Recently, Pizza Hut and coriander have been on the "bar". Shouting "Coriander blood, awaken again", Pizza Hut China launched "a lot of coriander preserved egg beef pizza" and "coriander beating lemon juice", only to see that the cup was full of coriander, and the coriander spread on the pizza was even greener - covering all the preserved egg beef.
Previously, Pizza Hut also launched "a lot of coriander pig ear pizza"|Source: Pizza Hut China Weibo
It's not just Pizza Hut who has come up with the idea of coriander. On February 5 this year, Huiyuan Juice also issued a notice, saying that it would launch coriander juice, and this drink is 100% fruit and vegetable juice, which can be drunk directly or used as sauce seasoning. Further back, White Elephant has launched coriander flavored instant noodles, and McDonald's has launched coriander ice cream......
After all, as a vegetable that can set up a separate anniversary for it "World Hates Coriander Day", coriander has always been a hot topic. Unexpectedly, for these new coriander products, consumer evaluations are also polarized, some people feel that "one bite into the soul", and some people feel that "they can't bear to look at it directly". Why is coriander so controversial? Why is it called coriander when it is obviously "the smell of dead bed bugs"? The two camps of coriander say that coriander is "the smell of dead bed bugs", not a malicious smear. Most of the green cilantro leaves we see in our daily life, and the coriander seeds that Westerners eat more often are corriandor, and the root of the English word for coriander seeds comes from the Greek word koris, which means "bed bug". In fact, the results of the analysis of the chemical composition of coriander leaves show that the main source substances of coriander taste are about 82% aldehydes and 17% alcohols, and there are similar aldehydes in soap, so some people also think that coriander has a soapy smell. Although the taste of coriander is "strange", on the whole, the proportion of people who hate coriander is not large.
According to the survey results of the University of Toronto, Canada, 21% of East Asians, 17% of Europeans and 14% of Africans in the global population cannot tolerate coriander, with East Asia accounting for the highest proportion. Among South Asians and Hispanics who often use coriander for cooking, 7% and 4% of them don't like cilantro, respectively.
It can be seen that human beings' likes and dislikes of coriander are greatly affected by dietary habits, but there are also a small number of "stubborn elements" who resist coriander stubbornly. Scholars at the University of Toronto conducted further research and analysis on the genes of 30,000 volunteers and found the OR6A2 olfactory receptor gene, which hates coriander. The OR6A2 olfactory receptor gene specifically receives information about aldehydes contained in coriander, but there is a variation in this gene, and the mutated OR6A2 olfactory receptor gene can change the taste of coriander, making people disgusted with coriander. Two other research teams from Canada and the United States have also identified three other genes that cause aversion to coriander, two of which contain genes for receiving bitter tastes and one for receiving pungent odors, such as mustard. In other words, not liking cilantro is likely to be genetically determined. However, genes don't determine everything. A team of researchers at the University of Toronto has calculated that the influence of genetics on cilantro preference is actually less than 10% – people's sense of taste changes with age.
This means that some of the people who received coriander, who may have also hated coriander at one time, later "reconciled" with coriander. Some people's love for coriander is not from beginning to end, they may not like it when they are young, but they like it when they grow up. This is due to the fact that human tastes, like appearance, change with age, mainly due to the number and sensitivity of taste buds. Babies have the most taste buds, with more than 30,000 taste buds scattered in their mouths, so eating is a very "stimulating" process for babies - if you let their food look and smell all the time. As a result, baby food is mostly tasteless. At this time, the baby's main task is to absorb calories and grow quickly, so the taste buds only seek fat and high-sugar milk. Sour and salty are not the target of the taste buds, and bitter tastes are rejected as toxic substances. The preference for sweetness does not subside until puberty, and during this period, the slightest bitterness in some foods will be amplified by sensitive taste buds, so children will always eat less sugar and more vegetables under the coercion and temptation of their parents, and most people will also resist eating vegetables in childhood. By the teenage years, this is the time when older kids start drinking coffee, trying alcohol, and other adult foods that they take pride in, but most of the time these things are not delicious for teenagers. Because the development of taste nerves is not yet ready for them to enjoy foods with a strong bitter taste. As eating habits mature, adults are more receptive to foods with stronger tastes, and there is also a view that because the sense of taste begins to become less sensitive as they age, people become more tolerant of some pungent tastes. Therefore, some people do not love coriander, but the time has not yet come. Of course, people who don't get along with coriander can't rule out that some people hate eating coriander all their lives, and they have repeatedly seen others chewing coriander, and they also want to understand the deliciousness, but every time they end up miserable. There is nothing to be frustrated about, let us look at this question from a grand historical perspective and a view of life: in terms of taste, some people have more types of food that they dislike than others, which is the result of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. After eating food that makes you uncomfortable, your brain will determine that you are "poisoned" and the next time you see, smell or even think about the food, it will generate a "disgust" that will make the individual never want to try the food again. In ancient times, it was through this mechanism that people avoided all harmful and poisonous foods, so that they could not be eliminated as much as possible. Specifically, today's operation process is as follows: in the morning you drink a cup of coffee that you must drink every day, and at noon your colleague invites you to eat at a new Indian restaurant downstairs, you have never eaten Indian food, but you really want to try it, so you go to this restaurant and order a lot of dishes made in a way that you have never experienced before. At three o'clock in the afternoon you feel unwell, dizzy, and want to throw up. Your brain starts to strain: "It's over, buddy, you're poisoned." "And then, sorry, from now on you are insulated from Indian food. In other words, the human brain is not sure what exactly causes you to get sick, and only uses the elimination method: "I have been drinking a cup of coffee every day for a whole year, it can't be it, it must be the meal I ate today, which I have never seen before." I said it looked weird!" "But because there's a good chance you won't know that the culprit is coffee, and you won't know that your aversion to Indian food is irrational." So, the reason why you hate cilantro may also be some chance that you can't remember it, and your brain is wrong for coriander. The bad news is that the brain of the wrong coriander will be missed. A new study in Brazil has found that the "apigenin" in coriander has the "brain function" of promoting the formation of brain cells and enhancing the connection between brain cells. Of course, we can also get brain-strengthening nutrients from other vegetables such as celery and red peppers. Finally, if you really can't eat it but want to try coriander, here's a "secret recipe": crush the leaves of the coriander to convert the aldehydes in the stems and leaves into other unscented substances, which can help dilute the "dead smell of bed bugs". Author: Min Min Zhang Xiaojian Editor: Chen Yanni Duty Editor: Min Min
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