--- title: "These Chopsticks Make Your Food Taste Better By Electrocuting Your Tongue" description: "Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, inventor extraordinaire, is ready to move on from working on TVs that allow you to taste what you’re watching — and has developed a set of special electric chopsticks that can enhance the taste of food. The chopsticks, a collaboration between beverages company Kirin Holdings and the Miyashita Laboratory, are […]" date: "2022-04-20" modified: "2022-04-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/electric-chopsticks-taste" categories: - "Food" - "Future Society" tags: - "Japan" - "taste" - "the digest" --- # These Chopsticks Make Your Food Taste Better By Electrocuting Your Tongue ![]() *\Image: Kirin Holdings\* ## Electric Chopsticks Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, inventor extraordinaire, is expanding beyond [TVs that allow you to taste what you're watching]() — and has developed a set of special electric chopsticks that he says can enhance the taste of food. The chopsticks, a collaboration between beverage company Kirin Holdings and the Miyashita Laboratory, are aimed at people who follow a low-sodium diet, in an effort to give them an enhanced perception of saltiness. According to a [press release](), it's the first ever demonstration of "salty taste enhancement via electrical stimulation." Too much salt in the diet has been linked to a variety of lifestyle-related diseases, including hypertension and kidney disease. "This technology may prove helpful for people trying to, or need to maintain a low-sodium diet," the statement reads. And that's pretty relevant in Japan. According [to *Reuters*](), the country's traditional diet skews towards salty flavors, with the average Japanese adult consuming roughly 10 grams of salt a day, twice the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. ## Sodium Podium The chopsticks, which feature a wire connected to a wrist-mounted power source, apparently work surprisingly well. In experiments, Miyashita and his team found that the weakly electrified chopsticks were able to increase the perception of saltiness by a factor of 1.5 in a number of test subjects between the ages of 40 and 65. The chopsticks could prove to be a game changer for those trying to keep their sodium intake low. "To prevent these diseases, we need to reduce the amount of salt we take," Kirin researcher Ai Sato told *Reuters*. The stakes — or steaks if you will — are real. "If we try to avoid taking less salt in a conventional way, we would need to endure the pain of cutting our favorite food from our diet, or endure eating bland food," Sato added. **READ MORE:** [Japan researchers develop electric chopsticks to enhance salty taste]() \[*Reuters*\] **More on taste:** *[Scientist Invents Screen That Creates Flavors When You Lick It]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()