1. Bartoshuk who first suggested: Linda M. Bartoshuk, Valerie B. Duffy, and Inglis J. Miller, “PTC/PROP Tasting: Anatomy, Psychophysics, and Sex Effects,” Physiology & Behavior 56 (1994): 1165–1171.
2. lose those extraneous tastes: Alexander A. Bachmanov et al., “Genetics of Taste Receptors,” Current Pharmaceutical Design 20 (2014): 2669–2683.
3. vampire bats: Wei Hong and Huabin Zhao, “Vampire Bats Exhibit Evolutionary Reduction of Bitter Taste Receptor Genes Common to Other Bats,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2014), doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1079.
4. 104 diverse bitter-tasting chemicals: Wolfgang Meyerhof et al., “The Molecular Receptive Ranges of Human TAS2R Bitter Taste Receptors,” Chemical Senses 35 (2010): 157–170.
5. published a letter: Robert Ho Man Kwok, “Chinese-Restaurant Syndrome,” New England Journal of Medicine 278 (1968): 796.
6. picked up the story: For a good treatment of the history of Chinese restaurant syndrome, see Ian Mosby, “‘That Won-Ton Soup Headache’: The Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, MSG and the Making of American Food, 1968–1980,” Social History of Medicine (2009): 133–151, doi:10.1093/shm/hkn098.
7. fifty-eight million pounds: Ibid., 7.
8. most damning evidence: L. Tarasoff and M. F. Kelly, “Monosodium L-Glutamate: A Double-Blind Study and Review,” Food and Chemical Toxicology 31 (1993): 1019–1035.
9. when researchers looked back: Ibid.
10. discovered by accident: Anonymous, “The Inventor of Saccharine,” Scientific American, July 17, 1886, 36.
11. Cyclamate: Deborah Jean Warner, Sweet Stuff: An American History of Sweeteners from Sugar to Sucralose (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), 195, accessed via Google Books, March 29, 2016.
12. Aspartame: Robert H. Mazur, “Discovery of Aspartame,” in Lewis D. Stegink and L. J. Filer, Jr., eds., Aspartame: Physiology and Biochemistry (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1984), 4.
13. Sucralose: Burkhard Bilger, “The Search for Sweet,” The New Yorker, May 22, 2006, 40.
14. Pepsi is about 11 percent: Daniel Engber, “The Quest for a Natural Sugar Substitute,” New York Times Magazine, January 1, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/the-quest-for-a-natural-sugar-substitute.html.
15. its own distinctive timing: Paul A. S. Breslin and Alan C. Spector, “Mammalian Taste Perception,” Current Biology 18 (2008): R153.
16. ten seconds later: Engber, “Quest for a Natural Sugar.”
17. four seconds longer: Ibid.
18. 9 grams of salt daily: S. L. Drake and M. A. Drake, “Comparison of Salty Taste and Time Intensity of Sea and Land Salts from around the World,” Journal of Sensory Studies 26 (2010): 25.
19. from processed foods: Marjorie Ellin Doyle and Kathleen A. Glass, “Sodium Reduction and Its Effect on Food Safety, Food Quality, and Human Health,” Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 9 (2010): 44–56.
20. high blood pressure: Ibid., 45.
21. they taste saltier: Tassyana Vieira Marques Freire et al., “Salting Potency and Time-Intensity Profile of Microparticulated Sodium Chloride in Shoestring Potatoes,” Journal of Sensory Studies 30 (2015): 1–9.
22. bitter-tasting medicines: Adam A. Clark, Stephen B. Liggett, and Steven D. Munger, “Extraoral Bitter Taste Receptors as Mediators of Off-Target Drug Effects,” FASEB Journal 26 (2012): 4827–4831.
23. more sinus infections: Robert J. Lee and Noam A. Cohen, “The Emerging Role of the Bitter Taste Receptor T2R38 in Upper Respiratory Infection and Chronic Rhinosinusitis,” American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy 27 (2013): 283–286.
24. receptors on our taste buds: Robin M. Tucker, Richard D. Mattes, and Cordelia A. Running, “Mechanisms and Effects of ‘Fat Taste’ in Humans,” BioFactors 40 (2014): 313–326.
25. a distinct taste: Cordelia A. Running, Bruce A. Craig, and Richard D. Mattes, “Oleogustus: The Unique Taste of Fat,” Chemical Senses 40 (2015), 507–516.
26 oleogustus: Ibid.
27. a taste for calcium: Michael G. Tordoff et al., “T1R3: A Human Calcium Taste Receptor,” Scientific Reports 2 (2012): 496, doi:10.1038/srep00496.
28. for carbon dioxide: Jayaram Chandrashekar et al., “The Taste of Carbonation,” Science 326 (2009): 443–445.
29. a taste for starch: Breslin and Spector, “Mammalian Taste Perception,” R149.
30. calcium-sensing receptor: Motonaka Kuroda and Naohiro Miyamura, “Mechanism of the Perception of ‘Kokumi‘ Substances and the Sensory Characteristics of the ‘Kokumi‘ Peptide, Gamma-Glu-Val-Gly,” Flavour 4 (2015): 11, doi:10.1186/2044-7248-4-11.
31. interact with one another: Russell S. J. Keast and Paul A. S. Breslin, “An Overview of Binary Taste-Taste Interactions,” Food Quality and Preference 14 (2002): 117.
32. ability to taste PROP: Bernd Bufe et al., “The Molecular Basis of Individual Differences in Phenylthiocarbamide and Propylthiouracil Bitterness Perception,” Current Biology 15 (2005): 322–327.
33. That’s probably why: Bartoshuk, Duffy, and Miller, “PTC/PROP Tasting.”
34. support that hunch: For example, John E. Hayes and Valerie B. Duffy, “Revisiting Sugar-Fat Mixtures: Sweetness and Creaminess Vary with Phenotypic Markers of Oral Sensation,” Chemical Senses 32 (2007): 225–236.
35. fail to find a link: For example, Mary E. Fischer et al., “Factors Related to Fungiform Papillae Density: The Beaver Dam Offspring Study,” Chemical Senses 38 (2013): 669–677; Nicole L. Garneau et al., “Crowdsourcing Taste Research: Genetic and Phenotypic Predictors of Bitter Taste Perception as a Model,” Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 8 (2014): 33, doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00033.
36. gustin might be involved: Melania Melis et al., “The Gustin (CA6) Gene Polymorphism, rs2274333 (A/G) as a Mechanistic Link between PROP Tasting and Fungiform Taste Papilla Density and Maintenance,” PLoS One 8 (2013): e74151, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074151.
37. affects sweet perception: Alexey A. Fushan et al., “Allelic Polymorphism within the TAS1R3 Promoter Is Associated with Human Taste Sensitivity to Sucrose,” Current Biology 19 (2009): 1288–1293.
38. two kinds of supertasters: Natalia V. Ullrich et al., “PROP Taster Status and Self-Perceived Food Adventurousness Influence Food Preferences,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 104 (2004): 543–549.