Why does one person’’s mouth water at the mere mention of oysters 【B1】 someone else’’s curls in disgust Puzzling 【B2】 the many reasons has left scientists feeling at times like blind men trying to 【B3】 an elephant. We are turned 【B4】 or off by the flavor, smell, texture and appearance of some food. Here, cultural biases come into 【B5】 .
We are born liking sweet tastes and disliking bitter ones. 【B6】 we learn other fondnesses and aversions. Psychologist Paul of the University of Pennsylvania assumed that we 【B7】 these things from our parents. But when he 【B8】 the first survey on food preferences within families, he was 【B9】 to find he was wrong. Parents were proved to have no 【B10】 effect on their children’’s likes and dislikes or desire to try new foods. 【B11】 he concluded that cultural background is the single most powerful influence on our tastes because it 【B12】 us to certain combinations of foods and flavors. Americans are familiar with salmon poached or broiled and 【B13】 with lemon, while the Japanese eat it raw and garnished with ginger.
But in a recent interview, Paul was quick to point to the 【B14】 in his theory: "There’’s a lot of 【B15】 in tastes within nationalities." To be sure, not all Japanese like 【B16】 salmon, and many Americans have 【B17】 their cultural bias against raw fish and now enjoy it. Individual food 【B18】 . Paul believes, "are 【B19】 . If you get sick on something once, you’’re not 【B20】 to eat it again."