How Food Tasters Work

Dr SEUs and Mr Rogers. There's a few of those icons out there that I still want to tackle. Okay, let's do it. Yeah, let's do it right now. Let's just scrap. What we're gonna do is start making up stuff about Bob Ross. Probably might be better than what's coming. This is bad food tasters. No, it's it's it's not that bad. You know why it's not bad because everybody out there who's ever even thought of the concept of food tasters and then learned that it's a real thing,

has this great conception of it. It's a bubble that we now get to come along and burst yeah, I love ones like that. Yeah, that's true. You're like, oh, you have a great fantasy about something not anymore. Yeah, here's ugly stark reality. We should change the name of our show to dream Squashers. Oh that's not bad like that? Yeah, remember that. We could create a TV show where like we de renovate someone's house, like we trash it. Yeah, dream Squashers and then move a semile of the way

and be like, here's your new house. It's just a starter home. You thought you love. It's awful. Now I pooped on the porch. Oh, Man Cooper is gonna love that one. Who Aaron Cooper? Oh yeah, what do you mean who? It's funny because for people that don't know Aaron Cooper one of our oldest and dearest, most dedicated listeners. Um, and I don't mean old as an age um. Although he's no spring Chicken um of Kansas, which is why we make fun of Kansas lovingly. He is our photoshop

guru and does all our great funny photoshop things. Uh. And I we met him in Denver, came over and saw the show, came backstage, and I gave him a big toothless grin and a photo and just said have fun with that one. Coope. Yeah, and it's like been comedy gold since then. Yeah, he's good. Let's say about a third of our new photoshop pictures are my big goofy toothless smile. Yeah, it's just hard to resist putting

that in there. He did one of my favorites of all time, which is me over Jack Nicholson's face coming through the door. Oh yeah, Yeah, that's a good one. And it's uncanny what that guy can do with photoshop. It looks like I was in the signe. Pretty great. So I salute you Aaron Cooper. Wait, go Coop. We should salute a listener for every show, yeah, or maybe just that once. Okay, So food tasting, yes, there is legitimately a profession out there. Whether it's full time or

part time. It depends where you are paid to taste test food and it can be amazing food, chocolate, ice cream. Ben and Jerry's have what they call flavor gurus. Yeah, they like profile them on their website, the flavor gurus. Yeah. So those people are not just in charge of taste testing, they're in charge of like coming up with new flavor ideas. There there well, let's get into it. They are they represent one branch of UM food tasters, like the professional

UM educated branch. Yes, right, so if you're one of those food tasters, you probably have a degree in food science. Yeah. Well, the Ben and Jerry's gurus, I think are mostly food scientists. Although what can they come up with it? They haven't done. That's what I was kind of zoning out on. I don't know, you know, I mean, no, they're trying to still innovate with ice cream. But yeah, I'm just there's another hippie groove band that he created an ice cream

flavor for, Like what's fart on a honeycomb? And honey come far and stir a pot of you know, boiled cherries with that honeycomb, okay, and then spit in it. That's been a Jerry's new flavor. Wow, is that we They do have an ice cream graveyard for real though on their I think it's on their campus. Yeah, yeah, where they put they have like those little funny gravestones of of I guess like the fourth tire Honey come fart that didn't work out? Right? I love Ben and Jerry's.

Oh man, I can't find e Chubby Hubby anymore. No, no nowhere. I even looked up to see if it was discontinued. Have you looked in the graveyard. It's not in the graveyard. They say it's still out there, but I do not see it anymore. I'll I'll see your these uh, the ones with the what do they call him now with the plug in the middle full of stuff cord? Yeah, the course cords are taken over. Yeah.

I hope you like cores pal because that's all you're getting. Well, I don't need as much ice cream now, which is good, okay, because I can't find my chubbs hubs. Here you go. What's your favorite? We talked about this. I like Chubby Hubby New York super Fridge chunk Um Are you talking just Ben and Jerry's because I have a different favorite favorite now and it's besting. Robbins actually supposed which one

mom's making cookies? Wow cookie though obviously no oh no. It's some sort of heavenly ice cream with like a ribbon of brown sugar something else in it, And it's like legitimately like when you've taken a bite out of a sugar cookie, a buttery sugar cookie, and you've gotten most of it, but there's still like the just a little bit of like grit to it. Uh, that is the sensation of eating this ice cream. All right, I

gotta try that now and chuck. What I just did is what flavor tasters to quick shout out to hagen Das chocolate peanut butter. Brother, that is about as good as it gets. Anything chocolate peanut butter. I will eat. But hagen Das is up there pretty far at the bottom. Man. When you get all all the peanut butter, that sinks. Alright, alright, So that is taste testing. We we could we could have just made money had we been testing and then saying very plainly what we liked about them, because that's

plainly what the job is sometimes. And again there's basically two ways you can get into it. One is you can be trained and educated and get some sort of degree, higher degree in something like food science. You could be a trained chef, somebody who knows what they're talking about quite literally when it comes to food and taste, not just oh this is good, I like yeah, Like they want specificity way to go toast. You know, this is and a very refined palette and we'll talk more about

sensory acuity. But that's a big, big part of it. The other way you can get into it is you can just basically be some everyday schlub who says, you know, I think I could be good at this. Hook me up. I'll come like taste food for you, and you write a letter like that, sign it and cran mail it off somewhere and see if they get in touch with you. Yeah.

