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If you speak with vegetarians/vegans who have been raised that way and never eaten meat you will find many that are repulsed by it. Nurture seems to be able to
by jebarker 1y ago
If you speak with vegetarians/vegans who have been raised that way and never eaten meat you will find many that are repulsed by it. Nurture seems to be able to override nature here and, as far as I’m aware, there’s no strong evidence that we’re born with an inherent taste for meat, we’re just born with bodies that need certain nutrients that are easily obtained from meat but can be found elsewhere.
- UltraSane 1y agoI would be willing to bet if a lifelong vegan hadn't eaten in days and smelled a freshly cooked bacon cheeseburger they would start salivating. And I bet they would find it delicious if they ate it.
- saagarjha 1y agoI think it would be more like the reaction a "normal" meat eater would have when presented with a strange food, like snails, or grasshoppers. You'd probably eat it in desperation but I don't think it would register as food.
- UltraSane 1y agoNo. Humans have actually evolved to find the smell and taste of COOKED meat to be delicious because it is so energy and nutrition dense eating it gave a huge evolutionary advantage to people who ate it.
- saagarjha 1y agoJust because something is evolutionarily advantageous doesn't mean everyone has to like it. Otherwise ace people would not exist at all…
- UltraSane 1y agoThis is the same kind of hardwired response that makes humans find the smell of rotten things disgusting.
- saagarjha 1y agoI assure you that many vegan/vegetarian people feel the same way about meat. It is inherently repulsive because they have no experience with it or have lost its taste. This isn’t something that just reactivates because they’re hungry; you’d have to reacclimate them to meat before it will go away.
- UltraSane 1y agoAnd I simply don't find such claims plausible based on the facts of human evolution. Even someone who has never smelled putrid tissue before will find the smell revolting. Finding the smell of cooked meat appetizing is just as hard wired. It would make for a fascinating study. I wonder how they quantify salivation in a lab.
- jebarker 1y agoCan you point to any supporting evidence for the claim that humans have evolved an innate “finding meat delicious trait” or alternatively evidence that suggests it’s not purely cultural? I’m genuinely interested as I haven’t found any evidence supporting the claim.
- UltraSane 1y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/07/how-early-humans-quest-for-food-stoked-the-flames-of-evolution https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/07/how-early-hu...
- jebarker 1y agoI don’t believe that article supports your claim. It doesn’t claim humans innately prefer meat smell/taste, just that we evolved to seek out smell and flavor complexity, which cooking— meat or otherwise - provides. You could just as easily make the same argument about cooked vegetables vs raw vegetables and claim humans have an innate desire for vegetables.
- UltraSane 1y agoVeganism would be a lot more popular if people really found the taste of plants much more delicious than the taste of meat.