The flavors we experience when eating and drinking, involve more than just our sense of taste. Specifically, when we dine in a fancy restaurant, the presentation of the food could have a big impact to how much we enjoy it. We may unconsciously judge a meal based on how it looks, and if we think it does not look appetizing, we may also think it does not taste good. Our sight may also trick us into thinking something tastes a specific way based on how it looks. The book provides and example of two drinks (one orange flavored and the other lime flavored) which are dyed to be the opposite drinks color (orange dyed green and lime dyed orange), in order to see the effects our vision has on our taste. In this example, someone may see the orange different, and report tasting orange flavor, despite it being the lime drink. As for how our sense of smell would effect the experience, we may consider having the person hold their breath when taking a spit, so the experience is strictly based on sight.
Our sense of smell has a great impact on how we may or may not enjoy certain foods. This idea takes me back a few years and reminds me of a show I used to watch, which implied that our sense of smell affects our taste. In one episode, the boy mentions how when he eats his moms food he learned to hold his breathe when taking a bite; (his mom wasn't the best cook) this allowed for the food to be tolerable because he didn't experience the aroma that would turn him away. I mainly noticed the truth behind this when Covid-19 took over. When I had covid, I only lost my sense of smell, and I noticed a difference in how things tasted. Considering that covid also took away many individuals taste, this may overall create a bigger change in how we eat food. Personally, I think certain foods will be more tolerable if it wasn't for its taste, like olives. I can't enjoy the taste or smell of olives, but the texture wouldn't bother me. If I were to also eat it blindly, hold my breathe, and only rely only on sense of touch, it would be very tolerable. This shows how all sense combined, we can have very different experiences with foods.
Very interesting! I always find it fascinating when I'm sick and my food is so bland.
ReplyDeleteI chose to write about this topic aswell!
ReplyDeleteI found it pretty fascinating to learn the science behind why I do not care to absolutely anything that tastes foul. What you wrote about olives is pretty interesting too. Even though you don't like the smell or the taste, you'd still be willing to blindly go for them, because the texture isn't so bad. Personally, the only way I see that going well for me, is if I do not know that what I'm consuming is something I don't traditionally enjoy. Otherwise, it'd be pretty tough to get me to oblige.
I do hope you get to try it out one day just for research purposes and let us know how it went!
- Luci