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“We are not just looking for vitamins and minerals just for them – to nourish them. But there seems to be some extra level of intelligence. ”
Popular two-course dishes, such as steaks, appear to offer a wider range of micronutrients than could be predicted, the study found. Photo by Getty Images
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Ordering a perfectly baked steak and french fries or a spoonful of creamy dal on rice can be a sign of something other than a nice meal. A revolutionary new study suggests that people have “nutritional wisdom” that helps us navigate the “hidden complexity” of food choices.
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The composition of food – not just the need for calories – plays into our preferences, according to an article published in Appetite magazine. As shown in other animals, humans “seem to have perceptive intelligence”: the ability to choose foods based on their micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
The international collaboration between Jeff Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, and Mark Shatzker, a Toronto-based writer at the Research Center for Modern Diet and Physiology (affiliated with Yale University), began with shared curiosity and interest – but different points of view.
In 2018, Shatzker was in Florida giving a lecture on his book, The Dorito Effect, in which he countered the common belief that people only look for food because of calories. After all, he points out, wild mushrooms and truffles are highly prized but low in calories, and the fruits are widely used.
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“If only calories excite us, why do we pay so much money for wines from Burgundy that don’t have more calories than a bottle of red wine for $ 8 from some rotten factory?” Says Shatzker.
“I think there are many more things. And I think the experience of eating suggests that it just can’t be that simple. “
Brunstrom was intrigued by Schacker’s presentation, but skeptical. “I went to see him at the end and actually said, ‘Great conversation, but I think you’re probably wrong. Do you want to test it?
Instead of provoking controversy, their differing views launched a four-year research project. As it turns out, the study supports Shatzker’s original proposal: Our eating decisions are influenced in part by micronutrients.
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Scientists tend to think that food choices are driven by a single factor, says Brunstrom, whether it’s cravings for high-calorie foods or sweets. But their research shows that this is more nuanced than that.
“This shows that food, cuisine, our interactions with food are significant in the sense that we seem to be looking for complex interactions between micronutrients,” explains Brunstrom.
“I guess it’s something that changes the game because it makes us recognize what chefs may have known all along. But as scientists, this should lead us to recognize that there is a hidden complexity in food choices that we need to understand.
“Animals are quite complex,” said Toronto-based author Mark Schacker. “Cows just don’t bite plants senselessly. They are very picky. ” Photo by William West / AFP via Getty Images
Although other animals, such as livestock and rodents, are known to choose foods for their micronutrients, little is known about how food composition affects human preferences.
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In the 1930s, research by American pediatrician Clara Davis on baby food choices suggested “nutritional wisdom”; Davis allowed a group of 15 babies to eat whatever they wanted from 33 foods. However, due to its methods – which today would be considered unethical – its reproduction is not an option.
Demonstrating nutritional intelligence in humans is more complex than in other animals, Brunstrom explains. While in rodents, for example, researchers can strictly control their environment and diet, the same is not possible for humans.
During video calls during the COVID blockade, Brunstrom and Shatzker came up with a new technique to take advantage of micronutrients.
“We came up with this idea. Wait. If people show nutritional intelligence, then maybe it’s exposed and expressed in combinations of foods – foods that they prefer to combine together, “recalls Brunstrom.
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“And the moment we started doing that and looking at the evidence that way, things started to come to life. And we started seeing such patterns in that data. “
The document presents the results of three studies. For the first, adult participants chose between images of two pairs of fruits and vegetables (apple, banana, blackberry, carrot, celery and cucumber). Fruits and vegetables differ significantly in the composition of micronutrients, the researchers note, which makes them a better comparison than foods such as cereals and meat.
They found a “significant tendency” for people to choose pairs that offer both higher amounts of micronutrients and better balance (“micronutrient complementarity”).
To confirm their findings, Brunstrom and Shatzker conducted a second study based on images with different foods, followed by a third, real-world study.
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Analyzing a national nutrition survey in the United Kingdom of 1,086 people, they found a similar pattern in two-component meals. The range of micronutrients in steaks and fries or curry and rice, for example, was wider than could have been predicted. People also seem to avoid excess micronutrients – a “form of nutrition efficiency”.
Schacker was particularly interested in the subtleties revealed in the results.
“We are not just looking for vitamins and minerals just for them – to nourish them. But there seems to be some extra level of intelligence … to avoid the excesses of one and make sure we get the full spread, ”Shatzker said. “Which seems like a particularly intelligent and particularly efficient way to look for food if you think about how we would be in an evolutionary context.”
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With its alternating focus on low-fat, high-protein, and low-carbohydrate diets in recent decades, eating culture tends to emphasize macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins).
But people don’t choose carbohydrates, fats or proteins, Brunström points out – they choose food.
Although they are important, “if we focus only on these macronutrients, then I think we come to an impoverished understanding of the basic daily interactions we have with food,” says Brunstrom.
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As their research shows, the way we interact with food is more complex than macronutrients or calories – and micronutrients potentially play a role in this complexity.
If we were only interested in meeting our macronutrient needs, Brunstrom added, we would just be eating mixtures of fat and sugar. Along with culture and fun, the content of trace elements can contribute to our enjoyment of certain dishes.
“Food comes with a whole set of beliefs, anticipation of the effect of food, a sense of pleasure, a sense of occasion. All of these things are closely linked in the daily experience of interacting with food, ”says Brunstrom.
“So I think it makes sense to ask questions about real food. And whether or not there are basic models that govern the real foods we eat. “
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Brunstrom and Shatzker are interested in understanding the cultural implications of nutritional wisdom. Recipes and cuisine, they say, could be one of the ways food intelligence is passed down through the generations.
“We know which combinations work and we share them. This is one of the reasons we like to talk about recipes. We are partly in it because of the taste, but there is something deeper, ”says Shatzker.
“Maybe there is some wisdom in how we cook and the recipes that have been passed down from previous generations, to which we need to pay more attention. And I think that’s what our study is going to be looking at as the next move. “
Researchers present the possibility that although strong in other animals, nutritional wisdom may decrease in humans.
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Today’s diets, rich in processed foods, are very different from those of our evolutionary past. The foods we eat may have nutritional value, says Brunstrom, but these sensory signals are the product of artificial flavors …
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