Why Does Unhealthy Food Taste Good?

[Gizmo j]

Healthy food should taste GOOD and unhealthy food should taste BAD!

Why did God make the opposite true?

 

[lxskllr]

There is no god. Unhealthy food tastes good cause it's the best at ensuring survival. Humans evolved to seek it out, and companies evolved to enhance those qualities.

 

[Torn Mind]

Nutrients in excess leads to ecosystem deaths. (think algae blooms).

Basically, death by excess is one way nature corrects itself...although we humans have become especially adept devising ways to obstruct nature's mechanisms.(But also will find excuses to kill without shame)

I, just like many others, have a fondness for simple carbohydrates, which causes health issues, with periodontitis being the most overt damage so far. Possibly cancer and insulin resistance damage in the future(mom is prediabetic based on A1C, my younger sis had a borderline A1C and she's only 32 and not fat).

In addition, the properties of bitterness or other things is for the preyed upon organism to preserve themselves. The tasty fruits that exist in grocery stores are probably due to "human guided selection".

Also to note, "primal intuition" values the liver and other offal as food(and the value of liver permeated the language almost every culture but the post-Industrial West), and as far as taste goes, liver is quite repulsive to most mouths.

 

[pete6032]

Our bodies crave these things because they are high in calories and fat and protect against starvation. Starvation is no longer a problem but our biology hasn't figured that out.

 

[dullard]

There is no reason that healthy food shouldn't taste just as good to you. The key is to realize that we don't just like sugar as a flavor. Try herbs and spices to their max.

If a healthy vegetable full meal isn't delicious or doesn't make you fully satisfied, then you are doing it wrong.

 

[Mai72]

**POUNDS THE TABLE!!**

Unhealthy foods is the devil!!!

 

[TheELF]

There is no god. Unhealthy food tastes good cause it's the best at ensuring survival. Humans evolved to seek it out, and companies evolved to enhance those qualities.

This.

Also for evolution to occur it's enough for humans to reach sexual maturity and not much beyond that, get the kids on their way and that's it. So there is no reason for (or is it in? ) evolution to have humans be healthy.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Why did God make the opposite true?

Name one natural food that tastes good yet it is very bad for your health.

 

[igor_kavinski]

(mom is prediabetic based on A1C, my younger sis had a borderline A1C and she's only 32 and not fat).

They eat fried food. That's the only explanation for someone not fat and yet be at risk of Type 2 diabetes. Their livers and pancreas have accumulated fat. Make them give up fried food for three months, make them go on walks and three months later, they will be out of the danger zone. Be the man of the house!

 

[Torn Mind]

They eat fried food. That's the only explanation for someone not fat and yet be at risk of Type 2 diabetes. Their livers and pancreas have accumulated fat. Make them give up fried food for three months, make them go on walks and three months later, they will be out of the danger zone. Be the man of the house!

Asians might have a lower threshold for diabetic precursors.

There's a reason a BMI is 23 is now enough for Medicare to cover diabetes screening while others have a threshold of 25 or more. Even that selected number is for full-blown diabetes, not prediabetes, so a BMI of 21-22 is just enough to be a threat.

Screen at 23 – Type 2 Diabetes Risk at Lower BMI for Asians and Asian Americans

diatribe.org

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/ncapa/pages/66/attachments/original/1463679537/NCAPA_Webinar_Type_2_Diabetes_and_Screen_at_23_5.16.16.pdf?1463679537

Yes, they do eat fried food; it's often gluntinous rice pancakes cooked in Wesson or the like...because thanks a lot veggie oil lobby and saturated fat FUD. Add on the "never go to waste", and thus old vegetable oil is used until the bottle is run dry. Since I don't eat that much anymore...they do.

And I suspect a couple thousand years of evolutionary selection led to such discrepancies, basically, he who cannot handle a rice-heavy diet shall not successfully breed.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Yes, they do eat fried food; it's often gluntinous rice pancakes cooked in Wesson or the like...because thanks a lot veggie oil lobby and saturated fat FUD. Add on the "never go to waste", and thus old vegetable oil is used until the bottle is run dry. Since I don't eat that much anymore...they do.

Try to change their minds and influence them to eat healthier. Diabetes is no joke. Limb amputation, cancer and heart disease risks for diabetics increase drastically. It's not a matter of taking meds to control sugar. Eventually, those meds will fail and then it's a really slow, painful death. Meds/insulin injections are never the answer to a problem which wouldn't exist if people only ate sensibly. It's not like the world will run out of food tomorrow. Going to bed with a light snack instead of a heavy dinner never killed anyone.

