# How come you can't taste things when you don't breathe through your nose?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-cant-taste-things-when-you-dont-breathe-through-your-nose/259110>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 9, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-cant-taste-things-when-you-dont-breathe-through-your-nose/259110 "2004-08-09T23:10:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bummerboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bummerboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bummerboy)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-cant-taste-things-when-you-dont-breathe-through-your-nose/259110/1 "2004-08-09T23:10:06Z")

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How does breathing have anything to do with tasting. Does smelling activate our taste buds or something?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-you-cant-taste-things-when-you-dont-breathe-through-your-nose/259110/2 "2004-08-09T23:17:35Z")

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Nope. It is because much of what we think of as a food’s “taste” is actually it’s smell. Smell is the major component of most flavor. The taste buds on the tongue are only capable of detecting sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness (and _maybe_ “meatiness”) and combinations thereof. The nose can detect hundreds of distinct smells.