Eli5 Why does acidity make food taste good?
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Foods that are highly pleasurable are generally associated with being very high in a valuable nutrient. So things like sugar, salt, fat, and protein which are important for our survival, cause us to feel pleasure. One theory as to why we enjoy sour foods is because fruit would have been an important source of vitamins for our ancestors. Human (and primates) are a little unusual compared to other mammals because we cannot produce our own vitamin C, we have to get it through our diet. Sour fruit like citrus is not appealing to all mammals, but one possibility is that we evolved to enjoy sour because sour fruit would have given us that much needed vitamin C.
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