You might think that he reason there is so much chunky stuff in Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream is because they want to give more to the consumer. That would be at least partially correct, but it wouldn’t be the whole truth. The disorder known as anosmia is what happens when a person somehow loses their sense of smell. There’s not a lot known about the condition other than it takes away the sense of smell completely, and can even take away a person’s ability to taste anything. This secondary condition however can be partial or complete, which is harsh any way you cut it. The reason behind Ben and Jerry’s having so many chunky bits however is that Ben, one of the founders of the company, has anosmia. It’s not known if he can taste or not, but the fact that he has to rely so heavily on texture could mean that he’s not able to smell at all.
In the case that a person loses their smell, even losing their sense of taste in a partial sense could diminish what they could actually taste in regards to spices and flavorings. It could take a person with partial sense of taste nearly an entire bottle of salad dressing to even get a small bit of the taste that others would get in a couple of teaspoons. Texture is important because it allows such individuals to actually enjoy their food and understand that they are eating something with a bit of variety. You might notice that a lot of ice cream brands are either smooth or don’t have nearly the amount of chunky bits as Ben and Jerry’s. This is due to Ben’s desire to have more texture in the ice cream due to his anosmia. For most other people it’s an added bonus that makes the ice cream that much better, but for those that suffer from this disorder it gives their palette something more to deal with than the otherwise bland food that they couldn’t hope to fully enjoy.
Some people might be under the illusion that if you lose one sense that the others will be heightened, and perhaps that if two senses are lost or diminished then the others will compensate in the same manner. That’s not the case however. When you lose a sense, be it sight, hearing, taste, smell, or even touch, it would take a serious amount of effort to train your other senses to be more acute than they’d ever been before. It takes more than just losing a sense to gain something extra. We’re not all bound to be Daredevil’s if we start losing one of our senses. But losing the sense of smell and taste seems almost unbearably tragic.
Imagine not being able to smell the crisp morning air in the fall, or taste the delectable sweetness of a spoon of well-made ice cream. That to me would be a true shame and a loss I could do without. But then, most of us wouldn’t want to lose any of our senses.
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