Supertasters vs. Non Tasters- The Biting Difference between Bold and Bland

In a restaurant with a vibrant dessert menu, a waitress was required to serve desserts to three different diners. Afterwards she decided to gather their feedback. The first diner made a face, claiming that her dessert was far too sweet, rendering her incapable of finishing the entire portion. On asking the second diner, he replied that his dessert was just fine, nothing too special but nothing off balance about it either. Finally, the third diner looked up placidly, unimpressed and said that his dessert was not sweet enough and tasted bland to him. The waitress returned to her station, astounded upon hearing their three responses. They had all, oddly enough, eaten the same dessert. A brownie sundae.

Now the question arises, how can three individuals perceive the very same sundae so differently? The answer lies on the tip of your tongue! In the above hypothetical situation, the three existing types of tasters have been illustrated, namely supertasters, normal tasters and non tasters.

Supertasters

Supertasters as the name suggests have a heightened sense of gustation, being able to experience greater intensity than an average taster.

If you happen to be a supertaster you can enjoy sweets in an escalated form of their creamy glory but you must also be prepared to face the enhanced bitter wrath of dark chocolate. Call it a boon or a bane; supertasters must learn to take the rough with the smooth. Non tasters on the other hand always strive for more intensity since it takes more to get the flavour out of food.

Imagine various tastes in your mouth corresponding to a broad spectrum of colours. Each taste is a masterful blend of flavours just as secondary hues can be created with the help of primary colours. According to physiological psychologist, Linda Bartoshuk, supertasters are said to live in a ‘neon’ taste world while others live in a ‘pastel’ world.

Supertasters are more likely to avoid certain foods like green vegetables, sweets, caffeinated substances, carbonated drinks, fatty foods and certain alcoholic beverages. They also avoid smoking cigarettes. However, supertasters still like salt because it plays a key role in not only saltiness but helps cancel out bitterness in certain items like cheese. This is like a welcome repressor to the super tasting tongue.

Since supertasters skimp on eating bitter vegetables, they are deprived of flavinoids and isothiocyanates which are essential cancer prevention agents. Hence their risk for colon cancer is considerably raised. The amount of food they can find palatable is limited due to their strong aversion to sweet or bitter tastes leading, ultimately, to picky eating.

Non Tasters

Non tasters have a dulled sense of taste, unable to experience intensity of any sort.

Non tasters require more spice, more fat and more sugar. Since average flavour is not enough for non tasters, they have a predisposition to eat extremely sugar loaded sweets and high fatty foods thus rocketing their risk for heart disease. They also have a tendency to put on weight leading to obesity.

 

My father was a non taster and would always sprinkle his pizza with a thick coat of chilli flakes till we couldn’t see the cheese any longer. I, as an average taster, found it unbearably hot while my father ate the pizza slice like it was perfectly fine.  This is just one example that I can cite.

Other health issues faced by non tasters are dental caries (due to excessive sugar consumption), goiter and congenital arthritic cretinism. By being less sensitive to bitterness, they do not have an aversion to cigarettes. Hence non tasters are at a greater risk for nicotine addiction and can become chain smokers.

So who wins in the end, supertasters or non tasters?

In truth, it’s neither. For once it pays to be just average.

Indians and their Cricket

I am saddened to hear that the parasitic nature of corruption has leaked its way into sports especially cricket; the passion of every Indian possessing a unique uniting power within itself and a religion avidly followed. Cricket is in our blood, hence the apt phrase bleed blue and this makes the IPL scam hit fans hard. Disappointing as it was, the message such a debacle sends is detrimental to sportsmanship and disgraces the integrity of the game.

Sometimes it escapes my mind that hockey, not cricket, is our national sport. Unfortunately with the spotlight on cricket and its overwhelming expenditure, other sports tend to be skated over. Athletes having the ability to win gold medals are not funded as well as cricket players and this is why we dominate in the world of cricket but lag behind in the Olympics.

However in love we are with this sport we cannot deny that the amount of money being poured into it is staggering and shameful, to be honest. The poor are devoid of basic amenities and our country’s multinational corporations and national companies are spending on cricket instead of putting such funds to better use. But after all, cricket is a cash opportunity that many would invest in.

I honestly don’t see any change in the future since cricket plays such a fanatical role in our lives. Sadly to say I don’t think other sports and athletics will ever have as much attention as cricket does.

However we cannot deny that feeling of pride and strong nationalism when watching a match, especially a nail-biting India-Pakistan match. Families gather together and for the span of the game, a sense of unity is spread. I suppose we have cricket to thank for that.

India’s Education-Highs and Lows

If I were asked about the most important part of a nation, my answer would be education.

When I attended the Lead India 2020 initiative programme in Hyderabad where A.P.J Abdul Kalam addressed the students from various schools, I could see what he envisioned. I fully agree that the future of our nation is in the hands of the younger generations and education is the concrete upon which we can develop our country.

The 11^th plan lays more emphasis on education with almost one fifth of the budget allocated to it. In the coming years this percentage can increase seeing as India is doing its level best to invest in intellect.

Before discussing the positive curve, education in India has its share of voids and cracks.

