We use our tongues every day to talk, taste, and swallow, yet we rarely take time to think about this fascinating and flexible organ. Here are 7 things you may not know about your tongue:
1. The longest recorded tongue was over 3.8 inches from back to tip.
2. The human tongue is made up of 8 separate muscles.
3. A blue whale tongue weighs around 5,400 pounds and is about the size of an adult elephant!
4. Tongues come in many shapes and have varying numbers of taste buds. This makes a human tongue imprint as unique as a fingerprint.
5. The average person has about 10,000 taste buds in their mouth.
6. A single taste bud contains between 50 and 100 taste cells, which may have sensors for multiple tastes.
7. Using a tongue scraper to clean your tongue is proven to help prevent osteoporosis, pneumonia, heart attacks, premature births, diabetes, and male infertility.
