Question

Young children often develop strong food preferences that sometimes seem bizarre to their parents --- such as wanting to eat only a certain food prepared in a familiar way, or being reluctant to each new foods or foods with strong or bitter tastes (like coffee and some vegetables). Develop an evolutionary explanation for such preferences. What evidence would you gather to investigate your hypothesis and rule out alternative explanations?

Answer 1

First food humans taste when they are born is breast milk which contains sugar in the form of lactose. Now sugar easily breaks down to mono saccharide which can be absorbed by the body to produce energy. As energy is the primary requirement in the growing years , so kids have a natural craving to sweet food. on the other hand bitter tasting food contains very less sugar which can be broken down easily , so it is generally avoided by children. Sour foods provides a good alternate to baby's diet which is predominantly sweet. So sweet and sour percepting taste buds are very active in children. When we grow old our neural activity declines and we get accustomed to taste of bitter coffee nad vegetables.