The Umami of Breast Milk
Seaweed is high in umami. In fact, the term umami was coined by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, as he was researching the flavor of the seaweed stock. Photograph from Robyn Lee on Flickr
By now, any food-lover with his or her salt knows about umami, the "fifth flavor" (in addition to sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, and sourness). But I don't know if I've ever seen this bit of info about it. From the Guardian:
Part of the reason why the palate responds so favourably towards glutamate could be our early exposure to it—breast milk has very high levels, 10 times higher than cow's milk. However, as with all good tastes, umami guides our appetites towards foods with optimum nutrition. Just as sweet foods signal that there are sugars in foods, salty tastes indicate the presence of minerals, and sour and bitter tastes keep us away from foods that could potentially poison us, research suggests that umami-rich foods alert us to the presence of proteins.
I suggest you continue getting your umami fix from such dishes as seaweed salads or the others described in the Guardian story.
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