Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, Lauren,
Speaker 1: vocal bomb Here. The next time your taste buds revolt
Speaker 1: at the first bite of an in flight meal, try
Speaker 1: holding your tongue. Not literally, of course, but instead of
Speaker 1: grousing about airlines and the food they serve. The blame
Speaker 1: for poor tasting fair may rest squarely in your mouth
Speaker 1: 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 onboard t She told us via email,
Speaker 1: I was one of the judges for the final stage
Speaker 1: when it was down to three potential teas on a flight.
Speaker 1: We blind tasted four teas at various stages of the flight.
Speaker 1: I was convinced I was selecting the same one throughout
Speaker 1: is my favorite, but actually my choices were changing with
Speaker 1: every tasting. Later, Buckley learned that the t should liked
Speaker 1: best on the ground had been the one that became
Speaker 1: unbearably acidic halfway through the flight. She was surprised and
Speaker 1: a little mortified, she said, I hadn't realized how much
Speaker 1: taste changes in the air. The two teas that felt
Speaker 1: overpowering on the ground were the most palatable in the
Speaker 1: air within an hour of the flight, whereas the most
Speaker 1: delicate one suddenly lost its flavor and brought the acidity
Speaker 1: to the forefront. It's a phenomenon. Researchers at Cornell University
Speaker 1: witnessed as they gaged the reactions of forty eight people
Speaker 1: to flavors under different conditions. They gave the participants liquids
Speaker 1: designed to mimic one of our five taste sensations sweet, salty, bitter, sour,
Speaker 1: and umami or savory. As participants sampled the solutions, they
Speaker 1: did so under two different scenarios, first in silence, and
Speaker 1: second while listening to the sound of an eighty five
Speaker 1: decipel jet engine. The results showed the participants sense of salty, sour,
Speaker 1: and bitter remained about the same whether or not conditions
Speaker 1: were noisy. However, these same in flight sounds dulled sweet
Speaker 1: tastes and enhanced umami tastes like tomato juice, which may
Speaker 1: explain why tomato juice and bloody mary cocktails are so popular.
Speaker 1: At altitude. By the way, alcoholic drinks don't actually become
Speaker 1: more potent on planes, but they can feel that way
Speaker 1: because altitude restricts your body's oxygen intake. It seems that
Speaker 1: multiple sensory properties of our environment can change how we
Speaker 1: perceive food and drink, and it isn't only air travel
Speaker 1: that can have an effect. Shanty Celibert, al Los Angeles
Speaker 1: based senior writer for Modern Hiker, spent several weeks at
Speaker 1: ten thousand feet that's about three thousand meters above sea
Speaker 1: level as she traversed the Pacific Crest Trail. She told us,
Speaker 1: as I crept higher and higher, I noticed my appetite
Speaker 1: changed drastically. I found my palate swaying to the extremes.
Speaker 1: I craved boatloads of salt and the sugariest sweets I
Speaker 1: could find. These yearnings for salty and intensely sweet flavors
Speaker 1: fall right in line with the findings at Germany's frown
Speaker 1: Hoffer Institute for Building Physics. At an airline's request, the
Speaker 1: institute set out to study passenger perceptions of sweetness and
Speaker 1: saltiness and discovered that both dropped by up to thirty
Speaker 1: percent during arid simulated flight conditions. It's something to keep
Speaker 1: in mind the next time you fly and opt for
Speaker 1: a promising tomato based entree and beverage. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other savory topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com