As a picky eater it feels weird how our bodies reject certain foods just because they don’t taste good or have a weird texture and not because there’s something wrong with it. It has nutritional value and other humans seem to enjoy it, so why won’t my body accept it? What it we were still cavemen in the wild and we were picky with food like that, that’s a huge survival disadvantage it makes no sense. We can get away with it now that living is easier, but were humans always this way?
In: Biology
A picky eater is a safe eater. Less likely to try new things and get sick/poisoned.
If you have ample supply of food that your accustomed to and you know is safe to eat. Why on earth would you risk wasting something new, like slimy oysters, that might make you sick or hurt you or even kill you?
This is also why children are MUCH more sensitive to sour and bitter flavors, it’s to keep them from eating random ass plants they find on the ground.
And truly, a picky eater isn’t that big of a survival disadvantage, because when you no longer have an ample supply of food and are starving, picky eating goes out the window. When you’re really hungry those little food turn offs are not nearly as strong. Like if you ever want to get yourself to try a new food, starve yourself before hand, this is anecdotal but I started eating salad as a kid because one time was on a many hours long road trip and was super hungry and the salad was put in front of me.
I believe part of it (and only part) may come from evolution. If you descended from a cold place where things were preserved by salts and temperature and smoke, I think it might influence your preferences.
If closer to the equator and in an area that couldn’t preserve meat well/whatnot, spice and pickles may be more your jam.
It is definitely, very heavily, related to what we ate coming up, too. It force fed, etc. associations with foods are number one, good or bad
Well, not necessarily a disadvantage. Imagine you and your tribe live on a certain territory. You know what plants, fungi and animals can be eaten in that area. Your tribe managed to survive for generations eating those. You were raised eating them and that’s how your sense of taste developed. Now imagine you see a new plant that has a weird smell and taste. Should you eat it? Or is it better to stay with those you know?
Today you can check with a book or the Internet, which foods are edible, and which are “edible only once”. But our ancestors didn’t have this luxury and there is no magical way to detect every poison.
Reminder that its not your body, but your mind not accepting it. Often its just because you did not go out of your way to try new things as kind, or had bad experiences with certain foods that you become a picky eater/not like certain foods.
This is clearly trainable. If you slowly go out of your way now to try new foods that are adjacent to what you like, you will overcome that (false) feeling of not liking it. This is how people drink coffee or beer. Both of those things are quite nuanced flavors that almost surely first time any human tried didn’t like, but the first thanks to its effect in the body, the second due to social pressures (and also the effect) people repeatedly try and end up liking. You can do the same with broccoli.
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