Many people have more or less hateful foods, such as green peppers, shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, celery, milk......
Especially when I was a child, in order not to eat nasty food, I had to fight wits and courage with my elders, and I even had to be taught a hard lesson.
Many of my friends still haunt this experience.
Picky eating has long been seen as a bad habit. And now, we'd better look at it from a different perspective.
Recently, scientists published two papers in the world's top journal Nature, and they found that picky eating may not be a bad thing [1][2].
Avoidance food
Probably a protective mechanism
Allergies, in our minds, are usually an acute physical reaction: after the allergen enters the body, it is excreted through sneezing, coughing, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.
Sometimes it comes with fatal consequences, such as someone who eats seafood, peanuts and goes straight to the ICU.
However, scientists have found that allergies actually have a very hidden manifestation - avoidance.
That's right, no, probably an allergy as well.
Image source: Internet
When the immune system comes into contact with allergens, it signals to the brain that they will avoid them. Here's how it works:
Immune Cells 😱: Hey, brain, our master has eaten something strange 🥦, you should find a way to stop eating it in the future.
🧠 Brain: Roger, I'll notify the "Aversion Center".
🧠 Brain: Orphan bundle nucleus, parabrachial nucleus and amygdala, you can mark this food 🥦 and ask the master not to eat it next time.
Nucleus solitary, parabrachial, and amygdala: horse 🥦
Then the next time we see broccoli:
Image source: giphy.com
During this process, the immune cells responsible for ventilation and signaling are called "mast cells", which look like this:
Image source: "Working Cells"
Ah no, like this:
Image source: Picture Worm Creative
If mast cells are defective and do not ventilate the brain, the animals in the experiment will unsuspectingly ingest the allergen, which can cause diarrhea and trigger a broad immune activation and inflammatory response in the gastrointestinal tract.
So scientists believe that food avoidance is likely an effective defense strategy, and that this type of allergic reaction can limit our exposure to harmful stimuli to prevent further damage.
Image source: Reference [1]
After all, it is obviously wiser and less harmful to "prevent problems before they happen" than to eat them and then excrete them through various reflexes, causing inflammation everywhere in the immune system.
In short, if you take a bite of a certain food and feel particularly disgusted and resist eating it, it may be your allergen.
However, many foods that are labeled as allergies by the immune system are actually harmless.
The author also mentions that "mast cells are significantly conserved in animal evolution" and would rather kill harmful substances by mistake than let them go.
She's really, heartbroken to save your life......
Okay, okay, you're right......
Image source: "Working Cells"
Picky eaters, even if not because of allergies
There may also be other physiological causes
Sometimes, our food aversion is not due to allergies, but to other congenital or acquired factors.
Everyone's sensitivity and acceptance of the smell, taste, and texture of food is different.
For example, the TAS2R38 gene is called the "bitter gene", and different people have different variants of the bitter gene. [3]
People with bitter sensitivity are more inclined to think that many leafy greens are bitter, especially cruciferous plants such as broccoli, cabbage, and kale, and the amount of vegetables consumed daily will also be affected.
Image source: Zhan Kuhailuo
But in the past, it was a survival advantage – easier to avoid the bitter deadly toxin.
Genes such as CD36 affect the preference for fat intake, some people love meat very much, while others don't eat much, and even find pork to have an unacceptable taste.
Some people think that coriander has a bed bug smell, mainly because the gene OR6A2 is responsible for making people more sensitive to aldehydes, which also happens to be the flavor compound of coriander.
There are similar reasons behind the aversion to foods such as shiitake mushrooms, celery, and carrots.
In addition, many people will find that when they were young, they hated food, but when they grew up, they slowly accepted it. This is also well understood from an evolutionary point of view.
Children do not yet have the mature ability to discriminate, and the body will make more decisions to eliminate potential dangers, and carefully protect you, for fear of eating something poisonous and burping.
For example, a test on 8~18-month-old infants found that they hated touching and eating green vegetables, which is similar to their natural aversion to snakes and insects. [4]
When you grow up, you will have the ability to judge and process food independently, and your body will "relax restrictions", and your picky eating will naturally be alleviated.
Therefore, many scholars believe that children's low acceptance of food may be an instinctive protective response, and that picky eating is part of children's normal development.
(Of course, it may simply be unpalatable at home.) ）
These two studies also confirm once again that disgust is never unprovoked, and that the body's instinctive response is often more advanced than thinking.
There are complex physiological reasons behind the pickiness of food, rather than "hypocrisy" and "habitual stinky problems".
Compulsion is not the solution to picky eating
What is certain is that "compulsion" is not a good solution, regardless of the cause of picky eating, and it can lead to a more intense and persistent aversion.
For example, this netizen, because his parents forced him to eat food he didn't like, came up with a "revenge plan":
Image source: Zhihu answerer @ Xiaobawang
Then the birthday is renewed every year, and now it's in its fifth year
In fact, human beings are at the top of the food chain in nature, and there are many kinds of foods that can be eaten, and it is normal for several people not to like to eat, and there are many alternative options in terms of nutrition, so there is no need to be too anxious about this.
Like our audit expert Mr. Wei:
If you have any experience with picky eating, let's talk about it in the comment area (complaining)~
This article is reviewed by experts
Planning and production
策划：Deanna | 监制：Feidi
插图：见标注 | 封面图来源：站酷海洛
bibliography
[1] Plum, T., Binzberger, R., Thiele, R. et al. Mast cells link immune sensing to antigen-avoidance behaviour. Nature 620, 634–642 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06188-0
[2] Florsheim, E.B., Bachtel, N.D., Cullen, J.L. et al. Immune sensing of food allergens promotes avoidance behaviour. Nature 620, 643–650 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06362-4
[3] Reed DR, Knaapila A. Genetics of taste and smell: poisons and pleasures. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2010;94:213-40. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-375003-7.00008-X. PMID: 21036327; PMCID: PMC3342754.
[4] Wertz AE, Wynn K. Thyme to touch: infants possess strategies that protect them from dangers posed by plants. Cognition. 2014 Jan; 130(1):44-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.09.002. Epub 2013 Oct 24. PMID: 24161794; PMCID: PMC3896079.