Week 15 - How Memory Shapes our Taste - Jayden Szeto
Have you ever wondered why you sometimes just have a strong craving for certain foods? Or why sometimes some flavors remind you of a different time or place? It turns out, memory actually has a huge impact on our taste preferences and eating habits.
Our brains are made to link smells and tastes to specific memories, creating strong associations that might last your entire life. For example, the smell of cinnamon reminds me of baking with my sister, making me not only want to eat cinnamon rolls but also feel warm and happy. These sensory memories are extremely strong; they not only influence our taste preferences but also affect how we emotionally react to our food.
The foundations of our food preferences are also made in our childhood. The foods we are exposed to early on, where we eat them, and the emotions tied to those experiences shape our food likes and dislikes. For example, if you grew up eating homemade food around a quiet family table, you might want to eat those certain foods and have those types of eating environments in the future. Similarly, if you grew up eating bland and overcooked foods, you might have a strong dislike for those foods in your adulthood.
Food is also a significant part of cultural identity, and memory is something that links the past and present eating experiences. Traditional dishes from our cultural background often carry stories or sentiment that can bring a strong sense of nostalgia. A person of Italian descent, for example, might have memories of making pasta with their grandparents, reinforcing a deep sense of connection to food traditions.
Memory not only affects the foods we like but also our willingness to try new foods. Positive memories of past food explorations could make us less picky eaters in the future. For example, I had a really good experience trying out Japanese foods, so I am always excited to try other new Japanese dishes. Similarly, a bad experience with food will make you less inclined to try new dishes of that type, or just new dishes in general. Our taste preferences can also change over time as we try new foods. For example, after I went to an Indian place once, I ended up going to multiple more Indian restaurants that month.
Hi Jayden, I was drawn to your blog post as I have an interesting relationship with food and dieting. I started with a fairly "normal" diet for the average american child. Soon I found myself lactose intolerant and removed milk from my diet. Starting in about 2019, I became peskitarian, and even had different phases where I removed certain food groups from my diet (The major reason simply seeing if I could keep the commitment). All of this to say that I value certain memories of food in a special manner as I do not plan to revisit them in real life. This brings me to the question of the shifting relevance of this question as we age. I would argue that this topic is only going to become increasingly relevant because many diets become less inclusive as time passes. Still, I think this topic has a special relevance to Highschool students because many of us are going to college and there we will likely experience a dietary shift.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy pieces of information that bring the possibility to expand the conversation and ask more questions. Some questions that arise from this blog post are: How far into childhood are our food preferences made? And how much are we affected by the cultures of our friends and communities compared to our cultures in relation to food preferences? An answer to this last question could be partly supported by your experience of dining at an Indian restaurant and consequently eating out at similar restaurants in the following weeks. I also enjoyed your connection of emotional responses to food. I hadn't previously thought that past emotional responses could also have an effect of taste, but now that I do I can point at examples of this in my own life. I can vividly remember a negative experience with pasta containing mustard in it and given that I have not touched mustard since, there may be more to my decision to just the taste of mustard. Almost everyone has positive or negative feelings associated with certain foods and this made your blog post very relatable.
By beginning your blog post with a question, you engage the audience, encouraging them to think. As they are thinking about your topic this is also an introduction to your topic, a successful introduction as we are started on the same logical path your blog post travels through. I was also interested in your placement of your personal experience at the end of your blog post. Most of the blog posts I have read place personal experiences near the beginning and expand as the post progresses. With your placement, I felt the focus shift from the general to the specific. This encouraged me to only try to connect the topic to myself after having a full view of your message. I still find it interesting how both placing personal experiences at the beginning and end of a message are powerful decisions, yet have different effects.
ReplyDeleteHi Jayden! I enjoyed how the structure of your blog draws readers to relate to their own experiences with food cravings and taste memories. By weaving personal anecdotes and examples with scientific insights, the narrative conveys the complex interconnections between memory and taste preferences. This made me feel a sense of being able to reflect on nostalgic food memories, experiencing hunger or a desire to visit culinary experiences. The incorporation of cultural identity adds a layer of emotional depth, inviting readers to consider how their own cultural background shapes their relationship with food. This reminds of when I used to bake with my neighbors almost every summer, triggering my strong emotional reactions to reflect on the memories of the smell and cravings of the kinds of dishes we made. The discussion of how memory influences willingness to try new foods evokes readers to reflect on their own past experiences. The piece combines personal storytelling with thematic exploration to create a relatable narrative about the impact of memory on relationship with food.