 

[Kaido]

Healthy food should taste GOOD and unhealthy food should taste BAD!

Why did God make the opposite true?

 

[MrSquished]

Part of the reason is that cheap processed foods have been pushed on us because they are hyper profitable while appealing to core flavor profiles and are easy to market as well, due to all that profit. When that's what's been pushed on you and you are not exposed to much else, you not only don't eat the healthier foods, but you actually look down on them.

I can say this as someone who partially thought that way for a bit. It's definitely a big part of American consumer capitalism.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't care how you prepare it, broccoli will never taste as good as cheesecake.

 

[Torn Mind]

Part of the reason is that cheap processed foods have been pushed on us because they are hyper profitable while appealing to core flavor profiles and are easy to market as well, due to all that profit. When that's what's been pushed on you and you are not exposed to much else, you not only don't eat the healthier foods, but you actually look down on them.

I can say this as someone who partially thought that way for a bit. It's definitely a big part of American consumer capitalism.

The disdain may be simply a visceral response that exists even in the womb.

Consider:

Taste of kale makes unborn babies grimace, finds research

First study to look at facial responses of foetuses to tastes shows crying expression twice as likely for kale than carrot

www.theguardian.com

Out of the natural world, potatoes and tomatoes are more pleasing to me than Ho-Hos or Twinkies, or soda for that matter.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't care how you prepare it, broccoli will never taste as good as cheesecake.

How about "Broccholi Cheesecake"? I think it's spelled "Quiche".

 

[iCyborg]

Name one natural food that tastes good yet it is very bad for your health.

Death caps reportedly have a pretty good taste.

 

[snoopy7548]

Name one natural food that tastes good yet it is very bad for your health.

Bacon.

 

[Muse]

Healthy food should taste GOOD and unhealthy food should taste BAD!

Why did God make the opposite true?

because your stupid

Part of the reason is that cheap processed foods have been pushed on us because they are hyper profitable while appealing to core flavor profiles and are easy to market as well, due to all that profit. When that's what's been pushed on you and you are not exposed to much else, you not only don't eat the healthier foods, but you actually look down on them.

I can say this as someone who partially thought that way for a bit. It's definitely a big part of American consumer capitalism.

Bingo!

 

[Muse]

I don't care how you prepare it, broccoli will never taste as good as cheesecake.

Broccoli is genetically determined for the most part. Cheesecake is very definitely not. There are myriad cheesecake recipes, so citing cheesecake is a fallacy here. I make a relatively healthy cheesecake (German cottage cheesecake), made one yesterday, it's in my fridge.

 

[dullard]

Bacon.

The request was for natural foods. Bacon is far from natural since it is cured and filled with items that are not naturally occurring in pork belly. That said, 3 slices of bacon have less calories than a can of Mountain Dew and have lots of protein. I wouldn't call bacon extremely healthy due to the curing process, but it is far from unhealthy (the "fat is bad" myth has been disproven so many times).

 

[Torn Mind]

Bacon.

I would say most of the taste comes from the salt and in some cases, dextrose(basically another name for glucose).

I don't think anyone gravitates to unflavored pork belly, which is why preparation always introduces something to enhance flavor, regardless of method. The Asian methods of braising pork belly cubes will throw in some salt and sweetening to make the dish too.

 

[Muse]

The request was for natural foods. Bacon is far from natural since it is cured and filled with items that are not naturally occurring in pork belly. That said, 3 slices of bacon have less calories than a can of Mountain Dew and have lots of protein. I wouldn't call bacon extremely healthy due to the curing process, but it is far from unhealthy (the "fat is bad" myth has been disproven so many times).

The bacon I buy has no nitrates or nitrites, likely other health enhancements over Farmer John's or other standard brands. I eat about 1/2 a strip a week (on my weekly pizza, DIY). No Mountain Dew, in fact I've never let it cross my lips.

 

[Kaido]

The bacon I buy has no nitrates or nitrites, likely other health enhancements over Farmer John's or other standard brands. I eat about 1/2 a strip a week (on my weekly pizza, DIY). No Mountain Dew, in fact I've never let it cross my lips.

Welllllllll

 

[lxskllr]

There used to be a completely nitrate free bacon. It was salt cured and you had to rinse it off before cooking. This was loooong ago, and probably doesn't exist anymore. Got a moldy pack one time.