Taste (Neuropsychoidiology)

SAMPLE CHAPTER from Section: Relationship with Food

Eating is a basic motivation and provides the nutrition we need to survive. The foods we consume serve as the building blocks for our entire body to function, including our brain. Scientists have become more interested in how food affects our mind and brain over the past few decades, but even at that, we have far to go in our understanding of how important food is. For example, we don’t take food seriously enough in conventional medicine as a natural method for disease prevention. At the end of this section, I will cover a little bit about nutrition from a neuroprotective perspective, specifically with regards to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline and enhancement, and longevity.

However, food goes well beyond a simple nutritional or health value. Food is important to us because of how it makes us feel, in the moment and with regards to long-lasting wellbeing. We eat because we love the taste of foods. We eat to be social and build community. We eat to feel comfort. We also develop eating disorders and many of us have a complex relationship with food.

In this section, I will first provide a basic overview of taste and then tackle some more complicated aspects of our relationship with food before ending with some nutritional tips for neuroprotection and mental health. I will not cover the basics of food nutrition that deals with the constitution of food. Briefly, foods are made up of carbohydrates (simple and complex), fats (good and…