Why Flavor Matters

We all know that flavor matters. But do we know why flavor matters?

For hundreds of years humans have been scouring the globe for spices to add to food. Part of that drive was to show off a person's wealth ("I can get spices from the middle east", "Oh yeah? Well I can get spices all the way from India!"). But in our modern age we use spices to make food more interesting, so much so that we have a huge industry surrounding the creation and marketing of flavor.

Is there a purpose for flavor? From an evolutionary perspective, what benefit does flavor give us? Why do we seek out a variety of flavor? Any why does food these days taste bland even though it's loaded with as much or more flavoring than in decades past?

Predictions

Along the way to adopting the Paleo AIP diet I've read dozens of food-related books. A powerful, perspective-changing book is "The Dorito Effect" by Mark Schatzker. That book gave me an answer to why flavor matters: flavor predicts nutrients.

Our brain and our gut are tied together. Both use the same chemicals to get their work done, for instance serotonin is an important neurochemical and digestion regulator. Moreover, a significant portion of our brain is dedicated to managing our digestive tract. Part of this dedication is to ensure that what we've ingested moves down the alimentary canal which means coordinating the movement of a lot of muscles. But a less-noticed purpose is that the brain learns what nutrients it can expect based on the flavor of the food consumed.

In technology a big area of interest is "Machine Learning". In Machine Learning people hand computers a huge volume of data (e.g. images, audio, video, world-wide weather information, etc.) and some algorithms for trying to find patterns within that data, and then the computer produces a predictive model based on that data (e.g. Based on all large set of pictures, and tags which tell the computer what can be found in those pictures, it figures out how it can identify what's in the pictures without consulting the original data set). With such a model you can hand the computer new input and it will make predictions based on that image (e.g. Give the computer a never-seen-before picture with a cat in it and the computer is likely to state that there is a cat in the picture).

You can think of the brain and gut as one big machine learning computer; it figures out what is in the food we eat based on smell. As we take in food, our brain remembers those smells and tastes and compares that information with the nutrients it detects in the hours after consuming the food. With the knowledge of the nutrients coming from flavors the body can prepare itself to handle that food. For example, it may pump out more acid than normal to help process the incoming fats. Or the body may prepare for a flood of sugar.

Not only can the body prepare for food at the time of consumption, but it can request foods when it needs certain nutrients. The body knows what flavors led to a particular nutrient so it can send a signal which says "I need this flavor". When we satisfy that craving we get a sense of pleasure to help tighten that need+crave+consume loop (which I learned from "The Addictive Brain").

If we need to broaden our variety of nutrients then our body can also start craving a variety of flavors as it looks for new sources.

A related effect is the strength of the craving. If we need a little bit of a nutrient we will probably crave it a little. If we need a lot of a nutrient then the craving will be stronger. If the desired food only supplies a little bit of that nutrient, then the craving will be even stronger.

Ruminating Goats

The associative power of flavors to nutrients through dietary machine learning was illustrated by The Dorito Effect via an experiment with nutrient-deficient goats. Scientists took a group of potassium-deficient goats and gave them hay one day, coconut-flavored hay the next day, and their choice the third. But here's the twist. When eating the coconut hay, half of the goats were given potassium directly into their stomachs so that they didn't taste any potassium. After that experience, the goats who received the potassium only wanted to eat the coconut-flavored hay while the other half of the goats would eat either kind.

Such automatic learning also happens with negative food experiences: give a goat food which makes it sick and then it will avoid that flavor thereafter. (If you want to read scientific articles about the flavor-nutrient learning phenomenon, then you should check out this paper and the various papers it references).

Why Predictions Work

In nature flavor predicts nutrients because the flavor is often a byproduct of the nutrients breaking down. For example, the rich, meaty flavor of tomatoes comes from the breakdown of essential amino acids within the tomato. If the tomato doesn't have many of those amino acids then it won't have much flavor.

Regrettably, modern tomatoes (and many other foods) are grown for size instead of nutrient density which means they carry more water weight and fewer nutrients than they used to. I don't believe companies are maliciously driving out nutrients; I just think that their metric for success is dollars, and dollars are directly tied to pounds of produce sold, so growing food for poundage is the natural result.

Bland Food

If flavor predicts nutrients then a lack of flavor means a lack of nutrients.

