Dr Oz: Are Your Taste Buds Making You Fat?
On today’s show, Dr Oz had audience member, Regina, put on the purple gloves. (You know what that means—bring out the body organ!) Underneath the blue cloth, Doctor Oz revealed a tongue. Dr Oz asked Regina if she liked spicy food and she told him yes, she loved spicy foods. In fact, she put hot sauce on everything from chili to potato chips. (I’ve had that, it’s not that bad!)
The papillae, or the bumps on your tongue, are the taste buds that come in various sizes. 
Dr Oz had Regina squeeze the tongue to feel them. Dr Oz then showed the side view of the tongue. (It looked much bigger from the side view.) Dr Oz explained that if you had a few taste buds, you need a lot of food to satiate them. If you had a ton of taste buds, you didn’t eat as much. (Then I must have only 4!)
Dr Oz Taste Buds
To demonstrate how this worked, Dr Oz and Regina played Oz Inko, which is a play on the game, Plinko. Dr Oz had 2 giant tongues on the stage. The first tongue contained a lot of taste buds. The second tongue contained only a few taste buds.
Regina dropped a chip, labeled fatty foods, down the first tongue. It took awhile to go through. She then dropped the same chip down the second tongue. Because it had so few taste buds, it went straight through. This demonstrated when food goes straight through, you need more and more to keep it satisfied. (Following this?)
Dr Oz: Taste Bud Test
Take the taste bud test: Each audience member had a pinch of pepper. After tasting, they were asked to rate their sensitivity to the taste on a scale of 1-3, with 3 being supersensitive. If you are a 1, you barely taste anything at all. In order to eat less to help you maintain your weight, Doctor Oz suggested keeping your tongue as sensitive as possible.
Trick Your Taste Buds
Swap it:
Replace bad fats with good and non-fat alternatives.
Applesauce for oil
Avocado for mayonnaise
Spice it:
Add spices to diminish need to taste more fats
Cinnamon & ginger
Jan Ashley says
Just watched this show on day time tv in New Zealand. Definitely going to try out the suggestions offered. I thought my lack of taste was an “old age” thing – hopefully not.
Thanks Dr Oz – love your show – cheers – Jan