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This week's LabZone activity
Aug. 11, 2004
Taste Chili on Your Wrist
Take a bite of salsa-covered taco. You discover two kinds of hot. One kind comes from the stove. The other comes from a spice called chili pepper or chili powder, a funny name for a space that's not "chilly" at all. Chili powder is made from chili peppers, and they are both used to make food "hot." Chili can make your eyes water and your nose run. But it is full of vitamins and kills some germs, so it is not bad for you to eat. Hold your nose as you eat the taco. Can you feel its hotness?
Spicy hot is not really a taste. It is more like an irritation or pain, so you don't need your tongue to "taste" chili. Your tongue feels it. Your wrist can feel it, too. Put a few drops of Tabasco sauce on your wrist. Wait a few minutes. Does your wrist start to feel warm? Wash off the sauce and the feeling goes away. The chili fires the same nerves in your skin that normally sense heat. So you are fooled to feel something as hot that is not.
Your tongue has the same nerves to detect heat that your skin has. Chili fires these nerves, not taste buds. Chili burns more in your mouth than on your wrist because the skin in your mouth is always wet. You must be careful not to get chili in your eyes or in a cut, where it can really hurt! When people cook with chili peppers, they need to keep their hands away from their face. If you are not used to the hot taste of chili, you will find it very unpleasant. But many people get used to the taste, and they like their food very hot. In fact, chili is one of the most popular tastes in the world.
Reprinted with permission from Your Tongue Can Tell: Discover Your Sense of Taste by Vicki Cobb. Text © 2000 by Vicki Cobb (www.vickicobb.com). Published by Millbrook Press.
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