Why issit that - ?!


Question:

Why issit that - ?

things that are bad for you like cakes and cookies tastes sooo good and things that the body needs tastes horrible such as sprouts?


Answers:
Good Question: Why Do Bad Foods Taste So Good?

Ben Tracy
Reporting

(WCCO) When you get hungry, what do you crave? Chances are it is not always healthy. We know we should be eating our vegetables, but so often, we reach for the cake or cookies.

We all have our guilty pleasures.

"Far and away Taco Bell," said a local man.

"It's horrible for you, but it tastes so good," said another man.

But why do bad foods often taste so good?

"Those (tastes) are fundamentally wired in," said Dr. Zata Vickers, a food scientist at the University of Minnesota. "We are programmed to learn to like those (bad foods)."

Research shows we are born with innate likes for three tastes: sweet, salty and umami, which is the taste found in meats and broth.

"We are wired to like the high-fat foods because they are the most caloric," said Vickers.

It goes back to when we were hunter-gatherers and needed to focus on the most calorie-rich foods to stay alive. The problem now is that food is no longer scarce and our biology can get the best of us.

One woman said she craves cake far more than she craves carrots.

Much of this is psychological and is about how we have been conditioned since childhood.

"If you go to a birthday party, that is a lot of fun, when you are a kid and you go to a birthday party and what do they have? They have candy or some cake," said Vickers.

Researchers said our liking for foods increase when they are paired with fun. It is no coincidence McDonald's calls it a Happy Meal and puts a toy in the box.

There is also something we do wrong at the dinner table. When parents are trying to get their kids to eat their vegetables they often say, if you eat your peas you can have dessert.

"If you want your kid to like peas that is not a good thing to do at all," said Vickers.

That's because when we use rewards for eating better, we tend to like those healthy foods even less and like the reward food even more.

There are also three tastes we innately dislike: bitter, sour and foods that burn. So how does that explain our obsession with coffee and spicy foods?

Most of us learn to like these tastes for social reasons. Remember your first beer? It didn't taste great, but we override our pre-programmed tastes by repeated exposure. That's what we call an acquired taste.

Source(s):
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_320193...

you're obviously only 11 yrs old.
sprouts taste great. (ok. not as good as chocolate.)

sprouts are nice!

Your body needs sugar too, so have your cake and eat it!

the things that are bad for us are only bad because we eat so much of it............ because it tastes so good!!!!!


mmmmm chocolate cake

sprouts are lovely....esp raw....plus you get the hiccups eating them raw (Well i do!!)

i love sprouts, every in moderation is best.

If you eat a sweet then have a cup of tea with sugar it almost taste like there is no sugar in it. If the diet consists of alot of sugar then when you do eat natural and not so sweet items its very difficult to taste how wonderful it is as the tastebuds are used to sugar. I cut out sugar from my diet myself, but admit that I didn't stick to it for long, and its interesting how my tastebuds seemed to wake up after a while and taste how amazing foods are. I don't think that cakes and cookies are that bad for you as long as its in moderation and some of my favourite foods are vegetables/fruit.

Cakes aren't bad for you. It's when you eat too much of it that when it's bad for you.

Vegies don't taste bad either - they just aren't sugary like cakes and cookies. I love steam carrots with a bit of honey. Now, you wouldn't think that would taste bad, would you?

Green tea is good for you - yet it doesn't taste bad. It is so refreshing.

You just need to get the right "good food" that you can get to like.

I totally agree with you lol! Why are all these crazy people on here saying sprouts are nice? Suppose we can compromise and have a cookie with a strawberry on top!

Its my opinion that people with a higher degree of addictiveness[we are all addictive to a certain degree] tend to use food to make themselves feel good in the short term.

when we were hunter gatherers/primitive farmers sugar was in short supply and was a treat [sweet fruits that usually had a short season of cropping] honey and sugar was more valuable as a preservative [ the lucky Asians had the sugar cane] so it was seen as something special.

sugar is high energy so our brain goes yum - easy eating.

another reason, I feel that British and American [ white derived] culture have not developed the respect for the veg as continental, Asian and other cultures have. norhern European cultures tend to cook veg separately in lots of water, not amalgamate them in meat dishes or with each other so much and favour the potato and flour as the high energy option.

this is because before trading became easy and before we realised we could grow in our climate/get other foods/spices from other cultures : we had become entrenched in our own cooking styles and were slow to embrace the "strange". Britain being an island race found it easier to be a food racist

saying that I wish sprouts had stayed in Brussels and I would rather have their chocolate

know wot ya mean i love all things that are bad for me

Because life is just unfair I guess.

Not all healthy foods are disgusting though - try snacking on dried fruit like figs and raisins. High in iron yet sweet & delicious.

Dark chocolate is apparently good for you too!




The consumer Foods information on foodaq.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007 FoodAQ - Terms of Use - Contact us - Privacy Policy

Food's Q&A Resources