Eli5: Why do Adults generally enjoy bitter tasting things (ie. Coffee, beer, dark chocolate) when children rarely do?
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This is just what I’ve read on the internet, do not use this comment as an authoritative source.
Children are wired to like sweet things, because many sweet things in nature are high-calorie, and before we had agriculture, we needed to focus on finding calorie-dense foods. This is also part of why we developed the range of color vision we have, to find fruits and other foods.
Many naturally occurring poisons have a bitter taste, so it is advantageous to evolve an aversion to them. As we get older, this is less important, as we learn what is safe to eat and what isn’t, and we also gain a learned appreciation for more complex flavors.
Between your unconscious self becoming less averse to these flavors, and your conscious self becoming more familiar with them, you can develop an appreciation for something you might have previously considered gross.
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