Did you know? Salt can hide bitter flavors. Prove it to yourself with our quinine cover-up activity. The heat of chili peppers is actually not a flavor, but a response of pain receptors on the tongue. Learn more about chili in our dinner fix-its quiz. As we age, we lose taste buds, and our sensitivity to food decreases. Food tastes blander to older people, so spice it up for them! The average person has 5000 taste buds. Chickens have about 24, and catfish have almost 300,000, some on the outside of their bodies.