Girls Have Better Taste Than Boys

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According to a new study by Danish Science Communication, food scientists from The Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at University of Copenhagen, girls have better taste than boys.

The research involved 8,900 Danish schoolchildren and found that every third child of school age prefers soft drinks, which are not sweet. The Young people do not consider themselves as fussy eaters and love fish.

The study revealed that boys have a sweeter tooth than girls. Teenagers taste differently. It also concluded that schoolchildren in northern Denmark have the best taste buds. The study is ranked the largest in the world that involves the ability of children and young people to taste and what they like.

The participants were provided with a complete kit of taster samples and very detailed instructions, and then conducted the experiment as part of their natural science classes. The various tests were designed to quantify the ability of children and young people to discover and recognize sweet and sour tastes at varying intensities, to establish which sourness or sweetness they prefer, how many taste buds they have and, finally, the children answered a number of questions on their eating habits and fussiness over food.

The study showed that the girls are better at recognizing tastes than boys. They are better at recognizing all concentrations of both sweet and sour taste. It also proved that women have finer taste as compared to men.

"We also asked the pupils to count "taste buds" or organs of taste on the tongue. However, the experiment showed that boys and girls have largely the same number of taste buds. So it would appear that what makes the difference is the way in which boys and girls process taste impressions," said Michael Bom Frost, Associate Professor at the Department of food Science at LIFE.

The figures revealed that boys need an average of approximately 10 per cent more sourness and approximately 20 per cent more sweetness to recognize the taste. Boys like more extremes of tastes, girls prefer flavors that are not too strong. Boys were also found to have sweeter taste and gave top marks to sourest of samples.

The results have provided great information for parents and the food industry, says Bodil Allesen-Holm, MSc in food Science and Technology, who is also the scientific head of the project. "It is quite clear that children and young people are very good tasters, and that there are bigger variations between them than most people would expect," he said.

He added: "There is, for example, a marked difference between boys and girls, and the ability of children to recognise tastes changes with age. So one could easily develop more varied food products and snacks for children and young people. For example, it is quite clear that children do not necessarily prefer sweet things. According to the findings, healthy snacks could easily be developed for boys with slightly extreme and sour flavours." AGENCIES