people tell me that now they find a lot of things too sweet... it hasn't happened to me yet. Even after I pretty much cut refined sugar for a few months, the first sweet thing I ate (some ice cream cake) was totally amazing.

    I don't think it's that sugar no longer tastes good. At least not for me. It's that I can be satisfied with a single or smaller serving. One piece is heaven, but too much becomes cloying.
  • WildOkapi
    WildOkapi Posts: 81
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    I've noticed I have little interest in the taste of overly salty/sugary/buttery/fatty foods.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    Indeed...I think for many of us, when you give your tastebuds a break from the bombardment of overly seasoned foods, you actually end up being better able to taste more subtle flavors. This translates into tasting things with less sugar as sweet, tasting lightly salted items as salty enough, and being able to really taste the butter and other fats, leading to more satiety in eating.

    I find that I'm satisfied with far fewer sweets, and sweets with less sugar. A chocolate protein bar with almost no sugar can actually serve as dessert for me now. An actual serving of ice cream works just fine, and I can have two bites of cake and really enjoy it and then save the rest for later.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    I'm not sure how it works or even if anyone knows, but there is a change.

    When you take in very little sodium for a long time and then eat something high in sodium, it doesn't taste the same. All you taste, really, is salt.

    When you cut out candy, cookies, et cetera, you appreciate the sweetness of a good apple or bowl of berries so much more. Switch to water and a few months later, Pepsi tastes like syrup.

    I doubt it's in in the tongue and think it's probably more about pathways in the brain. But I really have no idea. It's interesting, though! I'd be very interested to know they whys and hows. :)
  • trenzalours
    trenzalours Posts: 60
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    Love this thread! Bookmarked it so I can follow it more!

    But for some input I've been eating healthy for 2 weeks and I can already taste the difference. My cheat day was on Saturday and I got a hamburger with the works and it came with these homemade chips. They were really good and all but still tasted really oily and kinda gross...Plus afterwards I felt like crap walking back to our car. NEVER AGAIN!

    Also I find myself craving foods I HATED in the past. I use to hate tomatoes absolutely despised them. Couldn't eat them raw and could barely eat them fresh I just thought they were gross and nasty. Well lets just say for lunch today I cut up a tomato cooked it and threw some mozzarella on top and had an amazing lunch.

    Not sure if its my taste buds changing or my brain chemicals but I love it.
  • gagajenks
    gagajenks Posts: 25 Member
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    So much information, thank you everyone. And yes, Ive cut right down and things like Pepsi and have noticed how sickly sweet it is to me.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    trenzalours wrote: »
    Love this thread! Bookmarked it so I can follow it more!

    But for some input I've been eating healthy for 2 weeks and I can already taste the difference. My cheat day was on Saturday and I got a hamburger with the works and it came with these homemade chips. They were really good and all but still tasted really oily and kinda gross...Plus afterwards I felt like crap walking back to our car. NEVER AGAIN!

    Also I find myself craving foods I HATED in the past. I use to hate tomatoes absolutely despised them. Couldn't eat them raw and could barely eat them fresh I just thought they were gross and nasty. Well lets just say for lunch today I cut up a tomato cooked it and threw some mozzarella on top and had an amazing lunch.

    Not sure if its my taste buds changing or my brain chemicals but I love it.

    I was exactly the same way about tomatoes. I would eat ketchup or spaghetti sauce or even salsa, if it was flavored with lots of other things, but I couldn't stand to eat raw tomatoes, even on a sandwich.

    Now, I absolutely have to have them.
  • Keevy333
    Keevy333 Posts: 32 Member
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    One of my favorite treats used to be a banana shake. I started making the fake banana ice cream (frozen bananas blended) and one day, many months after my last banana shake, my mother in law got me one. It was not good! Too much sugar and too artifical tasting! Ew. I no longer crave banana shakes!
  • hiswaywardgirl
    hiswaywardgirl Posts: 42
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    kds1120 wrote: »
    One of my favorite treats used to be a banana shake. I started making the fake banana ice cream (frozen bananas blended) and one day, many months after my last banana shake, my mother in law got me one. It was not good! Too much sugar and too artifical tasting! Ew. I no longer crave banana shakes!
    Frozen bananas make awesome ice cream! So underrated! ;) Sometimes I just slice them up and chill them in the freezer, maybe dipped in dark chocolate if I'm feeling ambitious. Yummm.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,996 Member
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    I think people's tastes change over time although some posters have said 2 weeks, that seems pushing the point.

    If you change your diet over a period of time, yes it is likely your tastes will adapt to your new diet and then you will find something you previously enjoyed to now be too rich or too salty or too sweet.
  • PeterSedesse
    PeterSedesse Posts: 124
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    It is called extinction and is true for any of your senses. The more you experience something, the more numb you become to it. It is actually a chemical process with your neurons. Like people who work in a smelly environment who stop noticing it. The same is true of your taste buds, if you were eating a lot of sweet, oily, or salty foods, your taste buds just do not register it as strongly. Once you stop eating those foods, your taste buds become more sensitive to it and it can feel overpowering when you do it eat again.

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