The science behind your love of carbs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Carb lovers, rejoice: The next official taste may well be “starchy.”
Although we’ve long known that we taste bitter, salty, sour, sweet and, more recently, umami (savory) dishes, a study published in August in the Oxford journal Chemical Senses found that our taste buds can also detect complex carbohydrates.
“Most cultures have a diet that comes from at least 60 percent carbohydrates,” Juyun Lim, an associate professor of sensory science at Oregon State University and co-author of the study, tells The Post. “It’s kind of amazing to think that we wouldn’t be able to taste complex carbohydrates.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lim had subjects try water and carb solutions and found that their taste buds picked up the complex carbohydrates.
“Subjects would describe it as a starchy, rice-like or pasta-like taste,” says Lim, who’s 41 and based in Corvallis, Ore.