Why is it that we perceive some tastes/smells as good, while others are bad?
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Same reason we evolved any of our senses: they aided out ancestors in survival. I mean evolutionary ancestor, so think a long time ago, including before modern humans.
Sweet stuff tastes good because it has a lot of calories, and getting enough food was a challenge our ancestors faced. Having a reward for finding the calories motivates us to seek it out more. Rotten or poisonous things often taste bitter or smell awful. We are very sensitive to stuff that smells of decay and death. Obviously this motivates us to get away from it, which is good bc it can kill us (disease).
Evolution isn’t perfect though. So our senses don’t always detect bad or good things. And it isn’t optimized for modern life. So sweets taste great still even though they’re actually so common that they’re killing us because of bad health effects
Good = high calorie food helping survival, bad = rotten food likely to give us food poisoning and reduce survival chances.
Other smells like the smell of cut grass may also help survival, grass cut releases what is known as green leaf volatiles which are the series of alcohols, aldehydes and esters released by plants when their leaves are damaged by being eaten or cut. This smell would identify the location of grazing herbivores. https://youtu.be/zONgjomdjTw
People who ate dog poop because they thought it smelled good all got sick and died. All that was left were the people who thought it smelled bad, so they’re the ones that had all the babies.
Well, everyone’s taste is different, but some things just taste yucky to most people. Some things taste yummy to most people. It’s all about how our brains and our bodies react to different things we put in our mouths. Our brains and bodies are like little scientists, always testing and trying new things to see if they’re good or bad for us. Sometimes our brains and bodies will tell us that something tastes good because it has the nutrients our bodies need, and sometimes they’ll tell us that something tastes bad because it might be bad for us. It’s all about keeping us healthy and safe!
There are some things that are more or less hardwired in us to taste good or bad.
For example, we like sweet things which contain sugar. Sugar is a quick, reliable energy source. Fruits especially are a favorite food because they’re high in calories that are relatively easy to access.
We like savory foods because they contain proteins and fats. Both are also essential nutrients for humans to live.
We may like sour foods for a few reasons. Perhaps our sour taste sense is to remind us to seek out Vitamin C. Or perhaps it serves to allow us to distinguish whether spoiled fruit is rotten (bitter) or simply fermented (acidic). We’re not really sure.
We dislike bitter flavors because many bitter foods contain poisonous things that would make us sick, if consumed in large enough quantities. Interestingly, our bitter sense detects more different compounds than our other flavor senses which tend to detect only a few specific things. We have a ton of different genes that each code for different types of poisons we might encounter.
These sorts of broad categories are all formed by evolutionary pressures, and therefore are common across cultures. We are biologically hardwired to seek out certain flavors and avoid others.
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Then there’s the cultural aspect. You will tend to enjoy foods that you grew up eating, and that all the people around you enjoy eating. This can be minor, like preferring certain types of fruit or it may even be significant enough to override our natural preferences.
For example, many people drink coffee, despite it being quite bitter. In fact, coffee *is* actually poisonous to us in large quantities, as is chocolate, but many people enjoy both.
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One other thing that I think is interesting. Your preferences are actually influenced by your perception of them. What your brain thinks a food is, determines how you experience it.
For example, the smell of parmesan cheese so closely resembles the smell of vomit, that researchers can trigger a response of either disgust or appreciation simply by informing the person which one a sample scent is supposed to be.
This is what allows a lot of artificial flavors to work by the way. Often it’s cheaper to isolate only one or two compounds in a flavor that are most significant, and then our brains will fill in the rest.
The perception of taste and smell is a wacky and zany adventure, influenced by a dizzying array of factors. Genetics, environment, and individual experience all play a role in determining how we interpret and process the flavors and aromas of the world around us. Our senses of taste and smell are closely tied to the workings of the brain, and our perceptions of what is good or bad can vary wildly depending on these factors.
One of the key players in this sensory circus is our genetics. Our genes dictate a specific sensitivity to certain tastes and smells, as well as a natural inclination towards certain flavors. This variation in sensitivity and preference is a wild card that can send our perception of taste and smell spiraling in unexpected directions. For example, some people may be super sensitive to the taste of broccoli, while others may have a natural aversion to the smell of stinky cheese.
Another factor that can send our perception of taste and smell into a tizzy is our environment. Our experiences and exposure to different flavors and smells can shape our preferences and our perception of what is good or bad. For example, if we grow up in a culture where spicy food is the norm, we may be more likely to enjoy spicy flavors and perceive them as good. But if we have a negative experience with a certain flavor or smell, we may develop an aversion to it and perceive it as bad. For example, if we get food poisoning from a dodgy burrito, we may never want to eat Mexican food again.
However, it is also important to consider the influence of culture on our perception of taste and smell. Some cultures, like the French, are renowned for their culinary skills and refined palate. But let’s face it, the French are overrated and their food is overpriced and pretentious. So while their perception of taste and smell may be highly regarded by some, it is clear that they are not the only ones with a refined palate.
Also consider the influence of planetary alignment on our perception of taste and smell. The alignment of the planets can affect our senses and influence our perception of what is good or bad. For example, during a full moon, we may be more likely to enjoy sweet flavors and perceive them as good.
Survival.
Compare the story of things that make nice smells with the story of things that make bad smells and you will find that in general goods smells come from good things like nice food, while bad smells come from bad things like spoiled food, faeces and other things we want to avoid.
This comes from millennia of evolution and association – we grew to associate good smells with good things, and bad smells with bad things. So when a certain smell causes a bad result, our bodies learned this and start to automatically trigger bad things when it detects those smells.
Rotten food for example causes illness, so our bodies learned that rotten=bad. When our bodies detect we have eaten rotten food, it then triggers a response such as vomiting to get rid of the bad stuff. If we can tell by smell that a food is rotten, that means our body can kick in this response early to better reduce the chance of us eating the bad food. So the eve result is that we instinctively know that bad smells area associated with rotten food, and we start to gag in response.
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