# Do kids like umami? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444 "2010-03-05T17:52:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/21 "2010-03-05T23:37:10Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Bitter and sour have no direct linkage with anything nutritive, and I think this simple absence of benefit is enough to explain taste preferences. Of course then you would have to explain why we can detect “bitter” and “sour” in the first place. I think the evolution of bitter taste buds is almost certainly linked to poisons; alkaloids are generally bitter-tasting and are among the most common poisons ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/22 "2010-03-06T01:16:34Z")
> [@Fang](#): > > Of course then you would have to explain why we can detect “bitter” and “sour” in the first place. I think the evolution of bitter taste buds is almost certainly linked to poisons; alkaloids are generally bitter-tasting and are among the most common poisons You should really look at my entire post in context. I didn’t say that bitter and sour tastes aren’t linked to poisons. I said that bitter and sour tastes aren’t linked to nutritionally dense foods. And I said that this reason alone could explain why children have different food preferences than adults. A kid who grew up with a craving for nothing but celery and collard greens would not die of poisoning, but he wouldn’t be as smart, fast, tall or strong as peers who preferred carbs and meat. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/23 "2010-03-06T07:17:59Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > What is the chemical nature of bitterness, anyway? Sweet is sugar, salty is salt, sour is acid, umami is glutamate; what makes something bitter? Wikipedia mentions some bitter compounds but it doesn’t make it clear what the defining feature is. Alkalis or bases is what I’ve heard. IOW the opposite of sour (acids). ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/24 "2010-03-07T00:45:01Z")
Umami? Can you explain the question to SDopers less familiar with the term? It sounds like the Japanese work for sea urchin! (Or, is that umi? …I forget) ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/25 "2010-03-07T01:16:24Z")
See posts #13, 14, 17, 19, as well as the SDope column linked to in #19 and the Wikipedia page linked to in #16. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/26 "2010-03-07T01:35:58Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Alkalis or bases is what I’ve heard. IOW the opposite of sour (acids). It must be more than just that. If it was purely about ph, then the “bitterest substance in the world” would be a strong base that would cause alkali burns. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/27 "2010-03-07T01:41:56Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Umami? Can you explain the question to SDopers less familiar with the term? It sounds like the Japanese work for sea urchin! (Or, is that umi? …I forget) Not to be confused with “unagi” a state of total awareness of your surroundings. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/28 "2010-03-07T01:52:25Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Bitter and sour have no direct linkage with anything nutritive, and I think this simple absence of benefit is enough to explain taste preferences. Sour certainly does have a direct link with human dietary requirements: vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. Our liking for sour things (especially in combination with sweet) may be connected to our need for vitamin C, often found in fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/29 "2010-03-07T17:45:45Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Umami? Can you explain the question to SDopers less familiar with the term? It sounds like the Japanese work for sea urchin! (Or, is that umi? …I forget) Sea urchin = uni. Umi = sea/beach. Yeah, a bit confusing, since sea urchin tastes like biting into an ocean wave IMO. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/30 "2010-03-07T21:21:52Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > Not to be confused with “unagi” a state of total awareness of your surroundings. I don’t know that meaning, but in the context of eating, unagi is eel. Edited: I suspect I may have been whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/31 "2010-03-07T21:58:33Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > I don’t know that meaning, but in the context of eating, unagi is eel. > > Edited: I suspect I may have been whooshed? Maybe, but smoked eel is possibly the yummiest food in existence. It’s also fairly endangered over here, which is a damn shame. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/32 "2010-03-07T22:30:09Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > Maybe, but smoked eel is possibly the yummiest food in existence. It’s also fairly endangered over here, which is a damn shame. I’m not surprised. The teriyaki sauce must be easy for predators to scent. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/33 "2010-03-07T22:45:18Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > I don’t know that meaning, but in the context of eating, unagi is eel. > > Edited: I suspect I may have been whooshed? It’s a reference to an episode of Friends. > **["Friends" The One with Unagi (TV Episode 2000) ⭐ 8.9 | Comedy, Romance](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583570/)** > > 22m | TV-PG ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/34 "2010-03-07T23:09:00Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I’m not surprised. The teriyaki sauce must be easy for predators to scent. I’m in the Netherlands. Teriyaki sauce is uncommon on fish here. We eat our smoked eel with horse radish & sour cream on toast (or just plain on crackers). ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/35 "2010-03-08T00:07:35Z")
I think it is a little…I don’t know, maybe just wrong…to say “kids like…” or “kids dislike…” anything at all. I know that their little taste buds are different from an adult’s making their tastes a bit different (I have heard some speculation that young taste buds detect more bitter than grown up taste buds which is why many kids are disinclined to enjoy their veggies) but as noted above kids also have distinct preferences that are not the same as other kids’. In my neck of the woods (which changes location) kids are thought to only like bland, boring “kid food” like chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, french fries, hot dogs etc. so that’s what parents feed them and they end up with kids that like only chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, french fires etc. My kids (and many like them all over the world) were fed whatever we (the adults) were eating so we learned that one of them loved artichokes while another hated them, one enjoys spicy (the hotter the better) foods and has since he was a toddler while another hates “spicy hot” but loves garlic-y. They all seemed to like sweets, sour, some bitter, umami and every other category we threw at them…they didn’t like everything within that category but they didn’t reject anything outright based only on that either. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/36 "2010-03-08T06:55:31Z")
Really, do we have to resort to using a loan word here? C’mon guys, “Savory” was good enough for our (English-speaking) ancestors, do we have to fall into the mis-conception that Japan invented a new taste? (As some Japanese commentators have said). All that happened is that someone in Japan proposed that savory (umami) was also one of the basic tastes, and was distinct from the other 5 that had already been categorized (in the west). [You fat, lazy, westerners!] 😛 Turned out they were correct (probably), but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Anyway, it’s “savory” or “savoury”. ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/37 "2010-03-08T07:18:29Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > … > Anyway, it’s “savory” or “savoury”. I think I agree with you, but my understanding of “umami” is that it is a bit different than savory (and not a new invention of taste, but perhaps a new description). I will admit that my information is mostly from _Top Chef_ on the subject so it is likely to be way off-base. 🙂 But I have heard umami described as “earthy” not like meaty or savory (as it seems to be here) so mushrooms would be “umami” but a steak wouldn’t. In fact that was my first experience with the word…the _Top Chef_ challenge involved using “umami” so the cheftestants used mushrooms and then interviewed that, “duh…mushrooms are the only ingredient that fit the description of umami”. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444/38 "2010-03-08T07:32:01Z")
> [@MitzeKatze](#): > > I think I agree with you, but my understanding of “umami” is that it is a bit different than savory (and not a new invention of taste, but perhaps a new description). I will admit that my information is mostly from _Top Chef_ on the subject so it is likely to be way off-base. 🙂 But I have heard umami described as “earthy” not like meaty or savory (as it seems to be here) so mushrooms would be “umami” but a steak wouldn’t. In fact that was my first experience with the word…the _Top Chef_ challenge involved using “umami” so the cheftestants used mushrooms and then interviewed that, “duh…mushrooms are the only ingredient that fit the description of umami”. The (Japanese) commentators are shifting the definition all the time to make sure that it’s ‘something you, as a foreigner, won’t understand’. The very first of the bunch of chefs did in fact use descriptors like ‘meaty’ etc.; to describe it. But maybe they don’t do it so much anymore? Wait and see, the more you use the word “umami” in English, the more they will change the definition to make sure you don’t know what the hell they are talking about. Eventually it will be a taste that is only found in Japanese foods, grown in Japan. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-like-umami/531444.md?page=1)