While there are four tastes on the tongue that are well known (sweet, salty, sour and bitter), there is a fifth taste known as umami. Umami is sometimes called the savory taste, and it is one reason we like beer, Caesar salads, shrimp and lobster. It is driven in part by glutamate, which is why monosodium glutamate (MSG) is commonly added to foods. But recent work shows that umami foods have a major thing in common, and that is to raise uric acid levels.
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