Summary Evolutionary explanations for food preference Essay Plan

Evolutionary explanations for food preference
Introduction
 Food choices today influenced by food preferences of hunter-gatherer
ancestors.

AO1
 Ancestor’s hunter-gatherers for many generations of evolution.
 EEA (environment of evolutionary adaptation) = African Savannah
 Hunter-gatherer lifestyle had high energy expenditure
 Food supply unpredictable/unreliable
 Ancestors preferred high calorific food
 Diet = adaptive. Individuals who are high fat/calorie diet more likely to
survive & reproduce
 Preference for food types evolved through natural selection, passed on
generation – generation
 Meat – high calorific food.
 Milton: Diet allowed us to evolve.
 Taste aversion – aversion to taste of foods poisonous/harmful
 Medicine effect – preference for taste of food which are beneficial

AO2
 Preferred foods still high fat: Choosing same food as hunter-gatherer
ancestors.

 Choose despite education & media: Tell us they’re bad. Programming for
foods still strong.

 Gibson & Wardle: 5 year olds. Given choice of foods. Chose high calorie
foods over sweet/familiar foods.

 Abrams: Anthropological evidence suggests meat preference common
throughout all cultures.

 Stanford: Research with chimpanzees – faced similar problems to
ancestors. Have similar high calorie/meat preference diet.