Specifically if you live in UH or near Marshall, Minnesota and you like yourself some frozen foods, yeah, you can apply to the Schwan company and UH basically just send in, like you said, send in your little application and you can get hired on. They do though, UM, I believe make you past tests. They don't just take anyone right. All of them are gonna put you through some sort of testing, if not also testing and then training because not just anybody can do this. Some people have what

you mentioned earlier. UM, it's called sensory acuity, which is an ability to really differentiate the different flavors and textures and um smells associated with particular food and then on top of that be able to um discuss it in an objective smart way. Yeah, it's not always a food

company either. Um there's a company called MMR Research Worldwide and they do Uh they're like the middleman, yeah, the research Yeah, middle people and uh they are the ones who will put you through the ringer with a sensory acuity. And they're the ones that say, you know, you really need to be able to not only articulate your thoughts for a piece of paper maybe that you fill out, but you have to be nice to your kids well too.

We'll find out if you're not. But many times you're in a room and that kind of setting with other people and you have to be able to get along and not fight about it. And uh, did you ever do any of those market research rooms? I used to. I got on some list post college, and um, it's a great list when you're fresh out of college. Most of mine were not actual tasting of food. Most of it was more what do you think about this ad campaign type of thing? Like I did one for Heineken

one time. I was like, oh, great, you know I get to go drink Heineken. You're like, yeah great, Uh did you know it was just about there when they rolled out their big red star campaign man um. And then I used to do them for non food products like something at home depot or like yeah, basically hold it tight, how's it fit in your hands? You buy your lower lip? How likely would you be to recommend

this hammer? Like just dumb stuff like that? Right? Okay, so you don't any training for that, and there are actual food tasting jobs that do you amount to that and you leave with like fifty bucks in cash, which is the best part. But but it's gonna be like a thumbs up thumbs down or something like, um, I think I saw like is this egg roll too spicy? This pizza have enough cheese? Did these teens make me

look fat? It could be something. It could be something very broad like give us your general thoughts about this product, or if they're in the final stages and they want to spend even more dumb money, Um, that's not true. Market research is valid. Um. It might be something super specific, like you said like is there too much cheese or is there just a knot? Yeah, like that's it. I don't want to hear about the tang of the sauce

or the crust. And if you're the kind of food taster who's like WHOA, what do you want to hear? You're not going to be very good at it. They want to hear the Gitimately they don't care because this company they're they're not their market researchers that they get their dough either way. So we'll talk about dough, um and how the the day in the life of a food taster goes. Right after this, So, Chuck, there's this really um interesting article on a site called bill Fold.

Did you read the interview with the food taster? No? But I read one on vice with three food tasters. Let's let's chat about our experience. So the one I read about it was an interview with the food taster named Matthew. They didn't use his last name, but Matthew UM apparently is uh has a pretty decent amount of sensory acuity because he went through the training. He said the training, I got the impression he was trained by MMR.

They didn't actually say who it was, but I get also get the impression that MMR is about the biggest game in town, if not really the only game in town. But what you're saying is he's in touch with his m yes, very much so. So he said that they give you like all these solutions to taste, but also sense to identify as well. Um, because the old wives tailor old rule of thumb is that taste is eight smell right. So um, he passed all these tests and

apparently also they test your visual acuity as well. They want somebody who's sensorily, very attuned to what's going on. And then they said, okay, um, explain mayonnaise. Tell us what mayonnaise tastes like, creamy, tangy, delicious? Yeah, maggy, does it taste eggy to you? I can taste the eggs sometimes. Um. You know how much I love mayonnaise. It's hard for me to articulate. Do you love mayonnaise or do you love dukes mayonnaise? Well? I do love dukes, but I

just I love mayonnaise. Do you love all mayonnaise? Yeah? I mean what other manonnaise do you need besides dukes? Well you don't. But if dukes is not available, I'll take a I'll take a craft or a or miracles or no, that's salad dressing. It's different, but it's the consistency of Yeah, I mean that's it's a distinction though, like it's not mayonnaise because it's all artificial, right, A sandwich just says in the sandwich without miracle whip, that's

