if you aren't already a believer and worshipper . . .

. . . of the almighty wikipedia, you should be ashamed.

i'm an extremely curious person. i spend a lot of my time wondering about those little things in life: where and when did diamonds become the traditional engagement stone? do we all see the same color "red"? what is the history of the peanut in our culture? oftentimes i'll write down what i'm wondering about in a book so that i can look it up on wikipedia later.

anyway, today i was eating a huge plate of grilled squash and i thought,

wow. what kind of weirdo wants to eat a big plate of squash for dinner?

and then i thought,

i've always liked vegetables. even when i was a kid. i hated white bread and bolonga and mayonnaise and ketchup and i loved mushrooms. i loved beets. i loved spinach. and i always made all the other kids look bad because i could clear my plate with a smile.
unless it was boxed mac and cheese with cut-up hot dogs in it.

and then i asked myself

why do some people like the taste of some foods and other people hate it?

well, wikipedia, you've done it again. you've answered my question and more!




turns out that - besides the factors like age, hormone levels, and stuffy sinuses - there is actually a genetic reason behind what we like to eat! the whole article is here, but it pretty much just says that some of us can taste this one taste more than others and it helps us decide to like or dislike food. cool!

also interesting: there is a formula behind why we like fast food.

E/(s+h)

E is energy. s is the amount of time it takes to get to the food. h is the amount of time it takes to get the food, prepare it, eat it and digest it.

so pretty much the theory is that we want to eat the most amount of calories possible while using the least amount of calories to get it and consume it. what uses less energy than sitting in a car, ordering out the window, eating in the car on the way home and then throwing away all the packaging?

anyway, learning is fun.
especially on wikipedia.