Why do you feel the first bite is the best when you eat?

Because this is the brain’s programmed program .

——“It” hopes that you can eat more kinds of food and obtain more comprehensive nutrition.

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When we eat amazing food, we often can’t help wow~ in our hearts; but as we eat, the feeling of wow~ becomes less and less, or even disappears.

We would explain this phenomenon with reasons such as tiredness, taste fatigue, and diminished marginal utility .

But how can the sense of taste get tired, and how do people get tired of eating?

In 2021, a scientific research team explained the reason with “magnetic resonance brain imaging” technology.


They prepared a range of scents – pure food, pure non-food, and mixtures of the two in varying proportions.

The purpose is to allow volunteers to distinguish whether the smell contains food components in the state of fasting and full.

That is to test the sensitivity of volunteers to the smell of food in different states .

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So, they got the first result (Figure A below): After eating, everyone’s sensitivity to the smell of food decreased .

So, the first bite to eat is the best, is it because of hunger?

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Someone went on to raise the question: is this due to insensitivity due to fullness, or is it due to fatigue with a particular smell?

They went on to categorize food: same type of food, and different type of food.

For example, smelling pizza → eating bread → smelling pizza are different types of food, and smelling pizza → eating pizza → smelling pizza is the same type of food.

It turned out that only the group that smelled and ate the same type of food showed a reduction in sensitivity (Figure B/E) —while eating pizza, we reduced our sensitivity to the smell of pizza.

That is to say, if only the first and last bites are pizza, and the middle is full with a pile of bread, the first and last bites of pizza should taste basically the same (Figure C/F).

So, the answer is that the brain has gone from being sensitive to insensitive to persistent, specific smells?

Neither.


The researchers scanned the brain with “magnetic resonance brain imaging” technology and marked the response areas of the brain to different odors.

to study what is going on in the brain throughout the process.

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It turns out that the problem lies in the interpretation of the brain : under the continuous stimulation of the smell of food, the brain will parse the smell into the taste of non-food.

For example, I am having a good time eating this pizza, and my mouth turns into the taste of pine trees when I eat it. . . It’s too magical.

Not only that, but the brain will also prompt you – what flavor of food I want to eat in the next bite .

Sensory scientists found that:
After eating salty foods, people’s cravings for salty and greasy tastes decrease, and their cravings for other tastes (sour, sweet, and bitter) increase.

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Of course, this is because the brain is sending out the prompt: pay attention to the variety of food!

——Just like after eating oily and salty meat, it reminds you to eat some sour and sweet fruits.

And my personal experience is that this kind of prompt does not necessarily happen immediately.

For example, every time I travel to a place, I will be particularly fascinated by the local food, but after eating it for a week, it seems that it is not so delicious.

If the timeline is longer

——The food that I thought was delicious when I was a child is not so delicious now. Could it be the same reason?

at last

When you eat, the first bite feels the best, probably because only the first bite is 100% of the real taste of the food.

Of course, this is because the brain is reminding us to eat more of other foods and pay attention to nutritional variety.

In that case, cherish every bite of food.

After all, every bite will be different.

–thanks for reading.

material:

  1. Chaaban, N.; Andersen, BV Sensory Specific Desires. The Role of Sensory Taste Exposure in Desire for Food with a Similar or Different Taste Profile. Foods 2021, 10, 3005.
  2. Shanahan LK, Bhutani S, Kahnt T (2021) Olfactory perceptual decision-making is biased by motivational state. PLoS Biol 19(8): e3001374.

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Further reading:

Why do people eagerly swallow something delicious instead of chewing it for a while?

What stupid things have you done in order to eat delicious food?

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