Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tag Archives: five senses

A Sense of Taste: Nurture or Nature?

by Michelle Sutton-Kerchner In striving for a healthy lifestyle, much concern is rightly dedicated to nutrition. Wouldn’t it be simple if we craved healthy food? Why can’t Brussels sprouts be our weakness? For some, maybe they are … By understanding your preference for certain tastes, it might be easier to eat better. Taste is the most personal of our senses. With other senses, we see the same image, hear the same sound, feel the same texture, smell the same scent. Although, these outcomes may please one person and not another. (Hence, one person’s jamming guitar is another’s headache.) However, we never can be totally certain how one person perceives a specific flavor. Whether it is too sweet, spicy, or salty is, well, in the taste buds of the beholder. And, how do we know for sure a cookie tastes the same for everyone? Perhaps it is liked or disliked because it actually tastes different to different eaters. Acquired Tastes Research has long investigated the origin of taste preferences. It is another debate of nurture versus nature. A recent study published in the journal Obesity indicated genes are a significant factor in a child’s tendency to avoid new foods, called food neophobia. …

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