like they disting themselves purposely from being mayonnaise. It's way tangier, uh is it? Yeah? And I like miracle with but I just never buy it um because I'm always getting that Duke's Duke's Light actually one of the few light products that still tastes great. Yeah, I didn't know you love mayonnaise so much. Oh yeah, man, Like if it was if I if it was more socially acceptable to just squirt mayonnaise all over your plate of French fries like it is in Europe, yeah, I was gonna say,

then I would be doing that every single time. What I do is I asked for mayo for my burger, and I'm like a little extra, and then I just look, it's spilled over sneakily dipped the fry in there. People think because there's some mannaise, people think it's gross, which I never got. Uh yeah, some people do. I don't get it either. Yeah, they'll eat a really like that's any different, right, Well, it's pretty pungent with the garlic. Not if it's not garlic a RELI, it's just fancy mayonnaise.

I thought it was all garlic. That was like a hallmark of aoli. No, do you have any kind of ali? Yeah, but I thought there's still garlic in the base. Alright, alright, alright, we're off track here, We're not. We're kind of we're talking food tastes, all right, so let's talk food taste. Oh wait, no, I know we were talking about a day in the life of a food taster, Matt Matthew taster and his mayo description. Right, so this guy really kind of tore the scales from my eyes as far

as um, the what food tasting consists of. It's not fun. It's not a fun experience, and it can be very monotonous, like for example, So he signed on with this um. Actually he was through a temp agency, and the temp agency hooked him up with a frozen food manufacturer. So the frozen food group was mostly concerned over I think the course of eight months, um with frozen French fries. Oh he was that guy. Yes, I did read that, and um he said he tried frozen French fries in

every different way. They would say, do you like these? They're a little they're baked a little longer. Do you like these with this cooking time? Do you like these with this much oil? Do you like these with this much salt? And he said salt was like the through the through thread throughout the whole thing, so much so that he um developed blisters in his mouth, sores in his mouth from eating these French fries for for eight

months straight. And this is even working for only a couple hours a day because it's all you can work, because your palette will get worn out. Well that's not true, but a lot of these people work all day doing it, is that right? Yeah? Okay, um, if you're full time in it, that's not what I heard. Yeah, not what

I heard. So in addition to having to eat the same stuff prepared the different way over and over and over again, um, you are, you were given the same test basically because the company wants to make sure that what you're experiencing is repeatable. Yeah, it's like a little science experiment almost exactly. So they'll say, here, try this fry. How how does the oily the oiliness hits you say?

It hits me? Like on five? Because there's this is again, this is supposed to be objective, Like you said, it's a science experiment. So on one end zero or oils, on the other end ten or fruit juices, as far as taste impact goes right, And so they say, okay, great, here's some more fries. Do the same thing. But you don't remember what you gave it. So you actually are experiencing a certain level of stress because you feel like you're being tested yourself. And uh, it doesn't sound like fun.

And at the end of the day, you go home and you dream of French fries and you wake up crying and you have to get up and go do it again. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. Dream smashing. Uh. The article and vice uh professional food tasters tell us about their jobs. They interviewed three people and the highlights or as follows. Louise Vamber is an product manager for a s d A. And she says, in a testing week, I can be tasting up to two hundred and fifty ice creams from eight

in the morning till eight at night. See that. I mean, it sounds great, but she's probably taking a bite and spitting it out. She is, she says, she spits it out. She said and if I don't, that means it's a really good ice cream if I actually swallow it. Yeah, I imagine, so like if you're eating two something ice cream today. Yeah. And uh, she loves her job, like I don't think all these people are like, oh my god,

I hate my line and they all hate their jobs. Uh. And she says she always craves like buttery mashed potatoes and cheese and crackers and things. And she goes to the dentist four times a year because we're a job. Uh. There's a guy Peter Nixon. Um. If you think got Peter, and then your food tasting group could use some fixing so bad. Uh. He works at Morrison's. Um, and his this is his day, he says, And this is all quote. Uh. At eight in the morning, I have around five different

cooked meats. Half hour later I taste uh from fifteen different Kichha's. Nine thirty in the morning is pie hour. I taste ten different pies. Then I vomit all of our chicken pies, all of our steak pies, plus all of the fruit pies. And that is my day every day. Uh. Then at ten on the dot, I have a bacon buddy bu t t y. I don't even know what that is. Might be some product they sell, it's a misprint maybe, And then he says he actually does eat a proper lunch and dinner um when he gets home,

just to keep his life sort of normal. But he points out that, especially in the case of pies, you have to take a bit from each part of the pie. Yeah, so he said, you gotta taste the lid, the pastry, the filling, and the meat content and the gravy. Are always experimenting with gravies. Have I talked to you about pork pies? Uh? And how much I love them? Yeah? Yeah? From the from the trip to England? Yeah, okay, is that your new obsession? Oh? Yeah, where do you buy

