Although there’s no accounting for taste, when it comes to abnormal taste, how easy it is to understand why we don’t like it at all!
The abnormal taste we are talking here is a distorted sense of taste, or phantom taste perception. That is a lingering taste— whether it is sweet or bitter, sour or salty—even though you have nothing in your mouth.
Taste, in fact, is a response to chemical stimulation that enables our tongue to detect flavors. It is produced by the stimulation by various substances of the taste buds on the mucous membrane of the tongue, which eventually convey impulses to the taste center in the brain.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), if abnormal taste occurs, it could be a signal of latent health problems (a symptom rather than a disorder) and should get our concerns if condition persists.
Sweetness
Even if you have a sweet tooth, you don’t always necessarily have a sweet taste in your mouth. Nonetheless, if you have, it probably is caused by a disorder of the digestive system that disturbs the secretion. “For instance, if the amylum in saliva increases, your taste buds will detect sweetness,” TCM Practitioner said. “In addition, due to a high glucose levels in the blood, the sugar level in the saliva also increases accordingly, causing people who suffer from diabetes have sweet taste lingered in their mouth.”
Sourness
It’s like you are eating lime or lemon even though you are not having any sour food? “If it happens to you, you might have chronic gastritis or peptic ulcer caused by an excessive amount of gastric acid output,” TCM Practitioner said.
Bitterness
“Our gall bladder is the only organ that can produce bitter taste. If bitter taste lingers on your tongue, it indicates that the problem likely is from your gall bladder,” TCM Practitioner said. “Often consume dry and heat foods such as fries and chips also induces “fire” from the liver, which will dry out the body fluid. The result? A bitter mouth.”
Saltiness
If your tongue keeps sensing a taste of saltiness, it may suggest that it comes from a rise of renal fluid caused by a weak function of kidneys.
Image by Colin Purrington
In fact, spleen is like a fluid processor. If it doesn’t operate well, the absorption of the fluid that you have taken will be affected, resulting in water retention in the body. As for kidneys, their function is to discharge water from the body. Thus, if the kidney function is not strong enough, bloating may occur or deepens. Lungs, similarly, discharge sweat from the body. If the lung function is not in its best shape, bloating forms.
