[FRIAM] A thread for why did we first eat or drink that?

[Steve Smith]

Gil=

I don't have a good answer to this one, but experience it myself all the 
time.

SNL writers sure put a fine point on it though:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/bad-decision-family/2868100

In the spirit of thread-twining...   I wonder if this "instinct" 
(habit?) isn't rooted in some kind of group-survival by helping (some 
of) us escape the local minima of "one bad experience"... smearing the 
distinction (maybe?) amongst possible worlds?  A 
semantic/cognitive/perceptual mechanism for annealing in CS speak?

Also, it might be noted that natural pesticides include things like 
garlic and capsacin, suggesting that we are drawn to them *because* they 
are even harsher on our possible parasites than they are on ourselves?

Somewhere I once read something about the positive correlation between 
health-promoting phytonutrients and the commonly associated 
bitter/sour/astringent tastes they come with.   This source barely 
references it... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11101467/   and this 
one addresses the bitter/toxic correlation: 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7878094/

My own PseudoCalvinist upbringing instructed me "it has to taste bad to 
be good (for you)" contradicting (or explaining) Poppinses idea about "a 
spoonful of sugar".

It is also the case that "adult tastes" are almost all "acquired".  Few 
of us really liked our first shot of tequila or even sip of beer or 
wine, and definitely not the first puff of tobacco (or any other herb) 
smoke...

I think I'll go s(n)ort through the stuff in the back of my fridge now!

and another one for the causality impaired:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/do-you-know-what-i-hate/n9296

- Steve


On 12/2/21 11:17 AM, Gillian Densmore wrote:
> While making lunch. I got curious about what might have gone through 
> the first people to not just eat, but keep eating peppery things. I'm 
> sort of picturing a conversation between to dudes where one decides 
> "that thing that just set my mouth on fire? yeah! let me have more!".
>
> What on earth might have possessed humans to keep eating spicey foods? 
> I also wonder the samething about coffee. A hard green fruit seed that 
> you have to flambe to make edible or drinkable.
>
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