Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vocal Bomb, and today's episode is a classic
Speaker 1: from the vault. This one has to do with the
Speaker 1: science of flavor perception and just how much flying in
Speaker 1: an airplane or a spaceship for that matter, can muck
Speaker 1: it up. Stuff really does taste different when you fly.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vocal Bomb. Here, the next time
Speaker 1: your taste buds revolt at the first bite of an
Speaker 1: in flight meal, try holding your tongue. Not literally, of course,
Speaker 1: but instead of grousing about airlines and the food they serve,
Speaker 1: the blame for poor tasting fair may rest squarely in
Speaker 1: your mouth and the way your senses respond to the noise, pressure,
Speaker 1: and altitude associated with air travel. It's a lesson Julia
Speaker 1: Buckley learned firsthand. A United Kingdom based travel journalist and
Speaker 1: frequent Transatlantic flyer, Buckley was selected by British Airways to
Speaker 1: help choose a new on board tea. She told us
Speaker 1: via email, I was one of the judges for the
Speaker 1: final stage when it was down to three potential teas
Speaker 1: on a flight. We blind tasted four teas at various
Speaker 1: stages of the flight. I was convinced I was selecting
Speaker 1: the same one throughout as my favorite, but actually my
Speaker 1: choices were changing with every tasting. Later, Buckley learned that
Speaker 1: the tea she'd liked best on the ground had been
Speaker 1: the one that became unbearably acidic halfway through the flight.
Speaker 1: She was surprised and a little mortified. She said, I
Speaker 1: hadn't realized how much taste changes in the air. The
Speaker 1: two teas that felt overpowering on the ground were the
Speaker 1: most palatable in the air within an hour of the flight,
Speaker 1: whereas the most delicate one suddenly lost its flavor and
Speaker 1: brought the acidity to the forefront. It's a phenomenon researchers
Speaker 1: at Cornell University witnessed as they gauged the reactions of
Speaker 1: forty eight people to flavors under different conditions. They gave
Speaker 1: the participants liquids designed to mimic one of our five
Speaker 1: taste sensations sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami or savory.
Speaker 1: As participants sampled the solutions, they did so under two
Speaker 1: different scenarios, first in silence, and second while listening to
Speaker 1: the sound of an eighty five decibel jet engine. The
Speaker 1: results showed the participant's sense of salty, sour, and bitter
Speaker 1: remained about the same whether or not conditions were noisy. However,
Speaker 1: these same inflight sounds dulled sweet tastes and enhanced umami
Speaker 1: tastes like tomato juice, which may explain why tomato juice
Speaker 1: and bloody mary cocktails are so popular at altitude. By
Speaker 1: the way, alcoholic drinks don't actually become more potent on planes,
Speaker 1: but they can feel that way because altitude restricts your
Speaker 1: body's oxygen intake. It seems that multiple sensory properties of
Speaker 1: our environment can change how we perceive food and drink,
Speaker 1: and it isn't only air travel that can have an effect.
Speaker 1: Shanti salibert, al, Los Angeles based senior writer for Modern Hiker,
Speaker 1: spent several weeks at ten thousand feet that's about three
Speaker 1: thousand meters above sea level as she traversed the Pacific
Speaker 1: Crest Trail. She told us, as I crept higher in
Speaker 1: our higher I noticed my appetite changed drastically. I found
Speaker 1: my palette swaying to the extremes. I craved boatloads of
Speaker 1: salt and the sugariest sweets I could find. These yearnings
Speaker 1: for salty and intensely sweet flavors fall right in line
Speaker 1: with the findings at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics.
Speaker 1: At an airline's request, the institute set out to study
Speaker 1: passengers perceptions of sweetness and saltiness and discovered that both
Speaker 1: dropped by up to thirty percent during arid simulated flight conditions.
Speaker 1: It's something to keep in mind the next time you
Speaker 1: fly and opt for a promising tomato based entree and beverage.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article mile Blah Club,
Speaker 1: Why airline food doesn't Taste good on HowStuffWorks dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Laur L. Dove. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: by Heart Radio in partnership with houstuffworks dot Com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Plang. Four more podcasts for my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite show.