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Smell, Flavor, Heat, and Pain

Someone told me that there are no taste buds for heat.  That the sensation of heat is actually pain receptors.  Read somewhere that taste depends on smell a great deal.  So I fell on my face today and broke my face.  My nose swelled up so much I couldnt breathe threw it.  I now think what people told me and what I have read is right.

Had some beans n chopped up veggie dogs.  Used a sample someone sent me of a smoked habanero powder.  I tasted nothing.  Not the smoke, not the pepper not the beans, not the sauce, nothing.  But it did light up my mouth a bit.
 
Yikes... hope you get better/feel better!
 
I can't help but think... either I'm extremely perceptive, or you must be a true rarity, the single unicorn among human beings if it took a broken face/swollen nose to know that smell and taste are inextricably connected. Have you never had a cold/stopped up nose and noticed you couldn’t or could barely taste things as much? Surely at some point in your life, you’ve pinched your nose while eating something and realized you could mostly turn on/off your taste abilities. What about as a child (or anytime really…) when you might have needed to down something that was unpleasant (like a medicine) and you held your nose so as to not taste it?  :think:
 
No… never…? 
 
I will now try later when I eat some peppers to see if I still feel the heat once I stop my nose up - never done that but I imagine I will. Should be fun to experiment at least.
 
Try and be more careful!  :cool:
 
Alchymystic,

Its the division of flavor and heat, not if you can taste while your nose is plugged ( I can not ) that I just observed.  Yes I have eaten very spicy food while my nose was stuffed up, typically it clears my nose instantly.  Evidently, when swelled shut not so much.

But pinch my nose shut while eating peppers?  Nope.  Does it get rid of hiccups ???
 
 
Whoa get better soon man! Yup if you can't smell you can't really taste, not googling the science but I believe it has to do with oxygenation/aeration, and is a similar reason in Asia they slurp their soup. Also you know the glass called a snifter? Yup, designed for the nose.
 
Capsaicin binds to the nerve receptors that experience heat to produce the sensation of spiciness.  It isn't a taste strictly speaking, it would give a whole other dimension to burning ring of fire if it relied on taste buds down there to experience it.  :hell:  :rofl:
 
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