Why does meat taste so "yummy"? What specific sense-organ is involved
In this forum, you will explore some aspects of modern human food cravings, by examining the biology of specific taste-senses. You will also explore the ideology of meat in modern American culture.
Answer one of the following questions, using your texts, lecture notes and quality outside sources:
1. Why does meat taste so "yummy"? What specific sense-organ is involved? What other foods involve this taste? Use at least one reference.
2. Many researchers think that modern humans have a craving for meat and other savory foods because meat is a high-protein food that was rare in early hominin history. Evaluate this theory based on logic and evidence in your LN and other readings for this week.
3. Using your readings for this week, critically examine the pro-meat ideology of modern American culture. What are the components of this ideology? What are the disadvantages of maintaining this ideology?
4. How does understanding that the preference for savory food probably stems from no-longer relevant environmental conditions help you to encourage others to consider modern sources of protein in place of meat? How would you use what you learned this week, concerning biology AND culture, to help them to improve their health with less red meat in particular?
5. A group of medical researchers has hypothesized that humans also have a fat molecule taste organ, so far undiscovered, that encourages us to seek a high-fat diet based on the scarcity of fat in early hominin diets. Where did early hominins get fat in their diets? What are at least two sources of healthy fats in the modern American supermarket?
6. How does understanding that this preference for fatty food probably stems from no-longer relevant environmental conditions help you to encourage others to consider eating exclusively healthy fats, and less fat overall? How would you use what you learned this week to help them to improve their health?
Learning Objectives:
• Describe fats and "savory" food and where they are obtained in nature
• Trace the evolution of early human typical diets through the industrial age and show how modern human societal problems with over-eating meat and fat have bases in biology
• Examine the pro-meat ideology of modern American culture
• Use recent sociology research to explore how to influence Americans toward healthier diets