Huh. I wonder why humans would just happen to be born with the propensity to hate something good for them only to lose that propensity later in life. Like, would there be some evolutionary advantage? Maybe there are toxic plants that contain those bitter compounds and children who don’t eat them survive to pass on their genes but adults who have lived and learned what not to eat don’t need the same bitterness feedback, so humans evolved to lose it later? Or maybe I’m making stuff up and it’s just one of god’s practical jokes on humans like when we bite our tongue while chewing.
I don’t know where I heard or read it, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. Most poisons taste bitter, so avoiding bitter tasting things means avoiding poisonous things. Since children have a smaller body weight, the lethal dose is smaller for them. As go grow older, your body mass increases and so does your tolerance to poisons.
But I am not sure why we would not want to avoid poisons in general even if they were not lethal any more.
Because some plants use small amounts of those poisons to avoid being eaten. So losing some of the aversion to the taste gives you a wider variety of food sources once you can tolerate the poison enough.
Huh. I wonder why humans would just happen to be born with the propensity to hate something good for them only to lose that propensity later in life. Like, would there be some evolutionary advantage? Maybe there are toxic plants that contain those bitter compounds and children who don’t eat them survive to pass on their genes but adults who have lived and learned what not to eat don’t need the same bitterness feedback, so humans evolved to lose it later? Or maybe I’m making stuff up and it’s just one of god’s practical jokes on humans like when we bite our tongue while chewing.
I don’t know where I heard or read it, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. Most poisons taste bitter, so avoiding bitter tasting things means avoiding poisonous things. Since children have a smaller body weight, the lethal dose is smaller for them. As go grow older, your body mass increases and so does your tolerance to poisons. But I am not sure why we would not want to avoid poisons in general even if they were not lethal any more.
Because some plants use small amounts of those poisons to avoid being eaten. So losing some of the aversion to the taste gives you a wider variety of food sources once you can tolerate the poison enough.
The idea is that some kinds of food are hard to digest or otherwise problematic for kids, while adults can eat and digest a broader diet.