Explanations For Food Preferences

Question 1

What assumption is the evolutionary explanation based off?

Answer 1

Food preferences that modern humans show must have helped ancestors survive in the environment of evolutionary adaption - individuals w the genes that promoted liking the foods survived.

Question 2

Why was a preference for Sweet food adaptive for our ancestors?

Answer 2

Sweetness is a signal for sugar and calories, ripeness of the fruit and the opposite of bitter. It is also the first taste a baby has with breast milk. Would’ve given energy, nutrition and the avoidance of poison - babies grow stronger.

Question 3

Evaluate an evolutionary preference for Sweet tastes.

Answer 3

S - babies facial expressions show a preference for Sweet foods - must be innate. Also innuit people didn’t have access to Sweet food but readily accepted them
C - copper Eskimo’s showed disgust at the first taste of Sweet foods - but this could be accounted for through genes. the T1R3 gene has been identified for Sweet preference.

Question 4

Why was a preference for salty foods adaptive for our ancestors?

Answer 4

Sodium important for neural and muscular processes. Salt is lost from the body and needs to be replenished so would be adaptive to have that preference.

Question 5

Evaluate the evolutionary explanation for liking salty foods.

Answer 5

S - liking for salt develops around 4 months. One study found babies between 16 and 25 weeks preferred salted cereal to unsalted. Breast milk has no salt so not learned. Also people with sodium deficiency eat more salty foods and can eat it in higher concentrations than family - evolved mechanism to maintain levels.

Question 6

Why was a preference for high fat foods adaptive for ancestors?

Answer 6

Fat contains more calories so ancestors would have got a rapid and efficient intake of energy rich food. It wasn’t readily available so they’d have to take advantage of the energy source while they could. Also a pleasure response to fat via ‘mouth feel’ making them immediately appealing. Better fat reserves.

Question 7

Evaluate the evolutionary explanation for liking high fat foods.

Answer 7

S - people prefer fatty foods in time of stress supporting the idea it fuels the fight or flight response. Also chimps went straight for fattiest parts of kill after being close to starvation (brain and bone marrow)

Question 8

Evaluate the evolutionary explanation for food preference.

Answer 8

S - face validity
C - lacks falsifiability
P - help understand obesity levels. Adaptive in EEA when scarce but not now when it’s readily available. Could inform food policies.

Question 9

Describe neophobia as an evolutionary explanation for food preference.

Answer 9

A reluctance to eat foods that are new to us, obvious in children aged 2-6. They would’ve been more independent at this age and neophobia would’ve helped them avoid dangerous untried and untested foods when on their own.

Question 10

Evaluate neophobia.

Answer 10

S - 2 year olds regularly given unfamiliar fruits and cheeses reduced neophobia compared to others. Suggests learning that foods aren’t dangerous reduces neophobia and supports it is adaptive.
S - 468 MZ + DZ twins, 67% heritability estimate for neophobia
C - lacks falsifiability and not all children are neophobic (but less neophobic may act as a Guinea pig)

Question 11

Describe the taste aversion evolutionary explanation for preferences, innate.

Answer 11

Innate: humans are innately averse to bitter tastes. They are often a sign of poison so would be advantageous to reject them.

Question 12

Describe the taste aversion evolutionary explanation for preferences, learned.

Answer 12

There is an evolved biological preparedness to learn taste aversion. Should our ancestors have eaten a poisonous food and become ill they would learn to associate the food with sickness. They wouldn’t have eaten the food again so had better survival chances.

Question 13

Evaluate an innate taste aversion as an evolutionary explanation for food preference.

Answer 13

S - babies pull face at bitter tastes and spit out
C - genetic variations in the detection of bitter compounds in food; some can’t detect bitterness at all.
However this could be a different survival advantage - bitter tasting chemicals like green tea and wine may offer protection against cancer.

Question 14

Evaluate a learned taste aversion as an evolutionary explanation for food preference.

Answer 14

S - rats learned an aversion to sweet water when paired with a poison that made them sick. Also the ‘scapegoat technique’ helps people going through medical treatments eat. They eat a novel food with a familiar food so if they become ill they associate it with the novel food and can continue to eat normally.
C - alcohol
C - can’t extrapolate
I - reductionist to biology, and determinist as says we have little influence on our food choices. Ethical issues - should NHS refuse treatments for obesity related illness??

Question 15

(Social learning) How can classical and operant conditioning explain food preference?

Answer 15

Classical: flavour - flavour learning. We associate one flavour with one we already like eg porridge and syrup
Operant conditioning: parents night reward children for eating certain foods to increase liking of foods, or use a food as a reward for eating another food.

Question 16

(Social leaning) How can social learning explain food preferences?

Answer 16

Children may observe a role model eating a certain food and enjoying it or getting praised for eating it. The child then imitates this. They may also observe parents or media figures getting pleasure from a certain food.

Question 17

Evaluate social factors as a learned explanation for food preference.

Answer 17

S - pre school children told a story about imaginary foods hoop and hule. In the non- reward condition they ate hoop then hule; in the reward they got hoop as a reward for eating hule. The children preferred the food used as a reward. (Lab study = low ecological validity, poor validity). Also 4 consecutive days children sat next to peers w different vegetable preference and after 4 days there was a shit in preference which was shown many weeks later.
I - can’t account for widespread similarity in differences. Also reductionist
P - parenting and healthy foods

Question 18

How is culture a learning explanation for food preference?

Answer 18

Culture provides us with norms, ideals and customs centred around food. Eg unhealthy food on weekend or birthday cake. Cultural tradition is the strongest indicator of food. We learn culture through reinforcement and social learning. This establishes social norms about food eg what we think is gross and average meal size.

Question 19

Evaluate culture as a learned explanation for food preference.

Answer 19

S - in community w equal access to shops and food, Muslims intake of carbs twice that if Christian communities. 70% of Germans had a preference to biscuits but only 35% of Cypriots did.
C - a study found that food advertising had an effect on food preferences and food intake but results varied. Also evolutionary theory explains more eg innate preferences. Finally other factors that affect rating such as health.