Why Does My Food Have Less Flavor?
They are a ghastly orange color when they tumble out of their crinkly
package with its flamelike logo, and salt mines and chemical plants may
come to mind when you eat the first one, but, man, those tortilla chips
are tasty. Or maybe it’s just that you can actually taste them. Because sorry, Charlie:
as we get older, there may come a time when we find ourselves drawn not
to food with good taste or food that tastes good but simply to food
that has any flavor at all.
Blame your aging taste buds, if you want. You’ll probably be wrong, but
there are a lot more of them (about 9,000) to point the finger at than
the likely real culprit, your nose. “When people talk about their taste,
they’re really talking about the smell rather than the taste,” said Dr.
Scott P. Stringer, chairman of the otolaryngology department at the
University of Mississippi Medical Center.
As it happens, taste buds do diminish as people get older,
usually starting at 40 to 50 in women and 50 to 60 in men (why later
for them is unknown). And those that remain do not, so to speak, step up
to the plate to make up for their departed colleagues. No, they begin
to atrophy, and sometime around age 60, people may notice that they have
lost some taste sensation, usually beginning with salty and sweet
tastes and then bitter and sour ones.
But it is the changes in the nose that really matter. Among them, said Dr. Stringer, a member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery,
are a decrease in the number of sensor cells that detect aromas. These
cells routinely die out and are replaced, but in older people the
replacement process does not work as well.
There are also declines in the nerves that carry the signals to the
brain, and in the olfactory bulb, which processes them. Beyond that, the
sense of smell may also be diminished by a reduction in the amount of
mucous that is produced, a thinning of the nose lining and hormonal
changes. (Some diseases, injuries to the head and some medicines may
also affect smell.)
The decrease in the sense of smell and taste occurs gradually, and many
people do not realize what is happening. Some never realize any change
at all, researchers have found after studying subjects who said their
sense of smell was fine but were unable to detect some aromas.
In some cases, if the loss of smell is severe enough, it can pose serious risks. A study published in 2006 in Science of Aging Knowledge Environment
found that 45 percent of the elderly subjects tested could not detect
the warning odor in natural gas. Food may also become less appealing,
leading to nutrition problems among older people who stop eating as much
as they should.
Then there are those who, in a quest for flavor, may seek out foods
higher in salt and sugar. This can make other health conditions worse.
To say nothing about those orange fingertips.
Questions on aging? E-mail boomerwhy@nytimes.com
