Describe and Evaluate the Evolutionary Theory of Food Preferences

imbibe and evaluate the evolutionary theory of food penchants According to an evolutionary prelude current human behaviour jakes be understood in terms of how it whitethorn have been adaptive in our ancestral past. evolutionary theorists argon concerned with behaviour which is adaptive and having survival value, these researchers look for last explanations. Current behaviours may be maladaptive and dysfunctional but so-and-so be understood as having been adaptive and functional in most way.To undertake this type of analysis they draw on the theory of internal selection and suggest that all species including humans, make grow through a member of lifelike selection and that altogether those characteristics that confer advantage or at least do not confer disadvantage survive as the species evolve. This is an actionist approach, as an individuals genetic predisposition is assumed to interact with their environment. In terms of take behaviour, an evolutionary psychologist is interested in the avocation questions Are there essential preferences for certain foods? , How would these preferences have been adaptive in the past? and How do these preferences function now? Early research by Davis investigated the occupying behaviour of infants and young children. Davis observed the kinds of choice children living in a paediatric unit made in relation to their diet. ground on her data, Davis concluded that young children have an indispensable, regulatory mechanism and atomic number 18 able to select a healthy diet. However she emphasized that they could only do this if healthy food was available and suggested that the childrens food preferences changed e veryplace time and ere modified by experience. Subsequent research has provided further realise for around form of innate regulatory mechanisms.For example, there is consistent test that newborn babies demonstrate innate food preferences. Using facial expressions and suction behaviour as an index of preference, babies have been shown to prefer sweet sense of taste substances and to reject bitter tastes. There is alike some evidence for an innate preference for flavor, based on animal research, although this has been controversial together, these studies suggest that some food preferences are innate. Beauchamp and Moran (1982) reported however that six month aged(prenominal) babies who were accustomed to drinking sweetened water supply drank more sweetened water than those babies who were not.So although innate food preferences may exist, these may be modified very quickly by learning and familiarity. Our early human ancestors lived in hunter-gatherer communities in which the men were responsible for hunting and the women were responsible for gathering. Their diets consisted mainly of fruits, berries, vegetables and some meat. Our innate food preferences can be explained in different forms. An innate preference for sweet foods would have encouraged commonwealth to eat fr uit with its natural fructose content. Sweet foods in nature provide alpha calories which are motivationed for energy.Natural avoidance of bitter foods would have gartered to protect people from feeding food that was poisonous. This would also have been helped by neophobia. A preference for salt is less easy to explain, although we do know that salt is essential for the atomic number 11 balance in our bodies. Sheep manage their sodium levels by licking course occurring minerals that contain salt because grass has very low sodium content. gay beings on the otherwise hand have very little need for additional salt, particularly if they eat meat.The innate preference for salt may therefore have originally functioned by encouraging people to eat meat. In our ancestral past the main challenge facing people would have been avoiding malnutrition by eating enough food to support a physically active lifestyle. Our innate food preferences may have helped us to survive. However for much of the modern world, food is no continuing incomparable and our lives are no longer as physically active. Nowadays a preference for sweet foods may no longer encourage a person to eat berries, but rather to eat highly calorific, energy-dense foods, much(prenominal) as chocolate bars.Furthermore a preference for salty foods may make haste the consumption of high-fat foods flavoured with salt, such as chips and processed foods. An evolutionary explanation for corpulency has been put forward based on biological preferences for foods which cause overindulge and problems with weight in our modern world, which has been called an obesongenic environment. There are some(prenominal) factors in our environment, such as fast food outlets and cars, which encourage an puffy lifestyle and may contribute to higher levels of obesity.Like biological explanations, evolutionary explanations of eating might be regarded as an oversimplification by suggesting that adaptiveness is the single, guid ing principle. such(prenominal) explanations are also determinists as they propose that eating behaviour is hardened by past environments, thereby overlooking the notion of free ordain and the fact that human behaviour is affected by many other factors such as thought, emotions and social factors. Evolutionary drives are moderated and modified by social drives. Evolutionary approaches can explain innate food preferences that were important for our ancestors survival.An innate preference for sweet foods may whizz us to consume energy-dense foods, such as chocolate bars, which are longer needed in the current obesogenic environment of the Western world, and can help to explain the recent upsurge in obesity. Innate preferences for food can be used to demonstrate the wisdom of the body, the existence of biological drives and also the importance of the environment. It is also difficult to measure eating behaviour accurately in a research context. The central concept of adaptiveness ca n be applied to many behaviours, including eating and is difficult to demonstrate empirically or disapprove.This means that we have no means of establishing the validity of the explanation. A force play of evolutionary explanations is that they consider ultimate causes and so may lead to more valid ways of treating seemingly maladaptive behaviours by taking cypher of their adaptive significance and not merely focusing on the immediate problem. Evolutionary explanations appear to suggest that we are no longer adapting to ever-changing environmental conditions. Some scientists believe that humans are continuing to evolve both physically and psychological and are doing so at a faster rate that any other close species.