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So what's the deal with airline food anyway?
I mean, it's bad, it's bland, and a lot of the times they still make you pay extra for it
But it's not necessary the airlines fault that the food doesn't taste good
Turns out it's actually your fault
Well, to be more specific, it's your taste buds' fault
See how your taste buds perceive flavour of food is influenced by few major factors
including humidity, air pressure, your sense of smell, and weirdly enough, your hearing
and when you're flying in an airplane, all of these factors change by quite a bit
Comfortable humidity levels for humans are in the forty to seventy percent range
but airline cabins are pretty dry, the humidy can drop down to 20 percent or even lower
that's dryer than some deserts
and of course the air pressure on an airplane is much lower than when you're standing on the ground
the cabins are pressurized otherwise you'd have a very hard time breathing
but the pressure during a typical plane ride is about the same as standing on top of a about twenty five hundred meter mountain
this combination of dryness and low pressure usually leads to xerostomia
less formally known as cotton mouth
a dry mouth has less saliva in it, which can lower your taste buds' sensitivity by about thirty percent
making it harder to taste anything, especially sweet and salty foods
and it's not just your mouth that dries out, your nose does too, making it harder to sniff out odors
and smell can be a huge component of flavor
so not being able to taste much is hard enough
but when you add in the impact on being able to smell your food in an airplane, well it's hard out there for an airline chef
finally, and also kind of strangely, sounds can have a lot to do with taste
some studies have found that people who eat in noisy envoirenments rate their food as less salty and less sweet than people who eat in complete silence
scientists aren't completely sure how noise changes the way things taste,
but it might have something to do with the nerve called the chorda tympani reacts to certain sounds
it runs from the taste buds from the front of your tongue, to your middle ear
so a constantly humming jet engine, not to mention crying babies, chatty neighbors, and rattling drink carts
might also make plane food taste more bland
however, not all flavors get effected in the same way
sure sweet and salty foods don't pop as much in the sky,
but researchers have found that other flavors taste basically the same
and in some cases, even stronger than they do on solid ground
tomato juice, for example, is an in flight favorite
lots of people who aren't a fan of the red stuff on the ground,
describing it as earthy and musty, have no problem ordering it in the air, where they say it tastes cooler, and fruitier
that's lead scientists to believe that in noisy environments, the umami, or savory taste, is actually enhanced
tomato´s are rich in umami, so that´s why tomato juice, and bloody marys, might taste better to you in the air, than on the ground
so the next time you're offered one of those food trays, it might be worth asking for a nice fresh glass of tomato juice
to help you wash it down
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