A matter of taste? How come that some people like a certain kind of food, while some other can't eat it? And I don't mean to compare a, say, Chinese and a Swede -- I guess cultural habits have a lot to do with what some is used to eat and what they prefer and like. How come that you like a certain kind of food, while your brother/sister/mother/father (=people who are used to eating the same kinds of food like you -- that is, if the family is mainly eating home-cooked food) ... doesn't and vice versa? I can imagine that since one can be alergic to certain kinds of food, there may be a chemical/physiological predisposition to disliking a certain kind of food. Where does the individual personal taste and liking come from? Why prefer blueberry yoghurt over strawberry yoghurt? Why prefer yellow grapefruit over red grapefruit?
I would guess that there's an evolutionary species-survival factor in play here. Notice that the examples that sprang to mind are from the "gathering" vector of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. If everybody's favorite leaf, nut, fruit, or mushroom were the same one, the gatherers would get into a quarrel over who got to keep the most gooseberries, and that would make their gathering expedition inefficient. The extreme end of the spectrum of food preferences are foods you think taste so bad that you can't bring yourself to eat them. A people who all had the same sense of taste so their favorite foods were the same would probably all have the same food that makes them gag. There'd be entire species of fruits that nobody wanted, and the tribe would suffer from a diminished food supply. Diversity in taste preference makes gathering both more efficient and more bountiful.
i like chinese food Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! it has to do with how many of which receptors you have and where they are. children don't like vegetables because they have a ton of bitter tasters which die as they get older. but you also have a permanent set which determines your preferences for life. i love the hell out of sour foods. i also really dig hot. my pain receptors are tuned in to respond favorably to it.
So this means that individual taste is determined genetically? This makes sense, esp. in the context of diversity inside of the species being an important factor in the survival of the species. Interestingly, animals have "whimsical" taste too. A cat may like a certain kind of food, another cat (living in the same household with the same choice of food) won't go near it. What I am wondering is this: Can preference in taste change? Can it be that at some point, you suddenly begin to like, say, olives, but you could never eat them before? I realize that a large part may be played by psychological factors -- like when you reject a certain kind of food because it reminds you of something unpleasant.
Yum, yum! Did you ever wonder why your favorite foods taste so good? Well, you can thank your taste buds for letting you appreciate the saltiness of pretzels and the sweetness of ice cream. But don't forget your nose! Believe it or not, your nose also plays a major part in sensing the actual flavors of the foods you love. Taste buds are sensory organs that are found mostly on your tongue and allow you to experience tastes that are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Recently, scientists found a new kind of taste bud that responds to the taste of MSG, a chemical food additive. They call this flavor umami (say: oo-mom-ee). How exactly do your taste buds work? Well, stick out your tongue and look in the mirror. See all those bumps? Those are called papillae (say: pah-pill-ee), and they contain taste buds. Each taste bud is made up of about 100 receptor, or "taste," cells. The sensation that each taste cell responds to most (salt on a pretzel, for instance) determines the overall taste of a particular food. Taste cells are replaced by the body every two weeks! The average person has about 10,000 taste buds. But as a person ages, some of those taste cells don't get replaced. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds. That's why certain foods may taste stronger to you than they do to adults. People who regularly smoke have fewer taste buds, too. Taste buds are not only found on your tongue, but also on the roof of your mouth, throat, upper part of your esophagus (say: ih-sa-fuh-gus), and even near your vocal cords! But before you give taste buds all the credit for your favorite flavors, it's important to thank your olfactory (say: al-fak-te-ree) receptors, also. Olfactory receptors are located inside the uppermost part of the nose and contain special cells that help you sense odors. They connect directly to the brain. Here's how it works: when you eat, chemicals are released from the food in your mouth while you are chewing and immediately travel up into your nose. These chemicals will then trigger the olfactory receptors inside the nose as odors. They work together with your taste buds to create the true flavor of that yummy slice of pizza by telling the brain all about it! When you have a cold or bad allergies, and your nose is stopped up, you might notice that your food doesn't seem to have much flavor. That's because the upper part of your nose is too stuffy to receive the chemicals which trigger the olfactory receptors (that inform the brain and create the sensation of flavor). Try holding your nose the next time you eat that first bite of your dessert. You'll notice that your taste buds are able to tell your brain that the ice cream, fruit, or pudding you're eating tastes sweet - but you won't be able to tell the flavor of that ice cream (whether it's chocolate, strawberry, or pistachio) until you let go of your nose and take that next bite. Then, your olfactory receptors are working to create flavor! So now that you've gotten a taste of what taste buds and olfactory receptors do, the next time you chomp on an apple or lick your lollipop, be sure you thank your tongue - and your nose! Without them, life wouldn't have any flavor. Reviewed by: Kim A. Rutherford, MD Date reviewed: October 2001
