Evolutionary explanation for eating behaviour

Question 1

Evolutionary AO1

Answer 1

The evolutionary explanation states that the preferences or certain foods adaptive.
• Eating certain foods can enhance chances survival
• A preference for certain food enhances our reproductive success- Helps us pass on our genes.

Finding ample quantities of safe, edible food would provide an advantage, allowing species to survive and pass on the advantageous genes to their children. In this way, according to evolutionary theory, human eating behaviour and food preferences have been shaped and modified.

Evolutionary explanations for food preferences

1. Taste preferences
   • Sweet Taste Preferences
   o Evolutionary theory sees a preference for sweet tasting food having become widespread because sweetness is associated with high energy. This would have aided survival because it would give them energy for hunting etc.
   o Salty Taste
   o Salt is necessary for the body to function properly. It is essential for maintaining neural and muscular activity and water balance.
   o Bitter and Sour Taste Preferences
   o An Ability to be able to detect and reject bitter and sour tastes Evolutionary sense often such tests indicate the presence of poisons for example mushrooms. It is evolutionarily beneficial to develop an ability dislike bitter and sour tastes because they could be poisonous

Question 2

AO2 (Grill and Norgren)

Answer 2

I There is evidence to support the preference for sweet tasting food-an evolutionary explanations of food preference
E Using choice preferences and facial expressions, psychologists have found that neonates prefer sweet foods to bitter ones, implying the preference to be innate.
Grill and Norgren reported that neonates and acceptance of sweet tastes the first time they came across them. This acceptance response appears to be an innate, reflexive response
C These findings support the validity of a preference for sweet food and an evolutionary explanation for food preferences because it shows that from birth people prefer sweet foods.

Question 3

AO1 Meat

Answer 3

• Evolutionary explanations of food preference- a preference for meat
o Human ancestors began to include meat in their diets to compensate for decline in the quality of plant foods caused by receding forests 2 million years ago.
o Fossil evidence from groups of Hunter gatherers suggest that the daily diet was derived primarily from animal-based foods, in particular animal organs such as liver, kidney and brain that are extremely rich sources of energy
o Without animals, some psychologists believe that it is unlikely that early humans could have secured enough nutrition from a vegetarian diet to evolve into active and intelligent creatures that they became.
o Meet supplied humans with all essential amino acids, minerals and nutrients that they required, allowing them to supplement their diets and with marginal low quality plant-based foods that have few nutrients and lots of calories, for example wheat and rice.

Question 4

AO2 (Stanford’s chimps)

Answer 4

I	There is evidence to support the preference or meat-an revolutionary explanation of food preference
E	Stanford (1999) -an anthropologist- observed chimpanzees in Tanzania's National Park. He found that like our ancestors in the environment for evolutionary adaptation, meat was an important source of saturated fat and vital for survival but was not always readily available. After coming close to starvation for much of the year, when the chimps did manage a kill they went straight for the fattiest parts, for example, the brain, rather than the tender more nutritious flesh.
C	These findings support the validity of an evolutionary explanation of preferences for different foods because the fact that the chimpanzees would prefer meat that is high and energy show that meat is eaten to increase energy levels and therefore promote chances of survival.

Question 5

AO2 (Methodology)

Answer 5

I There are problems with the methodology used to measure preferences for different food tastes.
E Psychologists have used choice preferences and neonate’s facial expressions, which is arguably subjective measures.This means that it is based on a personal opinion from the researchers as, for example, Grill and Norgren have interpreted what the neonate’s facial expressions mean from their own opinion. This is subjective.
C These findingsQuestionability of an evolutional explanation of preferences for different foods because other variables may cause a researcher to get a different opinion. For example, in Grill and Norgren’s Study there could be of the factors and environment that cause the neonates’ facial expressions. For example, they may be smiling at their parents in the room.

Question 6

AO2 (animal research)

Answer 6

I Great deal of research into the evolutionary explanation of food preferences and involves animals.
E On one hand, animal research findings are useful because we cannot travel back to the environment for evolutionary adaptation to see what adaptive problems were faced by our ancestors, we can study the related species-for example chimpanzees.
On the other hand, it has been argued that the extrapolation may also reduce the validity of the research, generalisations between animals and humans cannot should not be made. Humans’ food preferences maybe more complex than animals and the preference for certain types of foods is more likely to be affected by other extraneous variables such as mood for example studies have shown that certain foods are often eaten in periods of low mood. This shows that humans are different from animals.
C This questions the validity of research into the evolutionary explanation for food preferences because the research assumes that the animal research findings can be applied to humans.For example, Stanford’s research assumes that just because chimpanzees prefer meat that is high and energy, so will humans- ignoring other factors like mood.

Question 7

AO2 (Reductionist)

Answer 7

I Research into the evolutionary explanation for food preferences is reductionist.
E On one hand, this involves breaking down the phenomena into one simple component which provides us with a simple level of explanation for example that we have a preference for certain foods because this aids and survival.
On the other hand, research may oversimplify a complex process such as food preference. It also ignores others factors that may be involved in choosing food, for example the social learning theory, which states that people choose food based on what has been passed down through their culture.
C This questions the validity of research into the evolutionary explanation for food preferences because eating behaviours could be influenced by, for example, childhood trauma, and also explain preference, but research such as Grill and Norgren’s research using facial expressions believe that it is just the need for survival that explains food preference.