When John Garcia conducted an experiment that paired taste, sight, or sound with radiation, he found that taste was strongly associated with nausea. This led to the concept of taste aversion. As defined in our notes, taste aversion means that humans are apt to have an aversion to foods if they become sick afterwards. In class we mentioned that taste aversion might be a survival instinct that is coded into our genes. This would explain why we have such a violent dislike of something that was paired with our bodies being sick. Our body is just trying to keep us alive and healthy.
I have experienced taste aversion in my own life and it still affects me today. When I was a child and couldn’t take pills, I would have to take liquid medicine. My mom would give me the liquid Tylenol in grape flavor. I can remember the taste and the disgustingly thick texture to this day. Because I would take this when I was sick with a fever, that often meant that it accompanied throwing up. Ever since I was forced to take grape flavored Tylenol I have had a taste aversion to anything grape flavored. To this day I will not eat grape popsicles or grape candy and I will not drink anything grape flavored.
My roommate also shared her taste aversion story with me. She once ordered a cheeseburger from McDonald’s. After consuming it, she ended up becoming sick and throwing up. Now she can’t even think about eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger without wanting to throw up. It is interesting how she can eat anything else from McDonald’s besides their hamburgers and cheeseburgers. My own brother even has a taste aversion to grilled cheese because of becoming sick after eating one. I find it fascinating how almost everyone you talk to has their own experience with a food item to which they have developed a taste aversion.
I find taste aversion very interesting as well. I had a similar experience with it myself one time. I love calamari but every time I eat it now I feel sick so I have had to stop eating it completely. We were out to eat with my friends family one day and got it as an appetizer. I felt fine the whole night until right after dinner when I got sick for the first time in years. I made no connection to the calamari but then the next two times i had it, i felt sick again and couldn’t even finish my main meal. I was actually very disappointed because I loved calamari but I’m glad we learned about taste aversion in class because now I know why i get sick whenever I eat it and can try to uncondition myself and overcome it instead of avoiding it the rest of my life. I feel like everyone has an experience like this and a particular food that they avoid because it made them sick. Its interesting because for all they know it might not be the food at all but instead that one experience that got them sick and now they never eat that food without even realizing the actual cause of why they avoid it. It seems like a simple concept but learning about it was very interesting and made me realize I had developed a taste aversion and gave me an answer to my questions of why calamari started making me sick all of a sudden
I have similar experiences with taste aversion. My sister and best friend got very serious food poisoning from chicken fingers one night we were out to dinner when we were little, and now they can not stand eating chicken fingers or the thought of eating them. They won’t even go back to the restaurant it happened in. I also have a taste aversion to Qdoba because I got really sick after eating their once. I can’t even think about it without getting a little nauseous. It’s funny though, it does not affect me for the other burrito places. I eat Chipotle just as much as I did before I got sick from Qdoba. It is only Qdoba that affects me.
I also found it very fascinating the number of people who have developed a taste aversion to a certain food. I share a similar taste aversion like your roomate does with McDonald’s. I used to love McDonald’s McChickens and would often get them after school with friends. After eating them for a while I started to get sick of them and to this day I cannot eat a McChicken without feeling nauseous. I wasn’t aware that there was an actual term for the feeling I had about the the patties and after learning in class about taste aversion I realized that I developed one toward McDonalds McChickens.