M S G Is a Poisonous Mummy Taste

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Garry beecham is the former director of the monel chemical senses centre. He's interested in how each taste helped our ancestors answer the question, what should i put in my mouth? Garry says all knowledge must come through the senses. All that we cal see and all wo be awareness of our daly existence. Light, job o, rainbow, sensana, touch, sqet, odors eal and tastes bat what are your thoughts concerning the human senses? As meat and wine, a nourishment to the body? Bo, the senses provine utment to the soul.

For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (aka the Umami Mama), scientists finally accepted a fifth. As part of its Making Sense series, Vox’s Unexplainable podcast explores whether there could be even more.

This episode was reported and produced by Meradith Hoddinott and edited by Katherine Wells, Noam Hassenfeld, Brian Resnick with help from Mandy Nyugen and Byrd Pinkerton. Music by Noam. Cristian Ayala handled the mixing and sound design. Research and fact checking by Richard Sima. Tori Dominguez is our audio fellow.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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