Food connects us. And I don’t just mean an across-the-dinner-table kind of connection. I mean viscerally – biologically, even. Food connects us on a genetic level. The way we taste transcends cultures, continents and generations.
If you follow this column, you may already know that I get most of my interesting information from podcasts. And this week’s news is no different.
On a recent TED Radio Hour episode titled “The Five Senses,” I learned that all babies are born innately loving sweet tastes and hating bitter tastes, preferences that evolved over millennia. The reason goes back to our foraging days – when sugary foods, like ripe fruit, supplied more energy – whereas bitter foods implied toxicity.
The more sensitive one’s palate, the greater one’s chance of survival – which leaves me with just one pressing question: What does it say about my genetic makeup that I love black licorice?