MAR 6

14. MAR 6

Assigned Work

• Gordon Shepherd, Neurogastronomy Chapter 27 ()
• Kessler, The End of Overeating, Ch 4-7 (20)

• See reading notes above.

In-class

• Food, Meaning, and the Brain

Gordon Shepard, C27, "Why Flavor Matters"

C27: Why Flavor Matters

• brief summary.
• Flavor at different life stages:

• In the womb: flavors in amniotic fluid, rat study showing odor preference established pre-natally. Diet studies with pregnant women (using anise or carrot juice for eample) show similar results.
• In infants: flavor and preference also communicated through breast milk
• In childhood: research showing kids are hyper sensitive to SFS foods.
• In adolescents.
• Flavor and dieting in adults. Doesn’t work. 238: “key element missing in most discussions of diet is flavor”. Very important point. Cites Brownell’s “Food Fight” (2004) and Barbara Rolls.
• In old age: research on loss of smell sense.

Food, Meaning, and the Brain

• What are "food phenomena" that suggest the deep involvement of "meaning-making" and food?

• Emotional eating - Can we hypothesize about this in light of Gordon/Kessler? Stress, SNS…?
• Comfort foods — Conditioned place paradigm.
• Ethnic eating and identity
• Class and eating customs - associations of food and manner of eating with class membership (Dr. Oz story - crudities’ v “mixed veggies”. Obama’s arugula gaffe.)
• Ethical eating —
• Communal Eating — arguably, in trouble. Hard to meet diverse dietary requirements today. (Without going into things like texture preferences, etc.). The restaurant, happy hour menu, “apericena” solutions.
• Christian "communion" - Eating god. Check out Jean Soler on this.
• Entheogens - eating psychotropic substances to see god.
• "Companionship" - etymology, Old French, "Compaignon" - One who breaks bread with another. Gets at the basic intimacy of eating together.
• Meaningful feasting - Christian feast and fasting days, Thanksgiving, harvest eating.
• Food and Romance - the "dinner date". Food intimacy before physical intimacy!
• Terroir-based attachments - PNW Salmon, Jamon Iberico, baguettes in Paris, prosciutto e melone!
• Meat ideology - ways that cultures associate meat (or their cuisine) with cultural superiority.
• Food sensitivities in pregnancy - unexpected aversions and compulsions. Inutero flavor preferences and breast feeding flavor influences.(Shepard 234)