Miso soup without salt? How to eat tasty food without going overboard with salt. For this purpose, a team of Japanese scientists from Meiji University has developed electric chopsticks that enhance the flavors of food using electrical stimulation and a wrist device.
Artificial flavor technologies
Most of the foods we eat are loaded with salt. However, thanks to this invention, we could continue to enjoy salty flavors while reducing our intake.
The innovative high-tech chopsticks have been jointly developed by Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita and beverage maker Kirin Holdings Co. Thus, the chopsticks use electrical currents to enhance flavors, in the hope that they can be used to help reduce sodium levels in certain foods.
How exactly do they work?
Through a small laptop that is attached to the user’s wrist and connects to the chopsticks via a cable (for now, there is no wireless device ). Then, a weak electrical current transmits sodium ions to the mouth to recreate salty flavors, which can intensify the salty taste of food by up to 1.5 times.
These artificial flavor technologies, such as in the case of toothpicks, can be used both to improve the sense of taste, which declines as people age, and to refine the diets of people in countries where salt intake is too high. . Japan is precisely one of those countries, since the average adult takes an average of 10 grams of salt per day (double that recommended by the WHO).
The team has stated that it will be refining the existing prototype, so they expect the chopsticks to be available to consumers next year, in 2023.
And aren’t they dangerous?
According to its developers, the electricity shared by the device is very weak , so it would not be enough to affect or harm the human body.
“The chopsticks use very weak electricity, not enough to affect the human body, to adjust the function of ions such as sodium chloride and sodium glutamate to change the perception of taste by making the food appear to taste stronger or weaker ,” the Kirin company explained in a press release.
This is not the first time that Professor Miyashita and his lab have explored curious ways of embracing technology in human sensory experiences. In the past, he developed a lickable TV screen that could mimic various flavors of food. Its name, Taste the TV (TTTV). Do you want to lick the screen and make it taste like pizza or ice cream? It is still an experimental technology , but its objective is to develop a commercial version that does not cost more than 875 dollars (about 800 euros).
What does the WHO say
The World Health Organization advises reducing daily salt intake to a maximum of 7.5 grams for men and 6.5 grams for women. Excessive sodium intake is linked to a higher incidence of high blood pressure, stroke, and other ailments.
Reference: WHO / Kirin Holdings Co. / Meiji University (Japan)
