Evolutionary Explanations for Food Preferences
- Created by: rosannaaa
- Created on: 05-04-18 09:39
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- EVOLUTIONARY EXP FOR FOOD PREF
- PREF FOR SWEET
- Fructose is especially sweet and babies consume large amounts of it.
- Fructose is a fast-acting sugar providing energy quickly, present in ripe fruit which was favoured food for our ancestors.
- Jacob Steiner 1977 placed sugar on tongues of newborn humans and observed positive facial expressions. Newborns can even distinguish between different sugars.
- PREF FOR SALT
- Breast milk is low in salt, so this finding suggests they had not had a learned salt preference and that it is innate
- Pref for salt taste appears in humans at around four months of age.
- PREF FOR FAT
- Quickly learning to prefer foods high in calories was advantage because calories provide energy important for survival.
- Fat also contributes to palatability and appeals to other senses such as smell.
- High calorie foods such as fat not as readily available to our evolutionary ancestors.
- Taste pref for fat is the most efficient route to energy consumption.
- NEOPHOBIA
- NP diminishes when we learn specific foods will not poison us
- Most pronounced in childhood, between two and six.
- Birch 1999 suggests it appears at a time where children begin to explore their environments and encounter foods independently.
- Humans have an innate predisposition and unwillingness to try anything new.
- TASTE AVERSION
- Innate predisposition to avoid potentially toxic foods
- According to Seligmans 1971 theory of biological preparedness, we acquire certain taste aversions or fears more quickly than others.
- Humans and animals are genetically hardwired to avoid these foods.
- Innate predisposition to avoid potentially toxic foods
- PREF FOR SWEET
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