Food Preferences
- Created by: Ellie
- Created on: 01-06-15 16:14
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- 'Discuss evolutionary explanations of food preference
- Taste receptors
- Bitter
- Poisonous
- Research shows the bitter taste has evolved as a defence mechanism to detect potentially harmful toxins
- Sandell and Breslin
- Sweet
- Identify foods rich in carbohydrates - energy
- Salt
- For cell functioning
- Umami
- Indicates protein in savoury food
- Sour
- Identify foods that have gone off/contain harmful bacteria
- Bitter
- Ancestors
- Chimps, gorillas, monkeys
- Herbivores
- Humans are omnivores
- How did humans become hunters?
- Meat - good source of protein and good for brain functioning
- Over time, larger brains in humans would require more protein to keep them running effectively
- Hunting encourages group participation, social co-operation, navigation etc
- Language
- Meat - good source of protein and good for brain functioning
- How did humans become hunters?
- Humans are omnivores
- 'Gatherers', not hunters (like humans)
- Stanford - when apes come close to starvation, they'll immediately go for the fattiest part of a food
- Herbivores
- Two digestive systems
- Apes - long large intestine, specialised for digesting and absorbing plant material
- Humans - small intestine specialised for eating meat
- Chimps, gorillas, monkeys
- Adaptive food preferences
- Innate preferences
- Sweet foods - fruit - contain calories for energy
- Salty foods - sodium balance
- Food Neophobia - a fear of new food - stick with food that you know are safe
- Food preferences in the modern world
- Food is no longer scarce - we eat more sweet/salty foods because survival isn't an issue - preferences for these foods arose from eating excess amounts of them
- Innate preferences
- Food receptors and a hunter gathering society are well places for evolutionary purposes
- The division of labour
- Buss - in some modern gatherer societies, women will still divorce men who don't provide food
- Skilled hunters - extra power, resources, sexual favours etc
- Anthropologists have suggested that "Males who share meat with females double their mating success"
- Females increase in calorific intake
- Evaluation
- Reductionist - doesn't consider cultural/social changes in food availability/choice
- Nature side of debate - born with pre-determined taste receptors?
- Real life application
- Taste aversion
- Garcia et al
- Rats and radiation poisoning
- Nesse and Williams
- Babies and aversions towards broccoli and sprouts (toxic to young children)
- Buss
- The Embryo Protection Hypothesis
- Profet - Hyperosmia
- The Embryo Protection Hypothesis
- Garcia et al
- Taste receptors
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