When we eat any dish, the processes that take place in our body and mind go far beyond the simple act of ingesting food and digesting nutrients. In this sense, a current study related to neurogastronomy is born, which is based on all the effects related to food intake.
Unlike animals, in most cases, we do not eat impulsively, since all five senses come into play when eating. In addition, other factors such as memory, emotions, or expectations are also related to the mental processes that develop when facing a dish.
The differences between taste and flavor
When analyzing the foundations of neurogastronomy, much of the information comes from taste and flavor. First of all, taste is one of the five senses, along with smell, touch, sight, and hearing. Taste is made possible by the tongue and other innervated surfaces of the mouth.
On the other hand, when we eat, other senses intervene, such as sight or smell, which make us perceive each dish differently. In addition, the different taste modalities combine so that we can obtain a large amount of information about the food. In short, taste is based on the collection of information by the nerve receptors present in the mouth.
In this way, we can know the taste of food, which is the second element involved. Thus, the flavors we can perceive are, essentially, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The combination of these essential flavors gives rise to the flavor of each product consumed.
On the other hand, other elements that also influence how we perceive food are its appearance, texture, smell, shape, and even temperature. In this way, we can obtain a large amount of information that will determine the level of acceptance we show towards a food.
The importance of memory and emotions
In addition to the combination of flavors and textures of the dish, other factors determine our disposition to a dish. On the other hand, several brain areas are involved, such as those related to expectations, memory, or different emotions. Thus, when faced with a certain dish, we can very quickly feel how memories invade us in which we store moments in which we have already eaten something similar.
This, in turn, will lead to different levels of acceptance of food depending on whether we have good or bad memories of a particular dish. In this way, neurogastronomy is a widely exploited resource in haute cuisine, where chefs try to establish different relationships between diners and dishes.
Happy foods: mood food
Beyond the sense of taste, flavors, and other mental processes, we must mention a new concept, happiness cuisine or mood food, derived from neurogastronomy. Followers of this trend claim that cooking has a high level of influence on general well-being and mood.
Mood food therefore makes use of all those foods that promote the production of certain chemicals in the brain to increase our levels of happiness. Some of these are endorphins and serotonin.
In the case of serotonin, we are talking about a neurotransmitter that is involved in the transmission of messages to the brain. It is also related to mood and appetite. This is because serotonin gives rise to an amino acid known as tryptophan, which can only be obtained through diet, with foods such as fish, milk, eggs, or soy.
These substances have very important functions in our nervous system since they are responsible for the balance of other elements, such as dopamine or noradrenaline; neurotransmitters that in turn can be related to feelings of anguish or anxiety, allowing us to achieve better control over them.
All sources cited were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, timeliness, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
-
Durà-Castany, M. (2017). Neurogastronomy: the influence of hearing and sight on taste. International University of La Rioja. Available at: https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/6177