Our Dance with Food

 

It can be tough to imagine all we don’t sense. But it is easy enough to take for granted what we do sense, and perhaps lose sight (if even just the idea of it) of the virtually limitless possibility of how that could be different.

We’re in these little sensory machines that, at a simplified minimum, can see, smell, taste, touch and hear. But inevitably and perhaps justifiably so, we are rather biased in our perception. It’s a somewhat ‘species specific’ bias too, for we’re surrounded by other ‘sensory machines’ that see and hear at our same frequency. Further, when it comes to smell, taste, touch and thought, we’re all reared and sensitized to a similar cultural training ground.

But if we were an insect, a fish or a dog for just a moment, it might momentarily feel like we’ve entered a new world entirely, though we went nowhere at all. In short, we experience our bodies. They guide and dictate our perception. Yet it’s worth remembering that this world of perception is truly vast; seemingly infinite.

It seems we’ll never have more than an ‘outsiders’ understanding for how bees see, or whales hear or dogs smell or cats move or cows taste. There’s more to it all, but this last one, taste, is a particularly interesting story. We simply must eat food. It binds us to the earth in an acquisitive sort of way the other senses don’t. That very acquisition has taken on a cultural life of its own. We need it to move, exist and live on planet earth, but we also look to it for entertainment, enjoyment and comfort.

As a civilization, we’ve intuitively got hip to the fact of our symbiotic evolution with the planet, and what that has meant for our brains. Our bodies need what’s in food, hence the pleasant response our brains generate in return. In short, flavor is nice! Our brains like it, seek it out and there is balance to it all, but it is beside the point here.

Suffice to say, eating is a biggy in modern human life. But, regardless of how its significance in our lives has changed from perhaps 20,000 years ago or relative to the animal kingdom, it’s still the same dance, between us and food.

Still, we are interesting dance partners. For when it comes to the tasting of it all, we’re a bit demanding. Ok, no, we’re like Egyptian pharaohs, the Queen of Hearts or a ruthless dictator. ‘Ah, that’s disgusting’, ‘That has no flavor’, ‘I want to speak to the Manager!!’ etc. etc. We fail to see, because of a culture that fails to encourage, that, like all our senses, there is a relativity of experience; and when it comes to eating, it is a two-way dance. Flavor being as much if not more due to the ‘taster’ as the ‘tasted’.

In essence, eating is a chemistry experiment of sorts, and we are the measuring tool or apparatus. This is something I’ve unintentionally had my eyes open to over the years as I’ve changed eating habits, embraced new foods, or had specific experiences. The latter experiences are always fascinating: just how different a food can taste after a long run, a long (foodless) day or a 36 hour flight from China without food!

But I’m specifically interested in a recent experience of mine regarding green grapes (as a relevant aside, I used to hate them, but now love them). Anyhow, we shop at multiple markets, and find ourselves simultaneously having 3 or more brands of the same variety of green grapes. But what is particularly fascinating is that our perception of flavor seems to change from night to night. One night, one brand will taste amazing, while the other two brands seem to lack any flavor or taste unappealing. And we want to scream because we’ve likely bought too much! But then the following night, counterintuitively, it reverses. The other two brands taste amazing, and we start to question the one (even the same bag) that tasted so rich the night before.

This seems to go on and on without fail. I suppose it is a phenomenon that happens all the time, with all foods, but the subtlety of green grapes makes it more apparent. Perhaps, because of this subtlety, we’re more sensitive to our abilities to be aware. For example, when it comes to black or red grapes, pineapple or a sweet mango, the flavors and sugars are more heightened to where, while we still notice differences, it’s not to the extent of: ‘I can’t taste this at all’ to ‘these are amazing!’.

In our own (very serious and rigorous too!) on-going data collection over the years, from simply eating, we’ve noticed a few things that seem to play a part in all of this, especially our experience with grapes; how this little business of eating can change so much from day-to-day or individual to individual. Some are glaringly obvious, such as the relative impact of our on-going daily consumption choices. But for the subtler aspects, here’s just a few we thought of:

Foods earlier in the day (or even days prior) - By virtue of eating being a chemistry experiment in and of itself, I venture to guess, some foods accentuate or dampen the effects of other foods on our taste buds. Perhaps it was a bit of lemon earlier, drinking more or less water, the smoothie yesterday, an orange beforehand etc. that shut-off or brought out certain flavors. This reflects the nuances of our palate, and how our perception of taste is colored by what came before, for better or worse.

