Re: Why do we like junk food?
 

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"trick" you into thinking it tastes good



I don't think you can trick someone into thinking something tastes good. It tastes good or it doesn't.

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not true at all, MSG and other stuff works by stimulating the taste bud receptors, thats what I mean by "tricking". thats also why they put a bunch of it in processed foods, so they taste better.

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But it still tastes good. What you are talking about is something other than "taste"

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Its 'beneficiality' or something like that. MSG is piggy-backing on the usefulness of some other substance (glutamate). Still tastes good though, no trick there.

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Yeah, just arguing the semantics of it. Nitty, but both my wife and I started our neuroscience careers researching taste so I'm sensitive to it.

Re: Why do we like junk food?
 

I think it's more nurture than nature, meaning we learn from our parents what tastes good. We do not decide for ourselves what is good or not.

My wife is a health food nut, always has been. My son, even while in the womb was getting the good stuff thruogh mom. And again, while being breastfed, was not getting any junk through mom.

Now that he's two, when he asks for "juice" he means tomato juice. He loves the stuff. And it makes me gag (I grew up on kool-aide). He loves soybeans, cauliflower, and can tell the difference between organic milk and the regular old hormone milk (I'm not kidding). His favorite food, couscous. Seriously, he asks for it by name. I was asking for mac'n cheese or "skettiohs" and this kid asks for couscous.

He was taught by his mother (no thanks to dad) what is good.

If mom were to load up on ice cream and chips while pregnant (so many do, and I'm not knocking them for it, just the facts here) then the kid is already off to a bad start.

It's a viscious cycle that won't stop until an entire generation decides to make it stop.

Re: Why do we like junk food?
 

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I think it's more nurture than nature, meaning we learn from our parents what tastes good. We do not decide for ourselves what is good or not.

My wife is a health food nut, always has been. My son, even while in the womb was getting the good stuff thruogh mom. And again, while being breastfed, was not getting any junk through mom.

Now that he's two, when he asks for "juice" he means tomato juice. He loves the stuff. And it makes me gag (I grew up on kool-aide). He loves soybeans, cauliflower, and can tell the difference between organic milk and the regular old hormone milk (I'm not kidding). His favorite food, couscous. Seriously, he asks for it by name. I was asking for mac'n cheese or "skettiohs" and this kid asks for couscous.

He was taught by his mother (no thanks to dad) what is good.

If mom were to load up on ice cream and chips while pregnant (so many do, and I'm not knocking them for it, just the facts here) then the kid is already off to a bad start.

It's a viscious cycle that won't stop until an entire generation decides to make it stop.

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No doubt that you can modify behavior, and some of the nurture environments that the average American finds himself in are very unhealthy and contribute to this problem.

But there really just isn't any arguing that all human beings everywhere, no matter how healthy, really like the taste of sugar and fat, at least on some level. I suppose its possible to rigorously condition yourself to dislike it...maybe. But thats a pretty artificial situation. Your body LOVES sugar and fat. It really does. And it has everything to do with evolutionary history.