I found my mind wandering as I was peeling apples for a pie and, of course, it was wandering around the perimeters of food and human behavior--seemingly two favorite subjects of mine. I was thinking about how my tastes had changed as I got older and how now I DO very much like snails, anchovies, and the like that a few years back I would've never considered even trying. From there my mind wandered to the development of taste buds. Maybe I like these pretty heady flavors now since my buds are a bit more mature, i.e. older. Maybe when I was younger there was just too much taste there to be palatable.
From the point I really began wondering if anyone had ever tracked the developmental patterns of taste buds throughout life; other developmental processes have been tracked (we all know of the love/hate relationships we have with those crazy "what your baby should be doing now" books). Learning applications have been tracked based on the development of the brain...but I wonder if we've done it with taste buds?
Maybe this would once and for all help the age-old dilemma of the school cafeteria lunch battle. If we had a definitive list of categories of tastes that really make a kiddo happy, then we could look at the nutritious and economical foods that would win them over. Just as importantly, let's look at the things that drive them to distraction and not serve those. Hhhhmmm...that sounds almost too simple, doesn't it? Most things are until we get to the over-thinking stage.
I may have to do an extra bit of Googling tonight...now I'm wondering...
have a fine day,
t
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