eli5: Why is it that unhealthy foods taste so good(chocolate, soda, candy, fried foods etc.) despite it being bad for us while healthier foods (veggies, whole grain etc.) taste much worse in comparison?

Question

Wouldn’t our bodies recognize which foods that are most beneficial and demand to have more of that?

In: Biology

Answer 1

>Wouldn’t our bodies recognize which foods that are most beneficial and demand to have more of that?

Yes and that’s partially why “bad foods” taste so good. They used to be rare introductions of sugars and fats that are incredibly valuable to a surviving animal in the wild but are detrimental when consumed in large and continuous supply.

It’s also worth noting that vegetables have increasingly been bred for increased profit instead of increased flavour. It’s often the case that heirloom crops have much better flavours and crops grown at your own property or farmed locally, taste better because you can eat them when they’re actually fresh instead of weeks after or weeks before because they were picked unripe to survive transport.