A note on sugar appetite

Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
7 Sep 1996 15:03:12 -0600

Earlier, I abandoned an untestable adaptationist speculation about sugar
craving. 'Came across this, though, and have interlibrary loaned the Rozin ref.

The Buss paper, by the way, is an *excellent* introduction to
evolutionary psychology, written in plain English. Pretty short, too.

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"Humans eat diverse food, but all humans share taste preferences for
substances rich in fat, sugar, salt, and protein (Rozin 1976)."

--Buss, 1991. Evolutionary Personality Psychology. Annual Review of
Psychology, 42: 469.

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I only add that we have special receptors on our tongues and in our
brains for rewarding the consumption of limiting dietary resources
(sugar, salt) and encouraging avoidance of dangerous ones (bitter-detecting
taste buds which discourage the ingestion of defensive plant alkaloids).

Bryant

Rozin, 1976. In: Appetite and Food Intake, T. Silverstone (ed.). Berlin:
Dahlem.