If your brain is designed to reward you for seeking out salts, sugars, and fats to stay alive, then why do radically different taste palettes between people exist? Shouldn’t taste preferences be similar across the species?
In: Biology
Theorically “fat” doesn’t have a taste. The oleogustus is described but it’s more about tasting rancid old oil than the taste of fat. Fat is “good” for us because it concentrate flavors.
Now, accross species, tastes are similar. Mice, rats, humans all crave sweets, like salts and don’t really like bitter food. Humans can learn to like the bitter taste by learning and experience (that’s why people like coffee or asparagus).
For taste preference, just because you don’t like cake doesn’t mean you don’t like sugar. Finding someone who really really don’t have any liking for sugar is close to impossible. Maybe they prefer sugar in fruits than refined transformed sugar.
Same with fats. Just because you don’t like deep fried chicken wings doesn’t mean you don’t like fat. Maybe you prefer olive oil cooking or cheese.
Having someone really having no seeking at all for fat/sugary food would be weird. Even in rats experiment you don’t have that. You have some rats in experiment that really are not fond of straight up grease or sugary pellet but sugary water and coconut oil make them go crazy.
So taste preferences are pretty similar accross species, but the “way” to get those taste are not universal.
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