Ask Tastyble’s Editors

I Hate Beets and You Hate Cilantro

Is our love-hate relationship with food nature or nurture?

Photo licensed from Depositphotos by the publication

A reader asked: “Why do different people have specific taste preferences? Nature vs nurture.”

It’s an interesting problem and one that does not have a simple answer. Actually, nature and nurture play almost equal parts in our food/taste preferences. Here are some examples:

Some people find the taste of cilantro to be objectionable; to them, it tastes like eating a bar of soap. This isn’t because they weren’t introduced to it as babies, nor is it because they are being snobbish or picky. They actually have olfactory-receptor genes that allow them to strongly perceive the aldehydes in cilantro leaves as soapy tasting.

Next, let’s talk about beets. This one is near and dear to my heart (actually the opposite is the case). I absolutely loathe beets and have had an aversion to them ever since mom tried to foist them on me as strained baby food. I spat them back at her and (according to the story) clamped my jaws tightly when that baby spoon dripping with a bloody-looking substance came anywhere within a mile of my cherubic face.

Beets contain geosmin, an organic compound produced by microbes in the soil. Geosmin gives off a smell…