him here? I don't know. Oh you haven't found him. Oh, I'm sure you can get pork pies in Atlantic I hope so. Uh. And then finally they talked to this guy who's a noodle taster and he is the founder of his own Cabudo Noodles. Have you heard of those? I haven't had him. But it's supposedly like a um sort of a finer version of you know, cup of noodles or ramen. Yeah, No, I haven't had it. Yeah, they're supposed to be pretty good. Have you you ever had

tofu noodles? Mmm? I don't think the noodles like five calories, very low carb um. They're they're in their noodles and they're made from tofu um, and they are really great. They're great substitute for pasta. I do like tofu. People love the substitute though. Is spaghetti squashed? Yeah, this is gonna. This is you. Once they're cooked, you have no idea that they're tofu. Yeah. They taste and appear just like

um cooked past um. This dude started his own company, and he said that when they were getting going, he tasted he said, easily over two hundred noodle types. And when they tasted their own company, he said, it's not the kind of thing where he tasted a little bit and spit it out, Like they require that you eat the whole pot, he said, because it's different, the whole

five gallon pot. Yeah, he said, as different, like as you work your way through it being a noodle in a soup, don't just like take a little broth up top. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, and that's that's actually a huge distinction for that company then, because for the most for the most part, like you said, you are going to take a small bite, but you might take different small bites, are different components all across

the lid, little filling, little gravy, little meat. And then with each of those bites, right, So for the lid, they'll say, how rate the butteriness, right, spit it out, Take another by the lid, how's the flakiness? Spit it out, Take another by the lid? Uh is it sweet? And then you do that. So what kind of a bunch of different kinds, a bunch of different times, just for the lid, And they say, okay, spit it out. Let's start over again, and let's see if you give it

the same marks this time through. And that's just for the lid. That's not just for the meat content. It's like for all the different parts. You have to rate them and then do it again and again. This job is horrible. I don't care what anybody says. Well, I can see very easily how you would grow to loathe whatever you're eating, Like that guy probably never eats another French fry again in his life. And what kind of life is that? I can't remember if he said he

does or not. It probably took a while. At the very least he's says I feel like at the end he's he like he'll eat fries. Yeah, but yeah he got mouth source and he said some people develop dental problems that they quit. Yeah, well, the ice cream land he goes four times a year like me, Um, did you know I have to go four times a year now because my stupid teeth. Does the insurance cover those are just the two I should say, does Obamacare cover them? Uh?

Because two should be free? Yeah, I have to pay more than your average Joe for my toothcare. And that's not including the uh, you know, the obvious extra work I've got going on? Is that why you've been stealing from the office lately and stealing from the swear jar? But I've been adding most of that. It all evens out two more weeks new tooth. Um. So if you're a professional, they there are some things that you need to do too, to keep your mouth and just all

your senses kind of sharp. Um. One of the main things they say do is to not be a smoker, although I was surprised to learn that that's not just an absolute requirement. Yeah, me too. I thought like, once they found out you're a smoker, they'd tell you to get out. I'm sure it varies, I bet you there

are plenty of companies that don't allow you to smoke. Yeah, But I was also wondering, like with every disc everything that disqualified you, couldn't you also make the case that that makes you like a niche taster, Like surely there's a bunch of smokers out there. They're gonna eat this turkey pot pie, and they want to make sure that smokers love it too, So maybe it's gonna uh like

this these high end like smoke smoker food tasters. I'm just I'm trying to picture that as a marketing tool, like you know, the turkey pot pie for the for the rotten mouth, you'll love it, uh and all all thes in that group. But can you see them? They all look like Chris Cooper or someth something like that in in adaptation. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, boy, that was a great role for him, um he or not he um.

In the research, I was surprised to learn that you could smoke, like I was saying, because one of the things pointed out that they will demand that you not smoke within thirty minutes of tasting, which just seems like if you're a heavy smoker, that's torture. Yeah. Like, well I just had like five camel menthols half hour ago. Oh well you're good, You're good to have a seat. Yeah you're not. So that does surprise me. Um, what else? What? Like?

