Eli5: Do our tastebuds actually “change” as we get older? Who do kids dislike a certain food, then start liking it as an adult?

Question

When I was a kid, I did not like spicy food. Now an adult, I love it.

In: 2025

Answer 1

What I’m not seeing in the comments so far is that most of our “sense of taste” is actually our sense of smell. My partner had a college that had lost their sense of smell as a teenager because of some accident. Food was really boring to them unless it had an unusual texture. Also, when my partner had covid and lost their sense of smell for a month their pallet changed and they started to desired salty and spicy foods as that was all that they could “taste.”