Why does eating something sweet after eating another sweet thing make it taste less sweet?
In: Biology
Imagine you’re in a dark room. It isn’t pitch black, but you can’t really see much. All of a sudden someone opens the shades and light pours in, blinding you. Eventually, they open the other shades, but you can’t really tell the difference because you’re already blinded.
Once your body tastes something, it takes a while for it to reset back to “normal.” Eating a bunch of sugar in a row is like opening more and more windows. There is only so much light that can enter a room, and opening one more shade doesn’t really throw that much more light into the already bright room.
*Disclaimer, there is such a thing as too much light, so don’t read too much into my metaphor.
Think of your tastebuds like a pile of kindling and sweetness as fire, the first wave of sugar is a quick burn through the kindling that you pat down as you consume said item, second fire through starts easier, but technically, its a weaker fire because the smallest pieces already flared up and burnt to a crisp. It’s just a duller chemical reaction as it consumes the rest of the kindling.
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