After reading The Dorito Effect I started paying more attention to the flavor of food. I could of course sense the initial 2x4-to-the-head flavors from the sauce or flavoring, but I would try and notice the underlying flavors that those sauces or spices were trying to cover up.

I noticed that sour cream and onion chips just don't taste nearly as good as they did when I was in grade school. I tried the exact same brands and they're still bland; I mostly taste salt and a little bit of metal. And flavoring technology has come a long way in the last 30 years which should mean stronger flavors.

I noticed that typical fruits and vegetables can taste fairly bland. The Dorito Effect calls out tomatoes as being bred for size and thus water-weight and I now notice how bland they are. Fortunately The Dorito Effect points to some better strains. Unfortunately I'll never try the better strains because tomatoes are verboten on my diet.

I noticed that all chicken and all beef tasted like cardboard. Costco does a good job of soaking their chicken in a brine, but sometimes the flavoring is underwhelming while at other times it is excessive (Hello Rosemary!). But regardless, I know that the flavor is not the chicken; it's the brine. The same thing with beef; I consistently get dressed up cardboard.

Food Lies

Flavor predicts nutrients, while a lack of flavor means no/few nutrients. What happens when there are nutrients but no flavor? Your brain will look for some aspect of flavor that it can associate with the nutrients it finds and will then crave that food even though it is bland.

But then what happens when a food has flavor but no nutrients? Meaning, what does your brain do when food is lying to it? Your brain will discount the flavors it senses.

I think my brain has discounted a lot of flavors, which is why so many classic foods are bland to me. I used to love candy and I savored the various flavors. But now I just notice sugar. Same with sodas; the flavors have gotten subtler while I only notice the sweetness level. This discounting has caused me to stop eating a lot of foods simply because the the flavor died out. I know that the flavors are still there, but my body figured out that the food was lying to me.

Artificial vs. Natural vs. Honest

As a result of lying food I try and only buy foods that tell the truth. But the truth can sometimes be hard to come by.

For example, if the box says "artificial flavor" then the food lies. That one is pretty easy to detect.

But what if the package says "natural flavor"?

Foods with "natural flavor" also lie. "Natural flavor" is a legal term and only means that the government considers the process which derived the flavor is "natural". Natural flavors still lie to you; they promise certain nutrients that the food won't deliver on.

What if the container states something similar to "natural vanilla flavor"? Take out the word "vanilla" and you can see that it is just "natural flavor"...more lies.

The only way to be sure food isn't lying to you is to buy foods which do not have any man-made flavors. Try finding pickles which are honest; it's tougher than you might think. I'm going to start making my own pickles.

I expect that after eating honest foods for a while, my brain will start to enjoy flavors again (and it has already started to).

More Honesty

Along with foods without added flavors, I try and buy smaller fruits and vegetables. For example, smaller strawberries tend to have more concentrated flavors. Larger fruits can taste a bit watered-down. By buying smaller I hope to help encourage supermarkets to buy smaller, and thus encourage farmers to grow smaller.

Foods in the supermarket are also picked before they have completely ripened. This is done with the expectation that the food will ripen in transit. Growers and sellers do this to maximize the shelf-life of the food and thus maximize their profit potential. Because fresh foods are picked early, they often lack some of their nutrients and thus some of their flavor.

One solution to this fresh food flavor deficit problem is to buy frozen foods. Frozen foods are often picked when they are fully ripened and frozen shortly thereafter because the distance from the farm to the freezing plant is much smaller. Consequently, frozen foods are more likely to have better flavor and nutrient profiles.

When it comes to beef, I buy grass-fed, grass-finished beef. I'll get into the details of this kind of beef in my next article, but suffice it to say grass-fed, grass-finished beef does not taste like cardboard! Woo hoo! (If you want to read a great story on the world's best-tasting beef, then I heartily recommend "Steak: One Man's Search for the Worlds Tastiest Piece of Beef", by Mark Schatzker. Spoiler alert! It isn't Kobe Beef...not even close.)

Similarly with chicken, I would buy free-range chickens; ones which are allowed and encouraged to forage for bugs and other things that chickens would eat in the wild. That will give their meat the true flavors we crave.

I hope that, with this knowledge, you can be more aware of the flavors around you and that you can now notice food lies. By ruminating on the flavors you eat I hope you can find food that speaks to you and that you gain greater joy in the food you consume.