Different tastes

I’ve never liked the taste of cucumber or celery for that matter.  I can eat them now but never could bring myself to do so when I was younger.  I don’t know why but for some reason I just found the taste repulsive.  All around me were people who seemed to like the taste though, they could tuck into them at will, in sandwiches and in salads.  Of course, being me I have been thinking about why this was so. 

Why is it that some people like the taste of something while others can’t stand it?  The conclusion that I came to, though without any supporting evidence, is that this could be a genetic evolutionary feature that would protect a species from poisoning.  I imagined that in the never ending arms race between the eater and the eaten that plants would survive if they produced chemicals in their leaves that either tasted awful or would do harm to those that tried to make a meal of their foliage.  If you were the eater you might want to watch out for this and this could lead to an evolutionary advantage to any member of the species that could taste the difference.

It all sounds good so far but this same evolutionary pressure would enable the growth of other plants which had mutated to produce a similar bad taste but had not had to waste energy making the poison and so gain a benefit.  In this way the world would fill up with plants of varying tastes, some good, some bad, some poisonous and some not. 

Now if we humans came along and we all had the same taste preferences then all bad tasting foods would be out of bounds for us which wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster but it could also mean that good tasting but poisonous food would catch us all out.  Are you still with me?

Let’s go back to my cucumber which some people like and will eat.  One day a mutant cucumber is grown which looks the same in every respect to a normal cucumber except that it is poisonous and will kill us if we eat it.  This killer cucumber will be fatal to all those salad eaters but I would walk free to reproduce and pass my selfish genes on to the next generation.

I say that I had no supporting evidence for my theory even if it does sound plausible, at least that was until I came across this article: Mutant Cockroaches Have Learned to Evade Sugar Traps.  I knew it, I knew it!  A genetic mutation in cockroaches has led to some of the insects finding the taste of glucose abhorrent and so they are avoiding being killed by poison laced sugar traps. 

I am vindicated at last.  I’ll never feel guilty at my dislike for cucumbers ever again as, after all I am saving the human race from extinction.