Research

Taste buds are clusters of nerve endings on your tongue and on the inside of your mouth. Taste buds give you your sense of taste.

The human mouth conta ins a bout 10, 000 taste buds, but not al I of them are on the tongue. Some are located under the tongue, on the inside of your cheeks, on the roof of your mouth, and even on your lips. About every two weeks old taste buds are replaced with new taste buds. As we get older some of
our taste buds stop working. The average adult may have only 5,000 working taste buds. That is why some foods may taste stronger to kids than to adults. Smoking can also reduce the number of taste buds a person can have.

Your taste buds are inherited. There are two kinds of taste buds, super tasters and non-tasters. Super tasters have more papillae, or taste buds, which causes them to be picky eaters. That's why some people only eat certain foods and tend to be thin. Non-tasters have significantly fewer papillae and don't taste much of the food they eat. So they tend to eat more and become heavier. 

Our taste buds work along with our noses. When we put food in our mouth, the food releases chemicals that send a message to our nose and brain to tell us what we are eating. That is why when you have a cold or allergies you don't taste much of the flavor or foods do not seem as appetizing because the chemicals are unable to trigger the receptors that tell you what you're eating. But we mostly taste with our brains.