The things we don’t think about.
There are a lot of them, I assure you. This is a big place in which we live.
Take our very cool human bodies, for example. Heck, in you and in me, there are about 37 trillion cells. Each. Yes. T Now, that’s a lot of cells, all working together to keep this bod moving. Impressive, I’d say. But I never think about all these different functions inside of me.
Like our tongues. I would say it is something to behold.
Today, I was thinking about my tongue and how it works.
Most people think it is just one muscle. But in fact, it is made up of eight muscles. That’s a mouthful.
And, it is not the strongest muscle in the body, but it is one of the most flexible. That is why it is possible to use it all day long without it ever becoming fatigued. (Oh, and the strongest muscles in the body are the quads and glutes. Our thighs and our butts. Funny that we sit on them most of the time.)
Anyway, back to the tongue. They are about four inches long on average. Except for Gene Simmons of KISS. That guy had a tongue from here until next week. I’m not sure who had the record, but the longest tongue ever measured was eight inches. Imagine having to carry that thing around in your mouth all day.
Things that go bump in the night? We all have bumps on our tongues, but they are not taste buds like many people seem to think. These are called papillae, and they house the taste buds, which cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Because of those good buds, as you all know, we can taste things. And, those little “tongue maps” that we sometimes see with different areas depicted for different tastes? They are not true. All parts of a person’s tongue are capable of tasting a wide range of things.
Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory tastes can actually be sensed by all parts of the tongue. Overall, only the sides of the tongue are more sensitive than the middle. This is true of all tastes – with one exception: the back of our tongue is very sensitive to bitter tastes.
We have anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds. Some die off every couple of weeks, and they are replaced with new ones.
So that’s what I know about my tongue. Yours too.
Almost.
Sometimes, we can be “tongue-tied.”
On the other hand, some of us are able to “speak with a silver tongue.”
In which case, we might be told to “bite your tongue.”
Or worse yet, “hold your tongue.”
Ahhh, but it doesn’t end there. I know some people who have a “loose tongue.”
You can take all of this “tongue-in-cheek” if you’d like.
Because when I started writing this, I was going to tell you something completely different. I couldn’t remember it, though. It was right on “the tip of my tongue,” but then it escaped me.
So there it is. An homage to the tongue.
Salty is my favorite, I’d say.
How about you?
Sweet. Salty. Sour. Bitter. Savory?
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Taste is a matter of choice, but style is a matter of principle.” – Unknown
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“Taste is the ability to recognize the beautiful.” – Unknown
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“The secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” – Mark Twain
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It’s right on the tip of my tongue. Yours too.
