Okay, here's a mind-bending theory. To keep your brain super active, taste wine. That's right. According to an article in Food & Wine, wine stimulates more of your brain than any other activity. Not sure how they measured 'any other activity', but hey, I can subscribe to that theory. After all, it's proposed by a Yale neuroscientist. He must know what he's talking about. We'll just have to attempt to prove or disprove it. Very scientific.
It's all based on the principle that there is no such thing as taste, just like there is no such thing as color. We see color by how light reflected from a surface is perceived by our eyes. Gordon Shepherd argues that flavor is the same. Our taste buds perceive an experience that our brain has to interpret.
That would explain a lot. In a wine tasting several years ago with a client, the team discovered that all the women liked a certain wine and all the men chose a different wine. We found that quite curious. We talked about it and reached the conclusion that there was one wine that was a crossover - a wine that both liked enough, but not as a favorite. That taught me a lot, mainly not to depend on others' opinions.
When a nerve was cut to the left side of my mouth during a dental procedure, I lost sensation on half my tongue. That would have surely affected my taste ability. Quite a bit of the sensation has returned over the years but I'm still quite deficient I'd say. Does that mean I can't enjoy wine? Absolutely not. My brain is just working over timing interpreting the experience.
So what am I doing growing grapes to make wine? Hey, I'm just doing my part to stimulate brain activity while listening to Springsteen and writing this blog post. According to the article, it's as close as I'll ever get to being Einstein.
No comments:
Post a Comment