Why Do We Have Taste Buds?

What You'll Learn

• Taste buds are tiny taste detectors on your tongue
• They detect five main tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami
• Taste buds send messages to your brain so you know what you're eating
• Bitter tastes warn us that some plants might be poisonous
• You have about 10,000 taste buds, and they get replaced every 1-2 weeks

Words to Know

Taste bud

Tiny flavor detectors on your tongue

"My taste buds love sweet strawberries."

Flavor

How food tastes

"The flavor was salty and sour."

Umami

A savory, yummy taste

"Cheese and tomatoes have umami flavor."

Bitter

A sharp taste that can warn us

"Dark chocolate is a little bitter."

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• Taste buds are sensory organs containing taste receptor cells

  Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

• Humans can detect five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami

  Source: NIDCD

• Taste receptor cells send signals to the brain via cranial nerves to identify flavors

  Source: Harvard Medical School

• Bitter taste is thought to be an evolutionary warning against ingesting toxins

  Source: Nature, evolutionary biology

• Humans have about 10,000 taste buds, mostly on the tongue

  Source: NIDCD

• Taste bud cells are replaced approximately every 10-14 days

  Source: Journal of Cell Biology