Eli5 Why are healthy foods generally not as tasty as fatty, sugary and unhealthy foods?

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Eli5 Why are healthy foods generally not as tasty as fatty, sugary and unhealthy foods?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In the environment of food scarcity we’re actually adapted for, fat and sugar would be incredibly valuable for survival purposes, so we are hard-wired to go nuts for them.

Whereas in pure survival terms, vitamins and minerals are kind of optional. It’s better to have them, sure, but it takes a hell of a vitamin deficiency to actually die. So your body is basically saying ‘focus on staying alive first, then we’ll eat the vegetables’. In an environment of 21st century food abundance.

Anonymous 0 Comments

During most of our evolutionary history fruits and vegetables were easy to come by.

Foods high in sugars and fats were not as easy to come by. However, they contain a lot of energy that can be easily stored. By evolving to find them absolutely delicious it meant that we’d pig out of them when we found them and that increased our ability to survive leaner times.

The modern day is the opposite. Sugary and fatty foods are very easy to come by but we still have the bodies of cavepeople.

Anonymous 0 Comments

To me they are but they typically require much more prep work cost more money and are more difficult to find. It’s so much easier to drive through the Arby’s line and pick up a sandwich.

Anonymous 0 Comments

So kinda depends on your viewpoint.

“Unhealthy” foods actually ARE healthy for you but only in very limited quantities. Evolutionary you would run into these foods rarely. You evolved so that when you did you gobbled that shit up and you strived to try and find more of that tasty goodness.

Your body can’t make everything tasty otherwise you’d be chewing grass all day.