Why don’t you like everything?
One person already feels queasy at the thought of cheese, while another loves it but can’t stand chicory. How is that possible? Why don’t we like everything?
Taste expert Bob Cramwinckel has been researching taste for years and even wrote a book about it. In the AD, he explains why one person likes something and another doesn’t.
It has to do with your senses, but even more with other factors: “What the food looks like, where you taste something, who you eat with, the expectations you have of a dish. Your senses do try to accommodate our experience of taste. They serve your ideas and beliefs.”
Beliefs?
“A product isn’t tasty in itself; it is considered tasty. Just ask a vegetarian what steak tastes like.”
According to Cramwinckel, the reverse is also true. “My wife and I went out for dinner with a friend at a vegan restaurant. We thought it was like sawdust—so dry. He did like it. Why don’t I like it, I asked myself. I concluded that it was too one-dimensional. The dishes didn’t look appealing: everything was the same brown colour. I thought: you have to be a committed vegan to enjoy this. Apparently, a feeling about a product also determines your taste experience.”
Biological
There may also be a biological cause. Have you ever had food poisoning, from a bad mussel, for example? Then there’s a good chance you’ll never like mussels again.
Okay, we understand those associations. But chicory, Brussels sprouts and celery don’t (usually) make you ill, so how can it be that many people—especially children—don’t like them?
Sweet vs bitter
Cramwinckel: “Taste begins with breast milk. Anything that resembles it later on is experienced as tasty. Some breast milk is richer than other breast milk, depending on your mother’s lifestyle. Whether or not she smoked, whether she drank alcohol. But broadly speaking, you grow up with sweet and creamy flavours. You’re familiar with them.
What you eat afterwards is measured against what is fresh. Fresh carrots are experienced as slightly sweet. Old, tough ones as bitter. Just like Brussels sprouts, these are registered as ‘not fresh’. Some things you have to learn to eat. Your taste memory is constantly being filled with experiences and associations. Your first beer tastes bitter and—when enjoyed with your friends—suddenly tastes good. Tasty is an experience of value. Your worldview determines how you experience something, and that keeps changing.”
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