I have been developing a hypothesis over the past 10 years that I am now ready to share. Put simply: Preferences for desserts are imprinted during childhood in a way that other foods are not.
Like most people my age in the US, I was raised with a pretty limited exposure to the cuisines of different cultures. We did enjoy the occasional Chinese food (we’re Jewish after all), but Moo Gu Gai Pan was pretty much the most unusual dish on the menu. Italian food was pizza, spaghetti, and lasagna. My first experience with spicy food of any type was at a Mexican restaurant when I was 24. I didn’t have Thai food until I was 28, and my first sushi and Indian food were consumed 2 years later. You get the idea. Now not only do I partake in all types of ethnic cuisines, I prefer them to the the basic American fare I grew up on.
Desserts are another story entirely. I know that every country has an array of fine desserts, and I’ve tried them all—cannoli, napoleons, gulab jamen, lichee ice cream, etc.,—and I like them well enough. But when push comes to shove, I’ll take plain old American chocolate cake or strawberry shortcake any day. Why is that? At an objective level, this really doesn’t make sense. Most of these other desserts are arguably “finer” than those that I prefer. I am convinced that the reason is that I was imprinted on these desserts during a critical period in my gustatory development.
So how do I dare take this anecdotal observation, albeit from someone who is a keen observer of the human condition, and formulate a such an outlandish hypothesis? The truth is that I have confirmed this original observation with countless (at least three) other people. And the key to the hypothesis is recognizing that this imprinting is not generalizable to all foods, but only to desserts. While there are surely people whose diets have not wavered from their preferences in childhood, those people maintain their steady course (so to speak) with all aspects of the meal. I contend that you will not find many people who deviate from their preferred childhood desserts, but not do vary the rest of their diet. In other words, dessert is the hardest habit to break.
Now all that is needed is a grant to test the hypothesis. I don’t think I’ll have trouble recruiting subjects.
Your brilliant observations deserve further investigation. As you suggest, subjects in this worthy experiment should be easy to find. I will sacrifice my waistline to science, even if I am forced to ingest baklava or cassis sorbet.
Left by Nattu Swiete on March 26th, 2008