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Cited by 508

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 102 of the 102 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

An Evolutionary Perspective on Food and Human Taste

Open access
Breslin, Paul A.S.·2013·Current Biology

Abstract

The sense of taste is stimulated when nutrients or other chemical compounds activate specialized receptor cells within the oral cavity. Taste helps us decide what to eat and influences how efficiently we digest these foods. Human taste abilities have been shaped, in large part, by the ecological niches our evolutionary ancestors occupied and by the nutrients they sought. Early hominoids sought nutrition within a closed tropical forest environment, probably eating mostly fruit and leaves, and early hominids left this environment for the savannah and greatly expanded their dietary repertoire. They would have used their sense of taste to identify nutritious food items. The risks of making poor food selections when foraging not only entail wasted energy and metabolic harm from eating foods of low nutrient and energy content, but also the harmful and potentially lethal ingestion of toxins. The learned consequences of ingested foods may subsequently guide our future food choices. The evolved taste abilities of humans are still useful for the one billion humans living with very low food security by helping them identify nutrients. But for those who have easy access to tasty, energy-dense foods our sensitivities for sugary, salty and fatty foods have also helped cause over nutrition-related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes.

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Metadata

Authors
Breslin, P. A. S.
Venue
Current Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-05
Volume
23
Issue
9
Pages
R409-R418
ISSN
0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2053300511
Cited by
508
References
102
FWCI
14.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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Breslin, P. A. S. (2013). An Evolutionary Perspective on Food and Human Taste. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.010

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