There Is One Crazy Fact About Skittles Flavors You Never Knew And It Will Change Everything

Food

There Is One Crazy Fact About Skittles Flavors You Never Knew And It Will Change Everything

Lately, the internet has placed a lot of focus on Skittles, and with each passing day, we learn something we've never known about the multi-colored candy.

A few months ago, the public was made aware of the fact that Skittles are an important part of the diets of cows in the U.S. Not only is the candy cheaper than cow feed, but it also has some interesting benefits, according to the owner of United Livestock Commodities, Joseph Watson.

Apparently Skittles have "a higher ration of fat [than] actually feeding them straight corn," Watson explained.

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Now, the internet is once again abuzz after a study made a startling revelation about the fruity candy.

You know how Skittles come in five different colors, including red, yellow, green, orange and purple? Well, it turns out that they all taste the same.

Yes, that's right. You can insist all you want but the red doesn't taste like strawberry, the yellow isn't lemon, and the purple is not grape-flavored.

So how come we thought each color had its own unique taste?

There's a scientific explanation for why so many people can taste the flavors associated with each of the candy's colors.

According to Brandeis University neuropsychologist Don Katz, we can blame our senses for playing tricks on us when we eat foods like Skittles. The fruity small and colorful appearance of the candy tricks us into believing we're tasting flavors that aren't actually there.

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The company that manufactures Skittles is aware of this phenomenon, so they took advantage of it.

"The Skittles people, being much smarter than most of us, recognized that it is cheaper to make things smell and look different than it is to make them actually taste different," explained Katz. "So, Skittles have different fragrances and different colors "” but they all taste exactly the same."

Dr. Adam Cunliffe, nutritional Scientist and associate lecturer at the London South Bank University, also weighed in on the matter in an interview with Cosmopolitan UK.

"When we eat something, what we think is taste and our tongue doing the job... in fact the tongue is quite a crude organ, which does sweet, salt, sour, bitter and unami. The nose is a much more complex organ, it can distinguish between about around 100,000 different volatiles "“ things in the air that you can smell," he explained.

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He added, "So when you eat a piece of cake or something, you bite it and you swallow it, and you think that tastes of chocolate or caramel, part of that information is coming from your tongue, but probably more is coming from your nose. All that information goes back into your brain that we call the flavor center and it integrates what you've seen, what you've smelt, what you've tasted, but also what you remember."

Mind = blown!

We're off to find a bag of Skittles so we can do a taste test, and see if we can still taste the flavors now that we know the truth.

Did you also think each Skittle had its own flavor? Let us know in the comments!

Blair isn't a bestselling author, but she has a knack for beautiful prose. When she isn't writing for Shared, she enjoys listening to podcasts.