Have there been any studies that have evaluated whether food
preferences are hereditary and/or genetic?
Imagine a group of people all full-blooded Germans, Thais, a
handful of Chinese, and a few Japanese, all brought up in a
regular middle-class U.S of A and fed nothing but
cheeseburgers and fries all their lives and having never
tasted mom's family favorite cooking (or grandma's) - having
no childhood comfort foods to remember (other than
cheeseburgers and fries), They're all set free at the age of
20 to eat whatever they choose.
Would each group still tend to prefer foods from their
country of origin?
Do Germans have a propensity for beer and meat/sausages?
Would the Japanese blooded people prefer fish and rice? Do
Thai's naturally gravitate towards spicy foods? How about
Chinese and fresh vegetables and noodles?
(I've tried to pick nationalities that have been established
for quite a while as examples)
I was never fed German food a kid, for example, but I seemed
to have gravitated towards hearty foods and strong beer (and
lots of them).
Other people I know born and raised in normal U.S. fashion
also seem to prefer foods from their bloodlines as they get
older, not because that's what they were fed as kids. Other
people, down-home American mutts, I call them tend to like
(or dislike) all nationalities foods to some degree. But
other people from longer, more precise bloodlines do seem to
be attracted to their foods of origin. This is just a theory
of mine, that's why I'm looking for any proof of this.
Do people do it because they feel some sort of obligation or
honor? Do they think they should satisfy some sort of
stereotype? Peer pressure from others of the same
nationality?
Or in my case, is it just a superficial excuse to justify my
carnivorously-biased eating habits and drink lots of strong
beer? Or am I really supposed to do this since I'm German?
-sw