Do you think taste and texture in food is acquired?

[SEEING-TO-BELIEVE]

 

[thymeless]

To a large degree people learn to like what they're presented with to eat and taught is valuable feature of that food.

Dogs for example won't eat chili peppers on their own but in Mexico where the dog is treated as part of the family those dogs will eat hot and spicy food and chili peppers because they were socialized to do so.

Similarly there's a lot of foods in Asia that many in the West would not eat. asians value a slipperiness and other textures such as in jellyfish or tendon or tripe to a lesser extent.

Consider many westerners response to natto.

Or even the various pungent foods like Marmite or blue cheese or stinky tofu, limburger 100 year eggs....

And of course there's just the genetic component of what tastes good to you and what doesn't.

I don't like peas or lima beans or liver even though I was often presented with all those as being good foods.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yes, I do. I used to be .... well, ditto on thymless' comment. That took the wind out of my sails! LOL

 

[Silversage]

In a word, yes

 

[pepperhead212]

How else would you have gotten your taste for foods? Genetics? You could argue that, in some ways - FI, some who have more receptors in the tongue, and far more papillae, and these people are often labeled as "super-tasters". They sometimes have jobs for taste testing wines, and similar things, though scent, of course, is another element of taste. And as well as super-tasters, there are also those with far less receptors in their tongues. A friend of mine was one of those, and had almost no sensation for capsaicin in hot peppers! And it's a genetic thing, because his daughter had the same thing! Not quite as resistant, but she would sample things when she was very young, and things I would make for her father and me would be less hot to here, than to me.

My taste for foods I acquired early on, when my family was traveling around, when my Dad was in the Navy. And we were in Spain for 3 years, when we traveled around Europe, plus ate all sorts of foods around Spain, and learned, early on, how to make some things that I make to this day, like the gazpacho! And I remember the Mercado in Madrid - the largest market I have ever been in, and learned about all sorts of foods that remain in my memory until years later. And some of the strange foods I would try in restaurants, just to "gross out" my sister, and that's another way I "acquired" some of my tastes.

 

[HankTank]

Because of reasons, I lost my taste for sugar almost complete early 2019.
I don't use a lot of sugar, or none at all sometimes.
But not tasting sugar meant everything is dull. Tomatoes, strawberries, any fruit: Dull.
Except real Asian spices, even ginger, were still tasty. No mixes, they tasted ugly too.
Overnight end of 2019, my taste was back completely. A feast !

Another thing:
I lived in the UK in the '70's a few years. Used to sweet Dutch/ German pastries with cream, a lot of baked stuff in the UK was not sweet. A shock !
But I started to like it. Those basic tastes of grainy baked things.
We kept visiting the UK often .
Within a few years somewhere early '90's, suddenly waffels, donuts American style were all over the place.
I can not even recall the names of things we ate before that. But miss them !

I know Pixies do not like sugar. Perhaps the unsweetened treats were only in the Celtic parts ?
Still wondering about that.

By the way, German pastries tend to be less sweet compared with the Dutch.

 

[taxlady]

I think taste is mostly acquired, but some of it is inborn. Most people enjoy sweet and salty. In some ways, I think that textural preferences are more personal.

 

[blissful]

Taste buds are regrown every 11 days, so the salty, and the sweet, and other flavors are retaught to each of us depending on what we are eating this past week or so.
I recently stopped eating all shaker salt (and I don't eat processed foods that I don't process), so even my taste buds changed and I taste the food more in its natural state.
Someone said texture is more personal, and I think that is true, and whether we like certain textures may last more of a lifetime than the salty sweet taste receptors.
Our personalities also affect what we eat. If we are open to new things, we try new things, if we are closed to new things, we may not try new things.
@pepperhead212 talks about super tasters, there are super tasters. There are people that taste cilantro as soap, people's urine that smells funny after asparagus, people that find broccoli and certain lettuce as bitter, genetic differences. And cultural differences give us exposure to so many things.