Re: OT: Nutrition and pleasurable sense data

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 14:43:28 -0400, Eldin Raigmore wrote:
> The only mineral I know of that people can taste is sodium.
The only truly basic such taste, sure, but I can still certainly tell hard and soft
mineral water apart... there's a distinct taste of clay in calcium-rich water. I'm
not sure how I tell it, might some kind of a residual saltiness; the calcium and
natr-, er, sodium ions are of compareable size and could plausibly fit the same
activ site.


> (Vitamins)
> Vitamins are traditionally "amine" compounds (thus "-amin"), though I suppose
> not all of them are.
None of ACDEK contain amino groups.


> All of them are dietarily essential (thus "vita-"). They
> often contain essential metals that are needed in small amounts (I think one
> of the B vitamins contains some cobalt?)
B12, cobalamin. I don't recall any other vitamin including essential metals.


>Humans can taste citric acid (but can't really tell it by taste alone from
>various other edible acids).
It seems fairly distinctiv to me, it's got that little dash of sweetness (and
fruitiness) even by itself. Tartaric and tannic acids are fairly caracteristic too,
considering their somewhat bitter flavor. I considered making a case for acetic
acid too - but that might be just the unusually lo pH of vinegar-containing
products; it's pretty much the same taste as in sauerkraut, and yet, that's
lactic acid.

John Vertical