What else are you not supposed to do? Just like keeping like you know, if you have food allergies, then you're probably not destined for a career unless you're part of a niche food allergy food testing group, a gluten gluten person. Yeah. And I was researching, Yeah, I was researching, um uh, food tasting or food tasters just across Google and and um. I found that there are not one,

but two portable food testing devices that detect gluten. Oh really, There's the NEMA and the six Sensor Labs Gluten portable gluten detectors. So this is if clearly, if you have celiac, Yeah, you would have one of these, put some food and not trust your restaurant that you're eating in, right, screw the lid on and I think chack it up one of them, like gives you a smiley face if it's all good or it's like the smiles like you're gonna get messed up in a second. And the other one

just has a toilet with a line through it. But yeah, wow, that's weird, Yeah, I thought, But I mean it's handy if you have like a severe gluten allergy. Well, Emily is off the gluten and she is not celiac, but she has found a lot of just positive digestive results by avoiding gluten. But she did dabble in it in Europe and it did not affect her. Which there are some who say, like, you know, if you go non gluten, you can't go back. No, there's some who say that

the wheat over there is different in that. Yeah, so I don't know if it's true or not, but we gotta do one on milk because there are two definitely distinct types of milk available in the US, and a lot of people think that that's why so many people in America have um milk allergies. Yeah, because of the milk that we're drinking. Interesting, Yeah, we got some milk. What we're trying to do now is she's reading a book called Pharmacology, and so we're very much trying to

buy not just organic, but and not just local. You're gonna milk your own goats, organic, local, seasonal food. Basically part of the whole slow food thing, trying to eat things that aren't shipped all over the country. Were frozen ever, h uh. And so we've been going to the local farmers market, only getting what they have to offer. And we got this milk from a grass fed Atlanta dairy whole milk. It is the sweetest, creamiest, most delicious. It

tastes like dessert almost. It's so delicious. I'll bet that would make frosted flakes really pop. Oh my god, it's so good. And we bought it for our daughter, but I drank like half of it. And then the farm fresh eggs, Like, it's all just noticeably better. It's all good.

They ain't cheap, though, yeah, I can imagine. But putting money in a farm, putting cash in a farmer's hand and them handing you eggs is like a great feeling, you know, you feel like you're participating in how things should work, and not like, well, this came off the truck and only half or broke, so let's put him in the grocery store until they rot and then we'll throw them away. All right, that was a little soapbox moment for you. Um, after shaving cologne no good, perfumes

no good. You gotta put your drunk are up forever. Yeah, because it all goes back to the smell and taste thing. They don't want your your car tainting that. The roles and then how much can you make charles? You know, always these are always very dubious numbers when I see articles like you can earn between thirty and a hundred thousand dollars here depending on your negotiation skills. Yeah, I

mean it's that's what it says. But yeah, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not have a food taster category, but they do have a food scientist category, and even that's pretty pretty Uh, there's a pretty wide spectrum between the two. I think the mean annual wage for food scientists and technologists is sixty three, with some professionals learning more than a hundred thousand. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right, take exactly. You might also end up I should say

pet food taster. Oh yeah, um, people eat the thing. People eat pet food, and the reason why is because the the theory goes that if a human finds it disgusting, there's a pretty good chance your pet's gonna find it disgusting or awful or bad or tasteless. So humans eat pet food as part of taste testing. Yeah. I thought that was an interesting section because I thought it was a joke at first, But they first point out that there's way more testing of the product than actual taste tasting, right,

But that's part of it. But it is part of it, and um, smell was a big part of it, and it made perfect sense to me, Like, not only are animals enticed by smell, but as a human, you don't want to open that can of cat food and gag because it's so strongly smells of like salmon guts or whatever is in it. So um, it has to be it has to be palatable to the human in a smell sense, you know. Yeah, um, like our dogfood is a little stinky because it's like all natural, like real

meat stuff, but um from that local farmer. Yeah, oh man, I wish get some local dog food. But there is some, Oh I guarantee there is some. What are the kind of food tasters are there? There's the one that most people think of when they think of food taster, which is the one that is basically testing food out to make sure that the king or these days the president isn't being poisoned. Yeah. I saw a website, um that

was making fun of Obama. King Obama is what they called them, because you know, he had someone taste his food and blah blah blah, and they didn't they failed to mention that every president has people who taste their food, at least since Reagan. Yeah, when they go out from the White House, it's a very common thing. Secret Service doesn't give details on that because their secret service, um, but they take great measures when outside the White House

to make sure the president's food to safe. Um. And Putin took a lot of heat in two thousand and twelve, So apparently it comes up every once in a while and everybody makes fun of whoever it is that the

food taster. But it's actually it's actually a very very old tradition that dates back at least to the Egyptians, where there were people of great import would have somebody eat their food first, which is stupid, it turns out, because there are almost no poisons available to humankind that kill so quickly that a food taster would be affected by it before the person, the president or the king or whoever. Eighty cyanide is the quick killer, and even

that takes like an hour, right, it says minutes. But the cyanide, strychnine, atropine, trioxide, other things arsenic, things that people have generally used in history to poison people like you said, not like King Henry the eighth said, well, I'll wait a day before I get that turkey leg right, being kind of nasty, but I gotta feed my gout, so bring it on. And this this person who wrote this article, Ashley Lutheran, said that she thinks of it more like a placebo. It just made him feel better

about tasting um. I ran across an article one of Hitler's fifteen young girls who tasted his food during World War Two. He had fifteen young girls tasting food. Yeah, and she was the only one who survived because she was the only one who left the wolf slayer before the Russians rolled in and killed all the rest of them. That seems like weirdly fetishest he had young girls eat she was food and spit in his mouth that's kind of fetishes. Yeah, like they didn't do that. I'm just joking.