Commitment - This is the very act of trying something; then going beyond the initial bite and even making a meal on it. It combines the concept of what we ate prior (#1), with the psychological and neurological. The psychological gets us to commit and focus on just that food (not everything else we’re not eating), which then turns physical in a sort of circular relationship: our mere commitment grounds (and sensitizes) us while each preceding bite impacts our palate.

Concentration, diversity and form - Things like blending, cooking or mixing, concentrates more flavor per bite. It’s not too surprising then that it’s generally harder to appreciate each individual ingredient after drinking the smoothie, or a piece of steamed vegetable after eating the same sautéed in oil, or much of anything after eating a ton of variety.

Hunger - Quite simply, the more hungry and more empty the stomach, the easier it can be to taste and appreciate food. After all, it seems taste and appreciation, though somewhat different, are co-dependent.

Stress - This seems to go both ways. Sometimes, you’re having a tough day and can eat (and relish!) the world. Other times, it’ll all taste bland, sour or bitter, and then the next day, good again. Sometimes you’re ‘go, go, go’ and it seems you need a bit of crack sprinkled in for your taste buds to keep up. Clearly, the stress affects our bodies, which inevitably affects our brains and palate.

Flavor profile, order and amount of foods - We seem to have some threshold for the various categories of flavor (sweet, sour, salty etc.) that likely blends the influence of both nutrient needs and just sheer craving. If we want sweet, we likely appreciate that flavor up until we hit that so-called ‘sweetness’ threshold. Then, likely, we’re either just completely full, or start taking on a new-found appreciation of the more savory/salty side of things. It seems to go both ways, then again, some things (spicy and sour for instance) seem to make it harder to taste anything after. And if you eat too much pineapple (especially under ripe) or burn your tongue, you’re pretty much done for the day!

Thinking - This is the catch-all for general expectations, and it’s somewhat a reinforcing relationship with memory and habit. Despite how seemingly up-in-the-air, it is vast (perhaps the biggest) in its neurological and sensory implications.

You can go on and on with this, and to profound layers of depth. Green grapes are just a nice food to notice it with. Despite being less sweet, I prefer them to red, black or some sexy cotton candy type. There can be a marked richness to them and a depth of flavor that at times our over-heightened foods can make harder to appreciate.

But this isn’t an advertisement for green grapes! The point is that eating is a dance of 2 parties, and both play a part. Our culture is one where ALL of the blame is put onto the food. And with that, we’ve just decided to simply turn up the volume on salt, sugar and fat, to knock us out. But it is hardly that simple.

The fast food hamburger, as we’ve seen, has given way to the cheeseburger to the onion/ketchup/mustard/mayo/pickle burger, to the bacon on top burger, to the pretzel or donut (is that a thing yet?) bunned burger, to the 3 or 4 patty monstrosities with doritos, fries, onion rings etc. It is a slippery slope with pitch of ‘flavor’ or ‘stimulation’ as the isolated standard. We can see rather clearly, it doesn’t end well!

In another light, volume is part of the music experience, but hardly does loud mean better. The same goes with food. We’re not as dumb, numb and shallow as industries encourage (almost force) us to be. We somewhat have to wake up on this dance floor, which requires us to wake up a bit too. We simply can’t be such incapacitated, demanding consumers, for that crazy looking burger, in some relativistic way, is what awaits (not to mention, perhaps a tough relationship with food!)

So much is impacting our ability to taste; which clearly includes both the subtle (listed above) to what we do every day as a common practice. Yes, unfortunately, this ‘loudness’ of flavor is a vicious cycle that sells (and pays!) well. We grope, half-asleep to raise the volume, and no one is around to snap us out of it. On the contrary, we’re encouraged (it starts young too!) to be loyal, if not desperate, consumers. It’s not about being some crazed dieter, masochist, purist or saint. Those are all separate things. This is all simply to say, that when we go out to eat, when we make dinner, when we consume anything, we (and not necessarily the food) are indeed the missing link.

We see, hear, touch, taste, smell, think and operate according to the uniqueness that is us. There’s still a whole, vast, seemingly infinite world of experience that transcends us. But when it comes to our taste buds, it seems we operate today as a cultural norm, at a pitch and intensity that’s unjustified, unsustainable and unfair. ‘Loud’ isn’t better, and worse, it desensitizes us to the vast layers of experience. A vicious cycle indeed! We come out of the metaphorical nightclub, a fun night perhaps, but can’t quite hear as well…

The eating dance is profound, and in our modern food system, hey, there’s probably a thing or two we can say about our dancing partners that line our refrigerators and counters. But the rest, about us, still needs to be said too. It isn’t to say ‘it’s got to be this way or that’, only that our experience with food is what we make of it.

And if you don't buy any of this, well, just think back to eating your favorite foods when you had COVID...