What鈥檚 your favorite Skittles flavor? (Hint: the correct answer is red.)
Think you can close your eyes and taste which one is red, yellow or green?
Of course, said Lori Hindenlang. Her favorite is orange. She closed her eyes, ate a yellow Skittle and declared it was orange.
鈥淚 got it wrong,鈥 she said.
As she quickly found out at theat the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital this weekend, there鈥檚 a spoiler: Skittles taste pretty much the same, despite the fact that we think they taste like lemon, lime and grape. Before you declare your entire life a lie, one scientist they have slightly different fragrances along with their very different colors, both of which lead our taste buds into telling our brains certain things.
Mars Wrigley Confectionery denies this Internet debate, saying they have distinct flavors. Nonetheless, for attendees at the conference, the point was made. Sight, smell, consistency, even the implements we use to eat, greatly influence our tastes, and that, in turn, provides important information to people who prepare food for diabetic patients or help someone on chemotherapy try to enjoy food.
Just down the way from the Skittles experiment, conference attendees were tasting different colored gelatin. Hilarity ensued when they dipped into yellow gelatin expecting to taste lemon and found instead ... fish.
The conference started three years ago when Dr. Dan Han, the chief of 好色先生鈥檚 neuropsychology program, went to a conference in Montreal. He went to a famous area restaurant called Joe Beef. The chef, Fred Morin, had just read a book on neurogastronomy and engaged Han about their various fields. 鈥淗e said, 鈥淚鈥檒l get the culinary folks together and you get the scientists,鈥 Han said Saturday. 鈥淲hen I approached my colleagues, everyone was interested.鈥
This year鈥檚 symposium included talks such as 鈥淭he Underappreciated Power of Human Smell,鈥 鈥淐ulinary Medicine and Flavor in Clinical Settings, and 鈥淪ugar and the Brain鈥檚 Reward System.鈥
The conference is attended by chefs, scientists and anyone interested in food. Jasmine Haymarket is training to be a dietician at Eastern Kentucky University and said she first became interested in neurogastronomy after hearing a lecture by Han.
鈥淚鈥檝e gotten really interested in the correlation between smell and taste,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hen over Christmas, I had the flu and I couldn鈥檛 taste anything, and I was even more interested then.鈥
