Why once we’ve exercised/ are thirsty and we drink water does it taste so good? Are specific neurotransmitters being released in the brain? Why does it not taste so good when we’re not so thirsty?
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Food also tastes better when you’re hungry. I know. Who would have thought?
Your body is simply trying to give you positive feedback to do the thing it needs. You’re dehydrated and so when you have a little water your brain goes ‘oh yeah, keep doing that right now’ in the best way it knows how: make the thing more pleasurable.
Stranger yet, why do I get hungry when I’m actually thirsty?
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Because it’s adaptive.
It’s reductive, but the simplest principle as to why anything biological works the way it does is that the process is adaptive. Over millions of years and countless generations, of all the possible combinations of DNA, the ones that are universally shared are those that consistently made it more likely for the affected organisms to survive and reproduce.
The DNA that is most shared and most consistent is usually the oldest and the most integral as due to the mechanics of mutation the more complex and fragile a system of DNA is, the less likely it is to change. This is because mutations within that section result in death (or lack of birth), so slight mutations to that part of the DNA do not exist.
For example, DNA that controls a significant portion of human eye color is relatively simple, and small mutations in that DNA create changes that have no mechanical effect on the organism other than changing eye color slightly. In contrast, the DNA that controls how your body is divided into sections is vast and interconnected. Changes to those sections of DNA usually result in miscarriage as the fetus simply doesn’t form in a way that allows any of the other DNA to build upon the structure.
At first glance I read “Why does waste water taste better when you are thirsty” and I was ” excuse me, what?”
Besides the physiological explanations given by others, there is also psychology:
think of the saying [“hunger is the best sauce”](https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Hunger+is+the+best+sauce), applied to *thirst*.
This Harvard psychologist just did a YouTube video on this, and said fulfillment comes from the denial of reward. So along those lines, his suggestion was to get thirsty, and get water ready, and just listen to your emotions as you anticipate the drink but don’t drink it for a minute. Interesting new way to look at life and suffering!
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