Eli5: Do our tastebuds actually “change” as we get older? Who do kids dislike a certain food, then start liking it as an adult?

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When I was a kid, I did not like spicy food. Now an adult, I love it.

In: 2025

22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I think there’s 3 phases.

There’s the baby phase, the child phase and then the adult phase.

I remember a bunch of things went from great to gross when I was maybe 3-6. Weetabix, bananas, fish, eggs. I think this is due to memories forming and I remember having a much heightened awareness of smell and texture rather than just taste.

As an adult I noticed I was liking things which I hated before such as black pepper, mustard, chilli, spicy food. Our sensitivity to taste gets much duller as we’re older, those other flavours were overwhelming as a child. liquorice went from being feeling sick the moment it touched my mouth, to now, just disliking the taste.

My issue is that smell and texture still hold such a large amount of power over what I eat that I’ve not really built up the courage to try fish and bananas again, I don’t remember what they taste like.

I think I’m traumatised from old meal times of being forced to eat things I didn’t like as a child, that I’m now scared to try new things, even though I know for certain, there’s a lot of stuff I probably do like now.

This combination of memories, texture, smells, taste buds, foods being prepared a certain way (overcooked/boiled) and foods combining (a food you like being mixed with a food you don’t like), all influence us that it makes the topic difficult to examine.

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