21st November 2007
Smelly Tastes Rule – OK!
Imagine you are biting into a chocolate bar – hold the
morsel in your mouth and savour the taste –
Yummm! The
chocolate not only tastes good, but its smell is boosting
the immune system and stimulating a ‘feel good’ factor with
the release of endorphins.
How do we taste the chocolate? We use thousands of taste
buds, mainly on the tongue, to interpret the basic tastes
of
sour,
salty,
bitter,
sweet and
unami (a newly
recognised taste). The taste buds are scattered all over
the tongue, not in specific areas. The sweetness of the
chocolate soon disappears from the mouth, but bitter tastes
linger longer as the bitter taste molecules are bigger –
giving the body the opportunity to realise that bitter may
mean poisonous.
Tastes are enhanced by mouth movements, i.e. chewing,
spitting and swallowing, which encourage air currents to
waft taste molecules to the nose for the stimulation of
smell. Five million smell receptors are waiting at the back
of the nostril, to interpret 10,000 known smells. Smell
goes directly to the part of the brain dealing with
emotions so if you are feeling low you go for comfort
smells-the chocolate bar! So smell is closely associated
with taste – both are chemical senses. Taste comprises of
75% smell. For example, it takes four molecules of smell to
identify a cherry pie and 25,000 taste molecules.
Taste and smell are very important in the lives of all
children, both socially and emotionally, and in the process
of keeping healthy through a tasty, varied diet. For
example, a special child may anticipate a meal through
smells and enjoying its taste. It may be
the highlight
for them in an otherwise barren and senseless day.
Tastes can be used to extend the food palate and also
enable children to show preference, exercise power and
communicate. A closed mouth is very effective in
communicating a dislike of a certain taste or food texture!
A
taste programme for young children may
encourage a wider acceptance of tastes, textures and smells
of food, leading to improved feeding patterns – and a
gourmet delight of foods! Some children who are diagnosed
with autism may have a very restricted diet, as they
dislike change. One little boy ate only Weetabix® and
custard cream biscuits until he was five! Remember that
special children are sometimes restricted in access to
different food – great efforts must be made to bring a
variety to them – or enable visits to tastes in the
community.
Hints
on planning a taste programme.
•
Schedule
the programme on a regular basis, in a relaxed environment,
no push on time and in a social setting with others.
•
Ensure
distinct contrasts in tastes so there is a clear contrast
between the foods offered, e.g.:
(Encourage
a sip of water between each taste to clear the palate).
•
Watch
for the communication about the tastes and smells – a
crinkled nose, a gasp. Discuss how the food tastes, extend
the vocabulary.
•
Encourage
mouth movements to savour tastes (not too much spitting!)
by strategically placing sticky textured tastes, e.g.:
o honey on
the lips
o hundreds
and thousands under the tongue
o Marmite™
on the end of a nose
o ketchup
inside a cheek
Do it to
yourself, too, to be part of the experience.
•
For
those on bland diets and those who are tube fed (get
permission from medical staff, first), use a “melting
moments” programme to encourage swallowing and production
of saliva for oral hygiene, e.g. take a piece of edible
rice paper, place drops of flavouring on it, one taste at a
time (e.g. lemon, Ribena™, wine, orange), place on the
tongue, at the side of the mouth, under the tongue, etc. It
will melt and give taste and smell without causing gagging.
•
Then
move on to ice, meringues, Sherbet, icing sugar, flying
saucers, space dust, wafers, all melting moments
Look at
texture in the
taste programmes, especially for those who refuse any lumpy
foods. Below are examples of programmes for
“food
processing” and
“tasty
bites of
food”.
From the
taste programmes can emerge a strong link to
sensory cookery,
enabling the young child to cook. It places an emphasis on
using all
the
senses to cook and encourages an improvement in early life
skills, e.g. promoting a longer attention span while
smelling the custard cooking on the stove!
Taste and smell are key senses, but also remember the other
senses.
•
We
listen to the
sounds of crunchy carrots, sizzling stir fry.
•
We
taste as we
cook.
•
We
smell the
ingredients.
•
We
watch the
process of cooking.
•
We
touch and feel
the ingredients.
•
We
sense heat and
cold in the process.
•
We
position our
body, and
bend our
joints, to aid in the cooking process.
•
… and
we
eat !!
The attached simple recording sheet to link taste to
sensory cookery is adapted from Vision
for Doing by
Aitken and Buultjens as published in Sensory
Cookery for Very Special People.
Good smelling and tasting!
Bibliography.
Aitken,
S. and M. Buultjens. 1992. Vision form Doing: Assessing
functional vision of learners who are multiply disabled.
Moray House Publications.
Longhorn, F. 1997. Sensory Cookery for Very Special People.
Catalyst Education Resources Ltd, 1 Potters Cross, Wootton,
Beds MK43 9JG www.cerl.net
Smell Webs - URL
http://www.leffingwell.com