Evolutionary Explanations Of Food Preference

Question 0

Preference to sweet

Answer 0

• Sweet attributed to link with ^energy & vtoxicity benefit to survival.
• Evolutionary; preference for sweet ^energy= survival reproduction
• genetic preference passed on.
• Supported by widespread love for sweet through animal kingdom.
• Ability to detect & reject bitter/sour taste also makes evolutionary sense; indicates poison; plants to fend predators, sweet = safety.

Question 1

Evolutionary explanation

Answer 1

• Humans = hunter-gatherers; maximise survival of own genes or those of biological relatives.
• Diet = WE available in their environment ie plants and animals.
• // apparent humans naturally inclined to salty, fatty & sweet foods
• Suggests these must provide some evolutionary advantage.

Question 2

Garcia: rats and thiamine

Answer 2

-Found when rats with thiamine deficiency consumed certain food followed by thiamine injection they develop preference for the food. -Such preferences have an adaptive advantage as our body is likely to adapt to food it perceives as a health benefit.

Question 3

Garcia: findings exemplify salt preference

Answer 3

Salt preference could be attributed to Garcia et al research findings as they are essential in maintaining neuromuscular activity as well as containing sodium chloride (essential to keeping hydrated) which aids survival.

Question 4

Steiner et al: baby faces

Answer 4

• Preference to sweet is evolutionary.
• Studied facial expressions neonates (infants <4 weeks old)
• Found indicated pleasure for sweet taste. Disgust to bitter taste.
• Indicates innate survival instinct as neonates far to young to have a learned preference for sweet.

Question 5

Logue: taste buds

Answer 5

• PFS largely genetic thus predates to our EEA.
• Humans have more taste receptors for sweet than any other taste. -Fast processing of sweet taste, ^ important to human body as it may have meant difference between high energy meal/death in EEA

Question 6

Beauchamp & Moran: Familiarity

Answer 6

• Argued that inate food preference are easily modified by familiarity. -Research involved 6 month old babies.
• Those used to drinking sweetened water drank more SW.
• Those who were not used to the water drank less.
• Thus familiarity not innate drive led to a food preference.

Question 7

Cultural bias: spicy coffee

Answer 7

• // Evo exp ignores cultural differences in food preference.
• Beyond infancy we develop a broad range of likes and dislikes which cannot be accounted for by innate preference.
• Spicy foods initially rejected, by adulthood chilli is 2nd only to salt in its popularity.
• Particularly apparent with bitter flavours eg coffee, suggesting human free will overrides the innate drive that bitter=poison.
• Culture plays role in how we experiment with new flavours.

Question 8

Preference for meat

Answer 8

• Meat; adaptive as provides valuable calories, AA & minerals.
• As calories were less readily available in the EEA.
• Vital in times when availability of next meal was uncertain.
• Adaptive for humans to prefer meat as high calorie foods provide longest period of energy.

Question 9

Milton: fossil evidence

Answer 9

-Meat = high fat content & FE shows human diet consisted mainly of animal-based foods.
Milton argued that early humans can’t have got enough nutrition from a vegetarian diet alone to achieve the brain growth needed for evolution.

Question 10

MacArthur et al: optimal foraging PFM

Answer 10

• OFT exp PFM by claiming animals spend the least amount of time and effort whilst maximising their intake of calorific energy.
• Eating meat would have fulfilled the principals of OFT and avoids the digestive problems associated with cellulose digestion.

Question 11

Hawkes: MHGS RS for OFT

Answer 11

• Ache tribe studied(MHGS).
• Found Meat makes up 45% of their diet but they also eat plants.
• even though plants offer v nutritional value.
• S for OFT; risk reduction compensate for ^failure rates in hunting.

Question 12

Blaut: Ethics of Ache research

Answer 12

• // v important to consider ethics of studying MHGS
• BC Blaut argues Europeans collect info on Indigenous people, use it to justify their acts of colonial repression & exploitation.
• Western society may feel it can improve Ache QOL, does not CI.
• Highlights the issue of imposed etics
• researchers trained in Western institutions don’t understand how their dominant social systems can affect cross-cultural research.
• Therefore such research should be carried out in a minimally invasive manner.