Page 136 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste

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We perceive these delights thanks to the taste-perception mechanism
placed at our service by our Almighty Lord. This chapter shall examine
this matchless system in some detail and show what a superior work of
Creation it is.

The Flawless Organization in the Tongue
Leaf through a cookbook; you will see thousands of recipes in it. It is
estimated that there are some 20,000 edible plant species worldwide. 118
The variety of solid and liquid foodstuffs is striking. Yet despite all this
variety, you have no problem in distinguishing among different tastes.
For example, you can immediately tell the difference between boiled and
roast chicken, even with your eyes closed.
You have no difficulty in distinguishing the flavor of chicken from

that of dozens of different foods. The secret of this ability lies in the organ-
ization within the tongue, your taste-perception organ.
The tongue can be compared to a laboratory carrying out com-
plex chemical analyses, because everything we eat or drink
consists of very different molecules. There are hun-
dreds, even thousands of separate chemical
substances in every plate of food you
eat. 119 According to taste expert
David Schaeppi, the number
of flavor-imparting
chemical substan-
ces is 225 in a