Different vital nutrients have broadly unique tastes. We all require certain amounts of nutrients, such as sugars or salts for example, in our diet. The tastes of these broad characteristics of nutrients are fairly distinct from each other, and this allows us to consume the correct foods when we require a particular nutrient in our diet.
Some substances that can be harmful to us in large amounts have disagreeable tastes, such as acidic foods for example.
Taste is one of our primal senses that may have had a more important role in the past than just tasting food. For example, territorial animals like wolves often 'taste' the scent to other wolves that have been in an area.
