When you think of Primers what comes to mind? Some may think of a web primer or html primer while others may drift back in time and remember the original New England Primer. Two researchers, at Monell Chemical Senses Center and Florida State University, felt the calling of the primer paradox, the need to write a primer, and wrote the taste primer.

In recent years, new insights into how taste functions and the identification of numerous receptors for sweet, bitter, and savory have advanced the understanding of taste perception. The need for this primer was paramount as Paul A.S. Breslin, PhD, observes “For all mammals, the collective influence of taste over a lifetime has a huge impact on pleasure, health, well being, and disease. Taste’s importance to our daily lives is self-evident in its metaphors – for example: the ‘sweetness’ of welcoming a newborn child, the ‘bitterness’ of defeat, the ‘souring’ of a relationship, and describing a truly good human as the ‘salt’ of the earth.” Up next for the researchers is a self help book, “Your Taste and You!” Available in 2009.