How did we evolve to enjoy seasonings? Salt is an easy one because

>>7766004
The answer to "why did we evolve to /x/?" is "just because". Evolution has no purpose, please stop making retarded questions.

You <could> ask "how did we evolve to enjoy seasonings?" I guess which is a really fucking complicated question as I don't think we can pinpoint the points at which we started to like / dislike certain things.

>>7766004

Tell me wtf is inconvenient and expensive about cooking your lentils with cumin and parsley first OP

antioxidants

>perfectly healthy food
There's your problem

>>7766014
OP's question is "How did we evolve to enjoy seasonings?".

File: 1383274699006.jpg (611KB, 1277x1920px) Image search: [Google]

611KB, 1277x1920px

>>7766004
It's proof God loves us, and wants us to be happy in order that we reproduce, live in Christian communities, and have children that we raise in the light of the Lord.

Why did we evolve to make art?

Why did we evolve to appreciate natural beauty?

Why did we evolve to do anything beyond base impulses?

Because humans simply can. We enjoy the taste of something, so we add it to something we don't particularly like the taste of.

>>7766004
OP,

You must keep in mind not everyone enjoys spices. Some people enjoy less, some people enjoy excess, some people enjoy somewhere in the middle, some people don't enjoy one spice compared to another etc.

So when you assign the idea that "why does the human race enjoy these expensive things?" You miss the point already. You see, I don't enjoy saffron, yet it's the most expensive spice by the pound.

From another angle, we didn't come to enjoy expensive things, we came to enjoy these things and the demand for them made them expensive.

You can delete the thread now. As you can see, most people here don't care about pop-sci questions. And definitely not about "why did we evolve X?" Questions.

>What's the evolutionary purpose of...
going to start filtering this phrase to be quite honest with you my familial relation

>>7766052
No, it's not.
>What's the evolutionary purpose of liking spices?
Absolutely meaningless question that shows he doesn't know what evolution is

>Why do they make food taste better?
Unrelated question about physical properties of food, implying that they are "advantageous" somehow and thus we should like them, again misunderstanding evolution.

>>7766004
they have essential micronutrients, phenols anti oxidative shit vitamins etc

>>7766004
The flavors and feelings you get from seasonings you like are found in smaller quantities in foods eaten naturally by your ancient ancestors. They were eaten because of the nutrition needed as in >>7766174

>>7766004
Spices are usually very healthy, thats why we evolved to like them.

>>7766174
>>7766193
>>7766194
Yeah? Prove it faggots. In hindsight you can give any stupid ass reason for things that looks good but history doesn't have a "driving force" that pushes things because they fit nicely. Fuck off with your pseudoscientific crap (shit, not even pseudoscientific but pseudohistoric)

>>7766004
Most creatures have evolved to enjoy eating suitably edible food. We've figured out that spices are edible, but are generally too "strong" to eat on their own.
> Why do they make food taste better?
They have nice flavours.

> Why are those flavours nice?
Association with something edible/nutritious even?

>>7766015
>Tell me wtf is inconvenient and expensive about cooking your lentils with cumin and parsley first OP

It's not inconvenient and expensive in the global mechanized economy we live in now. But my and your ancestors from only a few hundred years ago would find it nearly impossible, never mind stone age hunter gatherers.

>>7766196

thx for the contribution you enlightened faggot.

>>7766004
>that pic
would definitely stick the tip of my tongue in each of those

>>7766014
>why did we evolve to /x/?
>>>/x/

You idiots. The herbs we eat have evolved to smell/taste displeasing to native animals (mostly insects) that would eat them. Those plants just so happen to be pleasing to some of our palettes. There is no rhyme or reason to it beyond that.

>>7766004
>You <could> ask "how did we evolve to enjoy seasonings?"

He did ask that you nimrod.

Before we had modern fridges meats and other foods would go bad.

We used spices to hide the taste.

Did you guys skip that class in third grade history?

We require food variety to survive. So foods with lots of flavors appeal to us.

Theres no purpose for liking spices, its just "happenstance."

>>7768711
Thats not true lol

The question should focus on how the plants evolved, not the humans. Plants evolved to help spread their seeds, tasting good to various types of animals (insects are an animal) helps them reproduce, which is a very strong evolutionary force. Animals are just the vehicle, we didn't evolve to like them, they evolved to be like-able to us.

>>7766014
>>7766109
>>7766160
This is very unscientific, and ignorant. These people obviously know nothing about evolutionary biology and have no right answering this question. Evolution always has a purpose, to create the most fit.
Explaining how it is is often very complicated and most, like yourself, just throw up their hands and say "that's just how it is" or assume "God just made it that way" which is very ignorant in my opinion. There's always a reason, don't listen to these idiots.

>>7766147
Fuck off, see above. The fact that even one person enjoys it makes it a valid question, let alone most of humanity. You being a picky eater has nothing to do with natural tendencies of the majority of humans. Stop encouraging people to not seek truth, again, very unscientific.

>>7766174
Interesting theory, maybe partially true, but I think you're missing the main point. It is true that some animals "crave" foods that are high in particular nutrients low in their normal diets.

>>7767951
So much this.

>>7768719

citation needed

>>7769024
Fuck you

>>7766004
Plants are cocktails of millions of possible molecules evolved for all kinds of purposes - often they are antimicrobial or antifungal or anti-grazing in function.

Many if not most plants with whatever chemical cocktails evolved for whatever reason, in fact taste fucking awful despite smelling wonderful. Many will also downright poison you. There happen to be a few that actually taste alright or rather, are not unbearably bitter as long as it's in crumb/dust-sized amounts, and also will not make you sick, and somehow over hundreds of thousands of years humans have made a catalog of what the known ones are. Considering all the species of plants out there, the fact that there are only a couple dozen spices/seasonings that are commonly shared the world over is actually a very very narrow selection. So to me, it's more like just by dumb luck these happen to smell/taste good because plants have had to roll the die so many times evolving chemical defenses.

Some seasonings are also derived from fruits or flowers... things evolved to interact with animals. No shit they were selected to be palatable. Even so, again many fruits will kill us if we eat them, so we simply don't eat those ones and stick with the ones we like.

>>7766004
>evolve to
evolution is a process *FROM* a previous form, not *TO* a future form
Lrn2evolution fgt pls

>>7766105
kek'd

>>7768779
>Evolution always has a purpose, to create the most fit
That's wrong though. The vast, vast, vast majority of evolution is the result of genetic drift, which is completely random and has absolutely no relation to fitness whatsoever as allele frequencies are altered without any consideration for their effects.

Before you start slinging shit about others being ignorant, be sure you know what the fuck you are talking abiut first.

>>7769548
>Before you start slinging shit about others being ignorant, be sure you know what the fuck you are talking abiut first.

Welcome to /sci/

Are there any STUDIES about micronutrients found in various spices and herbs?

I can answer that spicy things, like peppers, trigger endorphin release which is why it became part of our cuisine.