The sense of taste and the energy of flavors help you enjoy life more

Taste is the sense that may seem most primitive, but it allows us a direct communication and full of meanings. It goes beyond the smell approach: it requires that the substance, food or not, enter the mouth to be tasted.

It is always there, in the mouth. But since we don’t see her, we almost forget her presence. The language not only allows to articulate speech (language comes from language, without it we would be silent), but it gives us a whole world of flavors. How does the sense of taste help us to live experiences and go discovering who we are and the place we occupy in the world.

The senses help us to communicate with reality.

When someone refers to himself He does not do it in the name of a specific part of his body (not even the brain), but of an inner unit: an “I” that cannot be located in a specific placebut towards where sensory impressions converge and from where we communicate with reality.

The psychic life consists of three basic qualities: understanding, feeling and will.; or ability to know, feel and act.

For this to be possiblethe soul –or whatever we want to call the invisible and substantial part of our being– has five windows that communicate with the outside: the senses. If any of them is not present, life goes on but the loss is noticeable.

Just as each of the five fingers of the hand is important (a curious coincidence that reminds us that, within numerical symbolism, 5 corresponds to Man) for it to fulfill its function properly.

If we leave aside the sense of touchwhich is located in the skin, the rest of the senses are located in the headupper part of our body.

The view occupies the highest position. The eyes are followed by the earsboth systems -visual and auditory- have double organs (two eyes and two ears) and the characteristic of perceiving light and sound at a distance.

For his part, the mouth and nose are uneven, work together and require greater proximity to the material to exercise its sensory function.

The evolution of the sense of taste throughout life

Under the microscope, the taste buds They resemble lunar craters, but are actually tiny. It is estimated that an adult has about 10,000covering much of the surface of the tongue.

When food enters the mouth, papillary receptors are stimulated. and nerve impulses are sent to the smell and taste center of the brain, which interprets them as taste.

When we have a cold or flu, the loss of smell due to rhinitis prevents us from tasting food. Indeed, the brain needs both the sense of smell and taste to distinguish most flavors.

The taste buds are exhausted after about ten days and are replaced by others. But from the age of 45, this renewal is not so frequent. Hence, over time, it is necessary to find more intense flavors to achieve the same level of sensation.

On the contrary, in children the sense of taste is extremely sensitive. A baby’s mouth has more papillae than an adult’s, highlighting the importance of this sense in this early stage of life.

The energy of flavors: how many types of primary flavors are there?

It is estimated that we can detect more than ten thousand different odorsYes, but there are about fifty primary olfactory sensations. This contrasts with the existence of only three primary sensations of color and four of taste.

The basic flavors, which can be combined in very different ways and proportions, are: sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Although some speak of five, considering spiciness also basic.

It must be remembered that several traditional medicines, such as Chinese and Indian (ayurveda), classify foods and medicinal plants according to their taste. In the same way, use these taste qualities to balance the body in case of illness.

The relationship of flavor and character

The physiological fact that there are four elementary flavors is not something random and irrelevant. It surely corresponds to a symbolism whose meaning is repeated in other planes. Not only do we physically taste food, but our own inner experiences correspond to certain psychic “flavors”.

So that would allow me to present a novel psychological typology based on flavors more common.

Thus, when someone is nice or does things gracefully, it is said that they are salty or have a salt shaker. Otherwise, it is someone “dull”. If a person is calm or kindit is easily said to be sweet. This is always nice, although if this psychological type is naive, some may try to take advantage and profit at their expense. And we all know individuals who are basically acids. They do not accept affectionate expressions from the outset and tend to show cynical or ironic. If they have a good (sweet) heart, they are usually appreciated and stand out for their subtle humor, but if this is not the case, dealing is difficult. It’s like having an angular and cutting character (and often also a physique)instead of rounded (which would correspond to the good-natured chubby we all know). For his part, the bitter characterbe by birth or “bitter” due to bad experiences, supposes for those who present it permanent psychological discomfort, not enjoying life. These people especially need to love and be loved in order to reconcile with the world, but they create a barrier that makes it difficult.

Let it be clear that we all have these four psychological aspects in varying proportions. It also depends on the time of day, year or life. The equilibrium would be in manifesting those psychic flavors at certain moments, but without staying fixed in any of them. Returning periodically to the center so to speak.

like and dislike

It never ceases to surprise that taste being a less subtle sense than sight or hearing, it is so important when it comes to expressing ourselves. Why do we say nice to meet and greet someone?

Let’s remember that taste in animals is limited and governed by instinct; they know from birth what they should eat and under normal conditions they do not deviate from that norm. While the humans (omnivorous) They are able to search for and value many flavors, although sometimes they do not suit them (tobacco, alcohol…).

Also is true that the “taste” corresponds more especially to the feminine side of the human being It is enough to see both genders at the table: they prefer savor small portionswhile they tend to carve, tear and eat in large bites.

It will not be denied that women value and cultivate beauty, clothing and ornaments, as well as culinary preparations. As they say, they have “taste” for such things. While the masculine character tends less to worry about pleasing or cultivating forms.

There are many theories and criteria for assessing things, but when it is necessary to define oneself clearly, we simply say I like it or I don’t like it, thus settling the matter.

So that the synthesis of ideas and emotions that a certain situation entails curiously adopts an almost culinary language. In short, it is a question of feeling good or bad, of being “at ease” or “disliked”.

taste the wisdom

Let’s not forget that our species is called Homo sapiens. It is usually understood that it is the man who knowsbut it also means etymologically that “tastes”. Well, there is a significant relationship between “know” and “taste”. Let us therefore avoid being “insipid”.

Knowing about something is not the same as having wisdom. Merely rational knowledge is cold, it does not imply a taste for things or a deepening in itself. We admire the technology that derives from this form of logical thinking, but too often it tends towards the superfluous, not the necessary and human.

Very happily we give the adjective “wise” to those who know a lot about a certain specialty. Wisdom or wisdom (from the Latin toadhave taste, judge correctly) implies an internalization, a savoring of experiences, chewing, ruminating on one’s own existence. A look at the world from the heart, not just from the head.

In the same way that the body has its metabolism, the soul also assimilates ideas and feelings. Plato said, in the dialogues of his work Phaedrus, that man eats ideas, feeds on spirit like the gods.

The wise man is characterized by being humble and prudentalso for combining knowledge and love for beings. His experiences, sweet or bitter, finally bring him closer to unity. and harmony of things beyond apparent antagonisms.

That’s why the purest form of wisdom involves not only serene internalization and meditation, but also a spontaneous tendency to help others.

As all spiritual traditions affirm, when the end of our days on earth comes and a new destiny will surely open up, the only thing we can take as luggage they will be those drops of light or wisdom that we will have known how to distill within ourselves throughout our lives.

Books about flavors and knowledge

the zen kitchen; Edward Espe Brown. Ed. RBA-Integraljapanese poems to death; Yoel Hoffman. DVD Editions