But just bring me fifteen young girls to taste my food. It seems weird. And uh, well there was a lot about Hitler that was weird, to say the least. Um, but that was definitely part of it. Was, Um, he had fifteen young girls tastes food. Um, let's take a break, man, and then we're going to tell you everybody when we get back as maybe even you could consider it a p s A. Yeah, we could do that for tax reasons. How you at home can develop your own palate alright, chuck.

So if you want to go about creating a more sophisticated palette for yourself, not even just to become a food taste, no, but just to enjoy life more. And and we should say it does seem like a bad idea to teach Americans how to appreciate food more. We've got a pretty big food problem as it is. It turns out that if you follow some of these steps,

you will probably end up eating less. As a matter of fact, Um became at savoring your food exactly, which requires things like going slow, slowing down, and thinking about the food that you're eating. Right. Yeah, that's uh, well let's just start there. Uh if you think, I mean, it's a process, the way the chemicals fire in your brain from your taste buds, like we've talked about smell and taste. Um, it seems immediate, but there's a process

going on. And if you're just shoveling, if you're drinking that gallon or ramen down like it's gatorade on a hot day, you're not savoring all the subtleties of that broth. No you're not. But if you can slow down. Um. Some of the recommendations are eat with chopsticks, use your non dominant hand. Yeah, shooting thirty to fifty times per bite is really tough. That's ridiculous. Um. Turning off the

TV or your computer or putting your phone up, that's ridiculous. Um. Making the meal last twenty minutes, Yeah, that we should like maybe taking breaks if you need to, if things are going too fast. I try to eat a little slower when I think about it, sitting down while you eat, it's a big first step. Right there, Do you stand and eat? I mean it depends on the meal and how busy I am. Occasionally I'll stand at my kitchen island. Yeah,

I like it. You like it, and that like as a everyday practice, but it's not by accident that I'm standing like, I'm kind of enjoy it. Okay, So you want to not do that so you can savor the food. And when you're savoring this stuff, you you're when you're when you're savoring it, you're eating more slowly. And by eating more slowly, you're probably going to be paying a

lot more attention as well. And surprisingly I didn't realize this, but this this article says that, um, your digestive process has become thirty to less effective when you're tuned out, when you're not paying attention. You're like watching TV or something like that, you're not paying attention to your food. That's interesting. So training yourself could actually help you become healthier because you may get more nutrients out of your

food because you're breaking it down better. Yeah. Plus, don't they say that like a lot of over eating is eating too fast because you just power through that point where you're really full, but you just don't know it yet, right yeah, Yeah, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh yeah, I can't move ye. Yeah. If you are paying attention, you're also feeling when you're starting to get full and you say okay, bail, bail, and that stuff expands and all of a sudden you're fully full, but

you're not overly full. You just feel good. Do you ever hit that sweet spot when you're eating and the food is literally making you high, You're getting a body high from it. You're just getting off on the food. Oh, that happens to me every once in a while with you with very fresh food, where um, I'm eating just the right amount, like I'll feel high, not like out of it, like I ate too much, but like invigorated. And you can actually train yourself to do this very

simply too. Rather than just take and slow, you can pay attention and just start out. This article suggests by um, taking a slice of apple and removing all um distractions and all that and eating the slice of apple and like just closing your eyes and paying attention to every aspect of it. It's very interesting. Yeah, it's it's all just basically training yourself to pay more attention that um. One thing I had never considered was medicine and prescription drugs,

especially UH in clinical studies. They've identified more than two hundred and fifty UH scripts that will alter your taste sensation and um, you might not even see it listed on the on the side effects, but you might not even realize it. But um, your your taste buds have been dulled, especially if you're older elderly, take a lot more pills and um, a lot of times they have a harder time tasting and for other reasons as well, but a lot of it could be due to medication.