• Indian universities, unfortunately, are found in the heart of cut throat politics, a position they should not be in.
• India is the second largest producer of engineers per annum in the world. This accomplishment may seem staggering but the underlying explanation takes away its shine. For example, in the state of Andhra Pradesh the number of engineering colleges far exceeds the number of applicants writing the engineering entrance exam (EAMCET). This example clearly shows the boom in the engineering sector in India. However, unfortunately importance is given to quantity not quality. In years to come I can easily see India on a fast track to the number one spot in engineer production, the situation barely changing.
• IITs are slightly malnourished in terms of innovation since the inception of educational institutes such as Narayana and Sri Chaitanya where scores are more important than originality or innovative thinking. I have briefly attended such institutes and can speak from personal experience.

These flaws have the potential ability to corrode the educational system in the future and are difficult to eradicate but will most definitely be nullified by the educational advancements yet to be made like:

• Private schools surged in the 1990’s to relieve the pressure faced by the public schools in catering to educational demand. It has been seen that performance in private schools is beyond that of public schools. Now, private schools are not necessarily meant for the well endowed. A brilliant concept of branded chains of $2 schools have been launched called Sparks School in a Box which are owned and operated by entrepreneurs. They serve the dual purpose of providing quality and low cost education to the poorer sections of society and furthering the shift of students to private schools. If successful, then such schools can be established across the country and provide a step forward for the less privileged in the next decade.
• On June 25^th, 2013 at the India- US Higher Education Dialogue the two countries agreed to further strengthen their cooperation for higher education. It has been said that India will embark on a venture to start community colleges in the near future, borrowing the concept from the US’ experience with such colleges. This is a significant step forward and also is beneficial in terms of international relations.
• Since 2009 it has been in the talks to set up foreign universities in India and slowly it is possible that foreign universities can take a baby step by establishing partnerships with existing Indian institutions. Once this has been done, foreign institutes can then prepare to set up their own branch campuses. This endeavour can open the gate to true international schooling right here in the country, saving students the trip abroad.

Oakridge International School- India’s No. 1 International School

It has been observed that many students study abroad but if India can continue to progress, this trend can visibly decline in the coming decade. Once our educational standards improve this will automatically have a positive effect on our Human Development Index (HDI) which can help transform India from a newly industrialised country (NIC) into a developed nation. I sincerely believe Indian education has a great deal of potential.

The Book Thief Review

It’s quite funny how I came to possess my copy of The Book Thief. You see, I was gazing longingly at it in my favourite book shop but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money on me to buy it. A few days later, by some odd miracle, my friend gave me that very book saying someone on a British Airways flight had left it behind and her aunt who works for the airline had given it to her and she in turn gave it to me.

All in all, it ended up in my hands… so thank you kind stranger and good friend.

Much like how I received my copy, The Book Thief tells the tale of Liesel Meminger,  a young girl in the throes of Nazi Germany who finds reconciliation in the form of books she happens across or happens to steal.  A dangerous habit to culminate in the country of book burnings, Liesel keeps her interest in books a secret. Yet it is a secret she cannot keep by herself.

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”- Death

 

An omniscient narrator in the form of Death oversees the story of how the nine-year-old’s mother gave her up to live with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching. Shortly after, Hans discovers a book she’d kept for herself called the Gravedigger’s Handbook and he teaches her to read it. And so the secret was kept by two.

While starting her love affair with the written word, Liesel befriends a boy named Rudy Steiner, who always cheekily asks her for a kiss. Rudy provides a comic streak to the narrative with his obsession to be like Jesse Owens and it’s no wonder Death was particularly amused by this little boy to the point where it hurt him in the end.

“He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.” – Death, talking about Rudy.

With books and some street football, it seems like Liesel is finally settled into her new life, only to be shaken up again when a Jew named Max Vandenburg, son of Hans’ deceased friend comes to stay in hiding in the Hubermann’s basement, threatening every souls safety below that roof. This is where the story really takes off. It touches upon hard times, sickness, snow and most of all, love and friendship.

Author Markus Zusak executes this style of writing with beautifully crafted sentences, reading like poetry.

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”

What makes the book unique is that although it is set in the time of Hitler’s regime, the story gives little overt importance to this fact. Also, for once, it does not take a Jewish German’s point of view, rather the other Germans who were also adversely affected, people who are often overlooked when portraying the Holocaust.

Overall, Zusak’s  critically acclaimed masterpiece has been well-recieved by critics and USA Today even went so far as to say, “The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank“. However much I like The Book Thief, this statement adds insult to injury to Anne Frank’s account of her experience in hiding. Although The Book Thief is artistically written, sometimes the gravity of the Holocaust and its times is lost and perhaps portrayed rather mildly.

If you wish to read a realistic account of the Holocaust, The Book Thief is not your cup of tea but if you wish to read a refreshing and ficitonal perspective  of this period of history, then please go ahead and get a copy (however you can).

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 The Book Thief Movie

“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”

As always, the book is indisputable when compared to the motion picture adaptation  but having said that, the film does the book justice and the cast is impeccable in their portrayal of these heart-felt characters. Go ahead and watch it once you’ve finished reading the book!