Your Taste Buds Are Replaced Every 2 Weeks

You have around 10,000 taste buds, most living on tiny bumps called papillae. Each bud contains 50 to 100 receptor cells that detect sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Unlike most nerve cells, they are incredibly short-lived. Every 10 to 14 days, basal stem cells at the base of each bud divide and create fresh replacements, pushing old cells out. That is why a burnt tongue recovers so quickly, and why taste can fade during illness, chemotherapy, or after smoking — the renewal cycle is disrupted. Your sense of taste is therefore never more than a fortnight old. The tongue you taste with today did not exist two weeks ago.