Umer say that Simpsons where Marge is cooking pork chops and everybody's complimenting it, and she's like, thank you. You might say the extra ingredient is salt. I think it's the least that goes vegetarian one. But um, that's a really good point. There's it's probably an extreme, but there's a lot of people out there who are in ruts uh and who are an adventurous And I feel so bad for people who aren't willing to to point to a food and say that looks weird, I've never had

that before, let me try it. Instead they say that looks weird you I'll never touch that, because they're missing out on a whole world of stuff, not just with that particular dish, but maybe the spices in it that go with other dishes that lead you to other dishes. Or I've never tried this nation's cuisine. I don't. I don't eat any food it smells funny. Yeah, it's like, oh, the missing out on so much? Yeah, said, of course there are certain I don't get super adventurous with certain

animals and stuff, but that's a different deal because of cruelty. Yeah, just you know, I might not want to eat shortbreads, and I don't think I'm like missing out on something you're not. Uh. I think personal taste comes into play as well. Have you said you've never had shortbreads? Uh? No, like they're they're they're sweetbreads. I'm sorry, Yeah, what's the same shortbread? Yeah? Shortbread is disgusting, you know, fruitcake, sweetbreads, sweetbreads,

some of the brainful and brains and organ meats. I'm just not a big fan of And I tried them enough to know I don't need to try them more. Boom, there you go. You tried them. That's the many I have not because I don't need to What you're saying, you've had enough tripe to know you don't want stomach. Yeah, I had a tripe taco once, did you. Yeah, yeah, that's a thing. Although I think that I've got a great that's a great example. I tried tongue before, and

I'm like, holy cow, I really like tongue. I tried cheeks before. Tongue freaked me out. And well, it depends on how could you tell it was tongue. You're not supposed to be able to tell its tongue had that texture. Oh yeah, it's no, it's supposed to be much more chopped up than that. Like you don't want the X here, you want the stuff that's inside. No, it was. I just I think you had poorly prepared tongue. No, this

is good stuff. Well, I've never had it where you could tell it was tongue, you know what I mean. But I tried it, and I'm like, holy cow, tongues great. Same with cheeks great. Um. They're like probably the tastiest part of any animal. And you know where I learned that, Hannibal Elector your own personal taste, Well, I first heard about eating cheeks from Hannibal Elector. Yeah, but as far as it being the best part of the animal, right,

that's your personal taste. No, no, it's it's objectively true, Like we should make that clear. But the point is here is that had you never tried tongue, you wouldn't know you didn't like it, and you just kind of be uh breff for not having tried it. I'd be super breff for not having tried it because I do like it. But we're adventurous and that's the point. Go be adventurous with your food. And if Indian food is the threshold of your adventurous oh, I don't understand how

you can eat what you want to eat. Everyone doesn't have to be like you. No, no, no, no, no, that's fine. Like, if you don't want to be adventurous, I agree with that. I feel bad for you if you're not adventurous of food. Yeah, I don't think you should take pity on someone for liking what they like. No, no, I don't and knowing what they don't want to try. But I think a lot of people think I think a lot of people who don't want to try something. If you if you look at their diets, they're probably

pretty limited, you know what I mean. It's not expansive and then just this off like, oh, fal and try. I'm not big one, but that's okay too. Whatever. Sure, I'm not going to come to your house and make you eat anything, but I do feel bad for you because I think you're missing out and some really great sensory pleasure. I think the people that aren't like that will say, you know what, don't feel bad for me because I'm great, and I'll say t s for you.

I feel bad for you, and there's something you can do about it. Uh. I'm just always very conscious about putting my stuff on other people and saying like, I can't believe you're missing out. I'm not. I'm not doing that. I'm saying I pity them, that's all. And I'm not like a foodie either, like I hate food. He's I think food he's are annoying. It's not at all what I'm saying. I'm just saying from personal experience, when I've been adventurous nine times out of tenants paid off. Well,

that works for you, that's great. Uh. Cleansing the palate is a big deal, especially if you're a taster. Um you've got to neutralize it. And they say lemon way edge and orange segment can do that, which explains why they give you orange segments at the end of the Chinese meal. Sometimes never understood it. I thought it was just like supposed to be a sweet treat. But I

guess it's the cleansing before your dessert or whatever. And that also explains sorbet too, because it's usually like a citrusy Yeah, it's usually citrusy, So I guess that's why I always knew it was ford cleansing the palette. I just never understood how it did it or they say. And I hate the word tepid, especially with water. Do you but like moist tepid water? Just I don't know. I like cold water, but tepid water. They say it can be a good palate cleanser as well. And you

mentioned salt earlier. Uh, I'm a big advocate for saltea um, but the proper amount, of course. Yeah, And it's salt I've found you can use not just as a seasoning but almost like mechanically, Like I have this great new secret for guacamole, Like guacamole is probably the greatest squad comole anyone's ever created. Do you make it in a mocohete. Yeah sometimes, Um, but the first step I found I recently figured this out. Cut the onion and um, put it in the bowl or the mocahette and salt it.

