Ever take a bite of dinner and think it needs a little salt? While that little bit of salt or sugar can make something taste way better, it’s not doing your body any good. Nimesha Ranasinghe, a Ph.D. student from the University of Maine, has created a healthy solution – utensils that “shock” you into liking the taste of your food more.
How? The cutlery delivers little shocks to your taste buds, which trick you into thinking the food is saltier or spicier. “By applying electric salt to mashed potato, the overall flavor is enhanced,” explains Ranasinghe. He says that he’s still working on a solution for sugar, as sweetness is a little trickier to tackle.
Ranasinghe hopes he can develop the technology to someday let people control how anything they’re eating tastes, but it’s not quite there, yet. “It’s like TV in the 1950s,” he says. If perfected, his creation could be a big help to those struggling to lose weight or kick sugar, not to mention preventing health problems like diabetes.
Source: IEEE Spectrum