Taste and our health

There are five senses of our body; sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Among them, taste is closely related to our health because our eating depends on taste and taste can make our health better as well as worse.

There are many kinds of taste, sweet, bitter, salty, spicy, sour, etc. Taste is decided by our tongue. Preferences in taste sometimes depends on geography and nation. For example, Chinese people like sweet foods, Thai people like spicy foods, in Myanmar, people in Shan state like hot and spicy foods, etc. People prefer to eat the food with their favourite taste. Some people like spicy food, some like sweet and some like bitter. Nowadays, due to globalization, we can more easily get food that we want.

However, we should not eat only one taste a lot, for a long time, because eating only one taste too much can cause health problems. Eating too much sweet can cause diabetes (diseases that are caused by blood sugar), weight gain, insomnia (sleeping problem), heart diseases, etc. Similarly, eating too much salt can cause higher blood pressure. Higher blood pressure can cause strain on our heart, arteries, kidneys and brain. This can lead to heart attacks, strokes (sudden death of brain cells), dementia (mental illness) and kidney disease. Eating sour food releases serotonin, a compound that can affect appetite (desire for eating food), sleep, memory, mood, sexual desire, etc.

Let’s choose a healthy life. Please watch and listen to the video about health and taste. Choose ONE WORD from the listening to complete each of the eight gaps in the summary below. In the video, Dr. Hans Diehl argues that the 1___________ to a happy and healthy life is a 2______________ diet. Dr. Hans says that today we eat highly 3______________food that has been engineered for taste, not for health. He believes that if we introduce more vegetables, fruit, wholegrain foods, beans, lentils and nuts into our 4___________, the body will begin to 5_____________ itself. Taking medication is not the answer, we need to change our 6_____________, which is the way we 7_________________ our lives.

When you are ready, enter your answers in the test sheet below