OT: OFFLIST: Re: OT: Re: Nutrition and pleasurable sense data

On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:16:18 -0400, John Vertical
<johnvertical@...> wrote:

>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
Thanks.  All interesting!