2024-01-26 12:34:51
By Isabelle Roussouly/January 26, 2024/ 13 Views Dear friend, dear friend,
What is your favorite food ? And your favorite dessert? Is it the same as those of your family members?
Where did this taste for this dish or dessert come from?
The reasons can be multiple.
Scientists take the origin of taste very seriously(1).
For them, taste has nothing to do with hedonism, or individual preferences.
In humans, taste would first have been a question of survival.
Thus, the attraction to sugar made it possible to seek out plants rich in glucose.
The latter brings energy. The brain particularly needs it(2,3).
Conversely, if bitterness is disliked it would be because, in nature, bitter plants can contain dangerous toxins (2,3).
Likewise, some food cravings can come from a lack. For example, you may have a “calcium hunger.” Your body demands more of this mineral for your bones(1).
However, the hunter-gatherer who is still a little in you does not decide everything, far from it!
What are the great human tastes?
You probably know them.
Four are very well known and the fifth is less usual (4).
The sweet taste comes from glucose and other sugars like fructose and lactose. It can also come from alcohol or certain vegetable proteins. The sour taste, found in citrus fruits like lemons and oranges, comes from the presence of substances like vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid. The salty taste is linked to the presence of mineral salts, that is to say salt crystals. The bitter taste comes from 35 different proteins. Finally, the “umami” taste is linked to glutamic and aspartic acids found in many proteins. This taste is, in reality, close to the salty taste. It is found in meats, cheeses, ripe tomatoes or asparagus(4).
It is a taste present in cuisines that use glutamate which is a salt of glutamic acid(5).
Natural glutamate, present in foods, is useful for health (5).
It plays a role as a neurotransmitter and would be useful for memory and learning. It also reinforces the feeling of satiety (5).
The role of the taste buds
Your palate is not satisfied, however, with these five tastes.
Your brain also tries to know if foods are fatty, which might be considered a sixth taste(4).
Likewise, the tongue analyzes the more or less alkaline or metallic taste of foods as well as their resemblance to water(4).
Taste buds are located primarily on the front, edges and back of the tongue, which is less sensitive in the middle (4).
The tongue perceives all tastes in a similar way. No taste is particularly advantageous(4).
There are a few more bitter taste sensors on the back of your tongue to help you spit out a food that you think is toxic.
Tastes linked to mother and culture
If genetics has an influence on tastes, it is not the only one(3).
What a mother consumes during pregnancy also has an impact on the child(3).
The latter, for example, will be more inclined to like garlic if his mother has eaten it(3).
Likewise, tastes are cultural.
This is how we like cheese, including those with a strong taste like Munster in Alsace or Maroilles in the North(1).
But in Asia, these cheeses seem inedible.
Similarly, in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, durian, a locally produced fruit, is consumed daily(1,6).
For passing visitors, its very strong odor, which can resemble that of excrement, is unbearable (1.6).
Traditionally, the French eat snails and frog legs, but for the English these dishes are simply disgusting(1).
On the other hand, across the Channel, combining mint sauce with good meat seems quite natural(1).
Experiences that mark
Beyond family or cultural atavisms, what creates taste, especially among children, are the good or bad experiences of the person(3).
Thus, a food which has caused intestinal disorders or any discomfort risks being banned forever by the child who has suffered these inconveniences(3).
Likewise, as Marcel Proust wrote in his novel On the Swann Side, foods can be associated with happy or unhappy moments(7).
For him, madeleines dipped in an infusion recalled happy moments from his childhood(7).
The social dimension of food is also determining. A food considered friendly or which brings you closer to others will stay on your menus for a long time(1,3).
What matters then is not so much its taste as its social role. This food ties you to the tribe.
The power of color
Manufacturers have known for a long time that the color of food plays a role for consumers(8).
In general, these colors are there to reinforce or recall a perception (8).
For example, betanin, from beets, which is the coloring E162, is used in red fruit yogurts to recall the color of strawberries, raspberries, cherries or redcurrants(9).
Laboratory curcumin, or E100, gives the yellow color to peach, banana, apricot or pineapple yogurts(9).
These colors often recall a particular flavor or food rather than tastes(8).
But they are effective. Because the brain is fooled by the color of food (8,9).
So, manufacturers put them everywhere.
Quinoline, or E104, gives yellow-green (9).
Carotenoids such as annatto extract, classified E160, are used for the yolk(9).
Nitrites, classified from E249 to E251, preserve the ham and give it that pink appearance which is so reminiscent of pigs(9).
But pork meat, in real life, is mostly white or gray.
The red may come from azorubin or E122. This coloring is used in smoked fish, certain flavored cheeses, soups, sauces, chewing gum, ice creams(10)…
It would promote hyperactivity in children (10).
As an alternative to red, there is cochineal extract used for sausages, sodas and candies(9).
This insect has a carmine pigment that is very practical for manufacturers. We collect it, dry it and use it(9).
It is he who makes the tarama pink for example. If you do it yourself your tarama will be white or gray (9).
Evolve your tastes!
Fortunately, if your brain notices colors and remembers past experiences, that can also be a strength.
And it can change your tastes.
Natural foods get their colors from natural pigments.
These colors often indicate the presence of nutrients useful to the human body.
This is the case, for example, of red fruits whose red, purple, blue or black color comes from anthocyanins which are powerful antioxidants(11).
If your brain associates a nice plate of sweet potatoes or organic vegetables with a tasty meal, it will leave you wanting more.
And this is also true in children.
Note that in them, the taste is not definitively formed (1,3).
The first two years of their life, they are, in theory, open to everything(1,3).
Only the novelty scares them a little at first. But it happens. And once the habit has come, it can stay.
Don’t hesitate to give vegetables and fruits to little children! You will be doing them a huge service.
Their body will remember it all their lives!
Naturally yours,
Augustine of Livois
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#Institute #Protection #Natural #Health #tastes #nature #dyes