From what I understand, people’s likes and dislikes change from when they are younger to when they are older. For example, when I was younger, I hated the taste of mustard. I thought that it was super bitter, but now I find that I put mustard on anything that I can. I can’t explain why because I don’t think I’ve sense an actual change in its taste. Similarly, my friend said that she could not stand the artificial “blue raspberry” flavor when she was growing up. However, now, blue raspberry is her favorite flavor when it comes to sweets.
Why do we have these changes in flavor preferences?
In: Biology
Children naturally have simpler palates and are actually hard-wired to be more sensitive to certain flavors (especially bitter ones) and find them “yucky.” This is actually an evolutionary defense mechanism: small children are very prone to sticking random things in their mouths out of curiosity, but this also means that they’re at risk of eating things that are poisonous.
Because most toxic compounds (especially in plants) are bitter, young children being hypersensitive to these flavors means they’re less likely to accidentally eat something toxic. As you grow up you lose this hypersensitivity (since as you’re older you should be learning what foods are safe) and can eat a wider variety of foods.
One exception to this however is ARFID: avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder, where people’s palates remain very simple and “childlike.” It’s hypothesized that people with this condition, for some reason, weren’t able to get past this developmental checkpoint, and are essentially stuck with a narrow range of “safe” foods.
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