SCIENCE OF FALLING IN LOVE WITH FOOD

 

People often turn to food when they're stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. Little daily stresses can cause someone to seek comfort or distraction in food. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine's Day or the celebration of a holiday feast.

 “When we eat delicious food, we get a surge of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is part of the reward system in our brain. It makes us feel good, so we keep eating the food to get that feeling.”

 Your brain records that and if that flavor is coming into the brain at the same time calories are coming in through your stomach, your brain is going to tell you to like that flavor.

 We can see that hormones and neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine are being released in the body to reward you for enjoying a healthy meal, and even the trillions of microorganisms living in your gut microbiome communicate with your brain through neural, inflammatory, and hormonal signals to let you know that.

 So, the stimulation of our senses of smell, sight, taste and hearing can be another reason why we eat. Psychological. Eating is a pleasurable activity, so another reason for eating is because we like a particular food. We may also eat because we are bored, lonely or depressed (often called 'comfort eating').

 The reason people love certain foods and dislike others is based off of than your culture, taste buds, or exposure to food as a child—science says it's actually linked to our genetics.

 The main reason we choose a particular food is because we like the way it tastes. We don''t eat blueberries because they''re an excellent source of antioxidants -- we eat them because they taste good. Taste preferences are present when we''re born, with even babies showing a fondness for sweetness and fats.

 We call a person who truly loves food — food at the highest levels — an epicure. Occasionally, you might find the word epicure used for a person who loves something else, but an epicure is usually someone who delights in fine food.

 Here is an interesting book on love for food titled “When Food Is Love”. Read the preview and then order it to get into the science of falling in love with the food.