Foods - Preferences

Something that I learned in the food chapter is that there are two different kinds of food preferences. There are innate food preferences and conditioned food preferences. The difference between the two is that one comes along with birth, and the other is more of a learned behavior. When referring to innate preferences, there was a study within the chapter that showed a mother who drank carrot juice during pregnancy and breast feeding verses a mother who did not. It showed that the child preferred carrot flavored cereal when the mother drank the carrot juice and the child who was not exposed to the carrot juice did not like or prefer the carrot flavored cereal. This study shows innate preference in action. Conditioned preferences is a learned desire for a type of food. Two behaviors that goes along with conditioned preferences are mere-exposure effect and taste aversion. mere- exposure effect is when being exposed to the same foods over again result in an increased liking for that food when taste aversion is a strong dislike for a food due to a bad experience or bad taste. I found an interesting TedEd video that explains the mere- exposure effect in a way that helps us understand the definition while also pulling in other factors besides food. https://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2014/09/september-4-2014.html