Super Tasters & “foodies”

Krudo, Ostrich, Crocodile, Springboek and other yummy things

Here I am on a Jenny Craig Diet and my daughter sends me these wonderful pictures of meals from South Africa. The dinner above features Krudo ( a kind of deerlike creature), Crocodile, Springboek (antelope like) and Ostrich! The lemons don’t tempt me… but the rest looks fantastic! After all, Karen has pointed out that I am a ‘foodie’ (someone who has spent a lot of their career in and around the food industry)… but I do enjoy food… and just possibly more than most people for reasons that are becoming more understood.

My wife Laura discussed something about ‘super tasters’ in her Bio Psychology Class. Super tasters are folks who can literally ‘taste’ more from their food because of the increased density of taste receptors on their tongue. After some checking, it appears that my daughters and I are cursed or blessed with this affliction. It’s like everyone else in the world tastes in color while we taste in high definition. This has always made dieting a challenge for me and I have sought out the boredom of monotonous diets to counteract the fireworks presented by many new, exciting and interesting dishes. I have found that variety adds to my waistline while monotony doesn’t.

Are you a super taster? Take the test!

Karen has earned the the unsurprising ( to me ) reputation for being willing to try new South African dishes. She — like the rest of us — loves to try new things. This is no surprise to those of us who really enjoy the ‘taste’ of our food… 

Roger Freberg