Salt the onion and let it sit there and the salt starts to like masserate or I guess break down because I don't know if mess rates specifically of sugar and vinegar, but it breaks down the the structure of the onion and really lets those end times out so you can really taste the onion. It's a great first step. And then do the same thing with the tomatoes and let the tomatoes and onions sit there salted for a little while, and before you move on and make the

rest of the guacamole. Dude, it's like a brand new day. I make a good guawk. It's very popular in the household. And you know, it's a great substitute for tortilla chips, radishes for for guacamole. It's a great sub you know, like my tortia chips. I'm a traditionalist. Yeah, um, I mean I can dip anything in guacamole and like it. Yeah, you know, give me a thumb, give me a cauliflower floret and I'll dip that in there. What do you say, a dirty thumb? Uh? A farty honeycomb? Has this episode

totally gone off the rails? Or is this good stuff? It's totally gone off the rails? It has it started debate? It's just like, what do you mean? I mean, should we just go back and edit it out? No, that's up to you. Why is it up to me? Because you were the one taking the hard line, so I stand by it. Well, great, then leave it? Uh So anyway, salt is the the the right amount, Like an under seasoned meal, UM with no salt is not good. You want salt, sad And if you don't use a lot

of salt at home. And you wonder why restaurant food always tastes better, it's because they're salting their food correctly. But too much salt is no good. And if you use too much, you need even more and then it's a problem. Yeah, it's it's better, I think, not to cook with a lot of salt, but to um, start to add it a little bit at the end, like when you're making like a stew or something like that, because it's easy to over salt it and then you're

totally screwed. Um. And then I've never figured out why this is true. But there's finishing salt, which is basically just salt, but applied like right before the meal is served. So if you take a steak and you just sprinkle this a little bit of salt on it before you serve, it does something magical that goes way beyond just adding salt to a steak. Should And I don't understand what it is. It's delicious, yeah, but I mean there's something to it for sure. I'm from the South, so I

eat too much salt. Yeah, salt and butter have a good taste for it. Um, I'll just get a salt like like a horse I haven't mounted on my guting room wall. Well, speaking of eating too much salt, apparently the average human needs something like fIF teen hundred milligrams a day, and Americans eat between two thousand and eight

thousand a day, which is nuts um. And this article points out that quitting salt for a week and quitting sugar for a week and just saying I'm not gonna eat anything with this this stuff for just like just

a week, it might seem like a lot. By Wednesday, but just make it to the rest of the week and you will basically re calibrated your palate and all of a sudden, um, like junk food tastes cloying, but you can really appreciate the like more subtle sweetness of some stuff from more subtle saltiness of other stuff, and like you really appreciate salt rather than bombarding your tastes with you know, too much salar, too much sugar. Um.

It's it's definitely an exercise worth doing well. And all that package garbage food that we talk about is just loaded with sodium and sugar, you know, like even a can of soup. Look at like sodium content on just a can of soup. It's true, terrible sad. Do you get anything else? No, man, It's always good to quit something that you're addicted to for a week, just to make sure you can do it. Yeah, I agree, unless it's good deeds, unless it's tongue or cheeks. Just eat

that anytime you can. Okay, I'm ready. I liked your good deeds thing those good. Now you should quit that for a week to treat people poor, like see how it goes, dream smashers, Uh, if you want to know more about food tasting. Type those words in the search part how stuff works dot Com. Since I said search parts, time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Butte detail. Ah. This is from Chelsea and Butte, Montana. And we've talked a lot about evil. Can evil be in from Butte? Uh?

He said? Really stood out to me how frequently you guys commented on evil growing up in the rough Butte community and how it affected his personal presentation. Here are a few things it might help you understand all this. Number one, nobody calls it Butte, Montana. It's called Butte America. What how about that? Beaute? Number two. Butaute was a huge mining town that saw tremendous growth, wealth and decline,

and still very much tied to its mining past. Number three, Montana's political campaign contribution laws were in large part passed in response to the copper kings and the wealth resulting from the copper mining operations. Also, the Montana Capitol building had electricity for many parts of the country. Fun fact. Number four, Beaute has an incredible history tied very closely to the history of unionization. Number five. Finally, Butte had and still has a very Irish population. You don't go

there for St. Patty's Day unless you're there at a party. Hard. Yeah, I didn't know that America. Yeahn't that weird? Um? So, in short, beaute history is very much still tied to its current identity. It's still a very scrappy place. But that being said, some of the best of us loyal people I knew, I know, grew up in beauty. I hope this shop clarify as all evil became who he was. Please keep making podcasts forever so we never run out of content to binge while it works. That is, Chelsea,

Thanks Chelsea. There was an awesome email Chelsea from Beauty America Planet Earth. Why do they hate Montana? H Maybe it's just its own own thing, I guess. Yeah. Well, if you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You can hang with me at Josh Underscore UM Underscore Clark. You can hang out with Chuck on Facebook at Charles W. Chuck Bryant, or you can hang out with both of us that um Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know, right,

that's right? Send us an email the Stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot Com and has always joined us at our home on the web. Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it, How stuff works dot Com