Your Genes and Your Taste Buds

Scientists have learned that your taste buds may be partially to blame for some likes and dislikes. About one-quarter of the population inherits a super sensitivity to certain tastes, particularly bitter and sweet tastes, as well as chili peppers and alcohol. If you find grapefruit juice too bitter, you may be a supertaster. Same goes if artificial sweetener with sucrose leaves your lips in a pucker. Or if salsa—even the mild variety—sends you diving for water.

In contrast, if you top your coffee off with two or three packages of sweetener, down grapefruit juice with gusto, and can eat hot salsa to your heart's delight, you might be a nontaster. These people are unfazed by the same tastes that make supertasters cringe. The rest of us are “tasters”—with a taste sensitivity somewhere in between.

Taste sensitivity is partially linked to the number of taste buds a person is born with: Supertasters average 425 taste buds per square centimeter on the tips of their tongues, compared to 184 for tasters and 96 for nontasters.

An evolutionary explanation might be behind taster status, some experts believe. The majority of supertasters are women. Studies have also found that pregnant women are more likely to be super sensitive to bitter tastes—especially during the first trimester—in response to higher hormone levels. The fact that women are more taste sensitive may be nature's way of ensuring a healthy pregnancy. With a heightened perception of bitter tastes, women are less likely to ingest potentially poisonous substances, which are more likely to be bitter tasting.