In Good Taste

Diets, meaning what-you-eat, not the silly death-to-calories kind, are as varied as the individual member of the human race. In the far distant past, according to scientists, early man ate what was available in the neighbourhood. It usually did include protein, sorry vegans, and our tooth structure apparently proves that fact. Like predators, we have teeth that are longer and more pointed for tearing and gnashing and also, teeth deemed to grind and mash. What we all have, whether we eat meats or vegetables, is taste. Our tongue structures tell us what we enjoy eating and drinking and presumably, are either controlled by our brains or go around telling our brains what we like. The verdict is still out on who controls what, from what I glean from Scientific American magazine. But from my experience, there is no complete agreement about taste as good or bad. Apparently, from the age of being here, we have our likes and dislikes and they are unique to each person. I know passionate parents who courageously seek to instill dietary impressions on kids when they are old enough to say "no" emphatically, but as the same parents also know, you can't feed a silk purse to a sow's ear - or something like that. For example, vegan parents attempt to make their offsprings' diets vegan and candy-enemies, their little ones, sugar proof, but in the end, all children will grow up and choose their own foods, their ways, often in defiance of past parental pressures. Then again, there are parents who are slender or fat and insist on their little ones becoming carbon copies or the reverse. Strange things happen to do with foods and eating habits. When you prepare a dinner for a larger group, it's polite to ask if there are any dietary needs amongst your guests. It is rather surprising in some cases that a dinner can be constructed at all, when you receive your collected responses. They include those who don't eat meat, who hate tofu, who are lactose intolerant, gluten free, who don't like broccoli, who dare not eat eggs, who do not have sugar, who are allergic to nuts, who won't touch beans, who refuse fats, who cannot have alcohol, who ... . The list goes on forever. It makes dinner preparation for a crowd, a buffet, whether you planned for it or not. And even then, you need to get your thinking cap out if not the telephone book restaurant section. In cave days, Man was lucky to get something in his/her stomach at all, whether it grew from the benefits of sap or blood. Somehow I think there were no fuss-pot allergies and intolerances to fret about. It makes me wonder how, from that time to this, we became such a woosy bunch.