AuroraGlacialis
11-08-2010, 05:18 AM
According to a new paper, working for your food harder may make it taste better:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/27/rspb.2010.1581
So theoretically, self grown and harvested food tastes better due to the work involved. The same may also be true for "primitive" people who forage, gather or hunt for their food daily. Especially the limited duration of the effect of 24h would reward hunter-gatherers with better tasting food compared to farmers who have to invest most of the work way in advance of eating the food. Stretching this a bit farther, one could even see a connection to present day overfeeding and obesity, as easily available food from the supermarket lacks this rewarding effect. As a result, additives to improve taste have to be added. Additionally, it may be that one would tend to eat more of a food that tastes less to compensate for quality (Which is known to happen in people who are more likely to eat large portions of unhealthy, tasteless food compared to high quality fine foods - just think of a huge pizza on one side and a french cuisine dinner on the other)
So this should not be stretched too far (as I did above ;) ) as it was conducted on lab animals and not humans, but it is an interesting result and I hope to see more studies on this.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/10/27/rspb.2010.1581
So theoretically, self grown and harvested food tastes better due to the work involved. The same may also be true for "primitive" people who forage, gather or hunt for their food daily. Especially the limited duration of the effect of 24h would reward hunter-gatherers with better tasting food compared to farmers who have to invest most of the work way in advance of eating the food. Stretching this a bit farther, one could even see a connection to present day overfeeding and obesity, as easily available food from the supermarket lacks this rewarding effect. As a result, additives to improve taste have to be added. Additionally, it may be that one would tend to eat more of a food that tastes less to compensate for quality (Which is known to happen in people who are more likely to eat large portions of unhealthy, tasteless food compared to high quality fine foods - just think of a huge pizza on one side and a french cuisine dinner on the other)
So this should not be stretched too far (as I did above ;) ) as it was conducted on lab animals and not humans, but it is an interesting result and I hope to see more studies on this.