Mmmm, I like this thread. Fraggle... and Cos... excellent points. My tastes have changed rosa..., and its funny you use olives as an example because once upon a time I disliked em' but now I love em'. I have no idea why that is but as I've gotten older I began to look at food and think in terms of edible, rather than 'tastes' good. Is this shift caused by changing tastebuds, or is it a perception thing? Who knows, but several experiences suggest taste is precluded by survival and social factors. On a couple occasions I ate foods that I normally wouldn't because I was absolutely starving - raw potato, balogna, sardines to mention only a few. I recall eating those foods and thinking they tasted great, obviously because I was starving. Since then I now eat raw potatos all the time, absolutely love balogna and secretly eat sardine sandwiches. Now really, how many people would agree those foods taste good? Another interesting perspective expands on the point Fraggle... made, the societal/social factor. I spent some time with an Aboriginal Family experiencing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (as close as you can get). Anyhow, there I was elbow to elbow with people, knives in hand, blood covering our face and hands devouring chunks of raw meat from a freshly killed seal. It was delicious, as a matter of fact my mouth is watering right now at the thought of eating raw seal liver. (A funny side note: a tourist came by one day and wanted to try raw seal with us. They pulled out their little pocket knife, cut a 'sliver' of meat from the carcass and hesitantly placed it in their mouth. This person made a funny face to which an Aboriginal woman kneeling next to them noticing their reaction shouted, 'Ohhhh shut up and eat it, I don't find your foods all that appealing or good tasting either.') From my expereinces I'd have to say that taste is determined by a number of factors i.e. social/societal, scientific, survival. A subjective determination of what tastes good is, in my opinion, a luxury afforded to those who have more than they need.
cosmictraveler, Thanks for the hip explanation! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I also read that one cannot tell not even between a lemon and an orange without using the sense of smell. Also, the eyes play an important part: Apparently, food is much less tasteful if you cannot see it before you eat it. Such experiments are hard to do on oneself though, as you are aware that it is an experiment, and that distracts you from observing what you really feel, smell, taste during the experiment.
I had to take a break after reading that about eating raw liver ... Uh. I too used to dislike olives, but now I love the taste. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What tastes good is also a matter of your health condition. When I had a thyroid storm, the only things that tasted good were grapes and tomatoes. Also, your body tells you what you need to eat to get the necessary nutrients. Don't you get sick and feverish?! I too like sardines ... And I like to eat almost all vegetables and fruit raw. I usually can't eat dressed salads -- even cabbage, I eat only sliced and without any add-ons. Sad -- but very true.
yes I would agree that this is one's preference of food is determined mainly by the person's genes, which are passed down from previous generations. this can also depend on the mother's diet during preganacy and the person's diet atomsphere during infancy. these adaptations may cause the brain to response with pleasure when consuming the prefered food, on the other hand, the person's brain, like mine, would respond repulsively when the smell of fish is detected, yuck! possibly because I did not consume a lot of fish when I was young, therefore now my brain rejects the unacceptable presence of fish on the dinner table however, allergic reactions in modern children are mainly caused by excessive antibiotics intake during childhood
well that may be directly related to the fetus and possibly the diet history of the mother is there any specific and more detailed examples?
My mother craved straberry yoguert when she was pregnant with me. I heard on the radio that orange juice helps lower stress. I found this odd because during a particular time in my life that was very stressfull, I craved OJ like crazy. It's insane the amount I drank per day. So my point is, does our body somehow "know" that kind of stuff?
Maybe chemicals or substances will releive stress. I'm hungry after this thread, where are the peaches? (It's peach season, my favourite season)
Yeah, it was some chemical in the juice, but how did my brain know. Some has to know. This is freaking me out!
Yes, it is amazing how our brain knows. But consider this: The sense of smell has greatly deteriorated in humans; a great part of the information we get through our sense of smell we are not aware of. When the body has a lack of a certain substance, it will direct you to the source of this substance in the according food -- but this happens on a level you are not aware of anymore. It could be that this guiding happens via smell -- and this is why we are not aware of it. I sometimes lack sugar. One would think that I would crave chocolate or white sugar or candy. But no -- I go for sour cherry juice. Apparently, this juice has more sugar than other kinds of food momentarily accessible; or the sugar in it is of a kind that absorbs quickly. What seems of crucial importance in this being guided for the proper food is experience: If you go to the store, and ask yourself what you would like to eat -- with foods that are packed, smell doesn't work. And, to my surprise, when I really lack some substance, no matter how nice the packaging is -- it does not affect me.
