Evolutionary Explanations Of Food Preference Flashcards
What type of food preferences remain in the gene pool according to evolutionary psychology?
Adaptive food preferences.
What is the process by which only those food preferences that enhance chances of survival remain in the gene pool?
Natural selection.
Identify another way of thinking about survival problems.
Selective pressures.
Identify another way of thinking about selective pressures.
Survival problems.
Which two concepts from evolutionary psychology can explain why some apparently maladaptive food preferences (such as for high sugar, high fat foods) remain in the gene pool today?
The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness (EEA) and the genome lag.
How can the concept of the EEA explain why some apparently maladaptive food preferences (such as for high sugar, high fat foods) remain in the gene pool?
Preference for high sugar and high fat foods would have been adaptive in our evolutionary past because scarcity of food and difficulty and risks in obtaining it would have been the selective pressure that meant eating as many high sugar and fat foods was beneficial - to provide calories for energy and store fat reserves during periods of not eating regularly.
How can the concept of the genome lag explain why some apparently maladaptive food preferences (such as for high sugar, high fat foods) remain in the gene pool?
The genome lag is the time delay that results from evolution not keeping up with environmental change. The survival problems of our evolutionary past no longer exist, but the traits that evolved to solve them have not been selected out yet because evolution is too slow. We no longer need to store fat reserves as food is readily available, but our preference for high fat foods hasn’t been selected out yet - hence it is maladaptive.
Identify and explain two selective pressures that would have led to preference for sweet tastes being selected in.
- Scarcity of food in general; a preference for sweet tastes would have encouraged us to eat fruit - a good source of sugar and carbohydrates (energy). 2. Risks and dangers in hunting for meat; a preference for sweet tastes would have encouraged us to eat food that had little risk attached to obtaining it.
Identify and explain the selective pressure that would have resulted in a preference for high fat foods being selected in.
Scarcity of food; a preference for high fat food would have encouraged us to eat it as a strategy for storing fat and energy reserves during times when food wasn’t regularly available.
Identify and explain the selective pressure that would have resulted in a dislike for bitter, sour foods.
Threat to health (and even life) of poisonous foods; a dislike of bitter tastes would encourage us to avoid potentially poisonous foods.
Identify and explain the selective pressure that would have resulted in an innate ability to very quickly learn taste aversion.
Threat to health of eating poisonous foods, or food infected with bacteria; taste aversion is learned through associating a particular taste with being sick or feeling ill - learning this association would lead to avoidance of that food in future, and hence reduce risk of getting ill.
Identify and explain the selective pressure that may have led to our modern day preference for meat.
Scarcity of, and reduction in the quality of, fruits, berries and plant foods caused by depletion of the forests around two million years ago meant that our ancestors needed to find a different source of nutrients and energy. This meant that hunting meat, despite its risks, became more of a necessity.
Identify and explain the survival advantage of having temporary ‘food fancies’.
‘Fancying’ or craving a particular food encourages us to eat that food. This could be the result of the body ‘knowing’ that a certain food is good for us at that particular time - for example, fancying fruit could be a sign that the body needs vitamin C, or fancying a steak could be a sign that the body needs protein. This is known as the ‘wisdom of the body hypothesis’.
