When I was a kid, I did not like spicy food. Now an adult, I love it.
In: 2025
Have you ever wondered whether we actually see the same color? If we both look at strawberry we‘ll both call it red, but are we actually both seeing red? Or are we seeing different things and just calling it red?
If we both see the exact same thing and call it the same then the reason you might like the color is simply because of your opinion on it. If we see different things and just call it the same then maybe every person likes the same colors, but we just don‘t see everything the same as any other person.
This also applies to taste. If we both eat mushrooms, are we actually tasting the same thing or do we just call it the same?
I think it‘s best to leave
[Vsauce video on it](https://youtu.be/evQsOFQju08?si=N60VCCj7b-3C3vJo). It‘s about colors but it also mostly applies to taste.
I think I’ve been willing to try more things as I get older. As a kid just the looks of broccoli freaked me out, or knowing crabs had tentacles and shells was off putting. Tried as an adult and live them now.
Yes. As a defense against poison, children are born more sensitive to bitter and spicy flavours, because those are usually what poisons taste like. Its so our stupid little child brains learn not to eat them again. That’s also why kids hate vegetables. They taste more bitter to children.
Our taste becomes less acute the older we get. Great example from my childhood: got some milk out of grandparent’s fridge, sniffed it, and it was sour. Grandmother saw my face, came over to do the same, “this is not sour. It’s good.” I did not have milk that day.
I didn’t like veggies as a child, but it wasn’t usually the flavor. I actually hada hard time chewing them up and swallowing them… Like my saliva didn’t want to break them down. That stopped at some point, and I love veggies.
I would gag at the thought of peaches when I was small.
Now? Fucking load me up. Peach pie, cobbler, jams, jellies, preserves, off the tree? brother please pass me another
The more I traveled the more I tried different food. I started to ask myself why I DON’T like this certain food instead of why I do. If there’s a whole culture and multiple countries of people who love this food, how could I not? I feel like the taste of food is a lot like the taste of music. Once you know WHY the person who made it, made it like it is, you can start to appreciate it nore.
Happened to me with a lot of vegetables, used to hate almost all of them besides potatoes and corn as a kid, now I like most vegetables as long as they are cooked, still not a fan of most raw vegetables.
I wonder how different these results would be culturally or by country. I know I hated a lot of foods as a kid due to quality and poor preparation and I lived in a very sugar & fat friendly country. I’m curious about countries/cultures that have have an emphasis on savoury and different textures as well (like tendons, seafood, offcuts, not potato root veggies, etc). For example in Korea and Japan eating tendon, tongue, liver, live octopus, chicken feet, etc is not necessarily odd from my understanding. Its just food. I could be wrong, but this is why I am curious if there are cultural differences.
The idea that our ‘tastebuds change’ as we age is actually a mix of biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, kids have more taste buds and are often more sensitive to certain flavors like bitterness. This sensitivity can decline as we age, making some foods more palatable. Interestingly, there’s a genetic component to this as well. According to SNPedia, people with a specific genoset (Gs227) are more sensitive to bitter tastes in childhood but become less sensitive as they age. This genoset involves three SNPs in the TAS2R38 gene, and a 2010 study found that individuals with this genetic makeup are particularly prone to this age-related change in bitter sensitivity.
Psychologically, repeated exposure to a food can make us like it more, and our emotional state and past experiences can also influence our preferences. Socially, cultural exposure and trends can sway our likes and dislikes.
So, it’s not just about our tastebuds ‘changing,’ but rather a complex interplay of genetics, biology, psychology, and social factors that shape our food preferences over time.
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