system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When we take a first bite, and we perceive taste, what is happening between the tastebuds and the brain in order for me to experience that perception? Beyond that, what am I actually tasting - the food item itself, or my brain's reaction to that food item?
gpt
Imagine you have a computer with a sensor. You stick something in the sensor and the computer chemically analyzes it, then tries to tell you what it is based on that analysis. 

That's pretty much all your tastebuds are doing; detecting the chemical composition of your food and telling your brain. The "good" or "bad" labels are evolutionary adaptations to help us distinguish between food that's safe to eat and food that isn't.