September 6th, 2010 • 08:09
If Fruits And Vegetables Are So Good For You, Why Didn’t We Evolve So That They Would Taste Better?
You would think that because these are so nutritious, they would taste better than candy and stuff like that.
to solutions…
Sep 6th 2010 • 13:09
by jesteele
Evolution has taken care of this issue of taste appeal, and it has taken a million or more years to accomplish this. Why do you think oranges and carrots taste better than dirt or leaves? Because we enjoy the sugar in them.
Candy has not had long enough to influence human evolution: we’ve only been making it for maybe 2 thousand years! Now, to protect our nutrition, evolution would somehow have to enable us to recognize the difference between sweets that have value (fruits) and sweets that don’t have value (candy). This is a big challenge for such a slow-working mechanism as evolution. Be patient. It may happen a few hundred thousand years down the road.
Sep 6th 2010 • 15:09
by Nicole
Haha well I guess its just your preference…personally, I like fruits and vegetables. Anyway, the reason candy tastes (arguably) better than fruit or vegetables is probably because its not natural…we add all the sugar and everything to make it taste good. Meanwhile, plants such as fruits and vegetables evolved naturally…In fact, since evolution is controlled by natural selection, which is based on an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce, evolution probably wouldn’t affect taste, since taste doesn’t help a fruit or vegetable to survive.
Sep 6th 2010 • 15:09
by Dr. G
There are three general types of food that we eat: proteins, fats, and sugars. We are already evolved to like all three. So why does candy taste better than fruit?
Because candy contains the exact same sugar that is present in fruit, but in much greater quantity. It’s what we call a supersensory stimulus. It’s kind of like how women wear blush to make their cheeks red or get boob jobs. Men already are evolved to like a woman’s breasts or the color in her cheeks. But then people designed ways to imitate these natural things but to a much greater degree.
Candy contains all the same yummy molecules as fruit, but at much higher concentrations, so our tastebuds go wild! If you were raised on too much candy or soda, then by comparison the fruit doesn’t seem so sweet. The down side, is that candy does not contain a lot of the important nutrients of fruit. Try eating more fruit and eventually you will get used to it and enjoy it more. Just tell yourself that apples and oranges are the new chocolate cake.
It’s kind of like technology. When I was a kid, before we got spoiled with the kind of gadgets we have today, my videogames were frogger and pac-man and i listened to music on a portable tape-deck “walkman.” Kids nowadays would scoff at such pathetic technology compared to their iPods and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s all about “supersensory stimuli” and what you’re used to.
Cheers
Sep 6th 2010 • 15:09
by brian171
You would think that because these are so nutritious, they would taste better than candy and stuff like that.