The character of a person and his favorite food. Why do we love some foods and not others?

In order to understand that a person likes you, words are not needed. His gestures will give him away. Former FBI Special Agent Jack Schafer wrote a book called Charm the Secret Service, which talks about all the "secret" communication tricks that allow us to become attractive to other people. So how do you pick up on invisible signals of affection?

Dilated pupils

Dilated pupils indicate increased interest. If a person sees you and his pupils involuntarily dilate, then this means that he really, really likes you. Of course, sometimes it is not so easy to notice, but if you learn to catch this non-verbal signal, you will be pleasantly surprised at your ability to see sympathy where you have not seen it before. It is also necessary to take into account that it is much easier to see dilated pupils in light-eyed people than in dark-eyed people.

By the way, Queen Cleopatra used belladonna tincture to artificially dilate her pupils and look more sensual.

Eye contact

As a rule, people like to look into the eyes of those they like. Eye contact has always been considered one of the best non-verbal signals, which allows us to declare that we are friendly and not at all aggressive. If a person looks at you for no more than a second, and then smiles a little and looks away, then you can be sure that the person liked you.

In this case, by the way, a long and intent gaze is usually interpreted as a sign of aggression. This is if we are talking about stare on unfamiliar person. After all, sometimes long glances speak of the frantic strength of feelings: for example, lovers can continuously look at each other for a very long time.

Head tilt

A study has been conducted more than once that has shown the following thing: if a person tilts his head to the left or right during a conversation, then the interlocutor seems more attractive. Another person always tilts his head towards someone who is attractive to him.

Why is bowing your head considered almost a “sacred” gesture? It's very simple: by tilting our head, we open the carotid arteries, which are located on the side of our neck. And the carotid artery is one of the most important channels circulatory system. If the carotid artery is severed for even a few minutes, the person dies. That is why "nudity" carotid artery considered a sign of friendliness. So, rest assured, if the interlocutor tilts his head, then he likes you.

Raised eyebrows

If you stand long enough in the arrival hall of an airport or train station and watch those people who, after separation, meet with loved ones, you will see an interesting thing.

In general, the bitter taste receptors on our tongue are the most sensitive, while the sweet and salty taste receptors are the least sensitive. Broccoli, spinach, kale and Brussels sprouts are all considered healthy foods. Loaded with minerals, vitamins and fiber, they are a nutritionist's dream - a nutritionist who hates you and wants to make you miserable by depriving you of all the sweet pleasures in life.

On the other hand, all the foods you crave—french fries, burgers, desserts, even red meat—are at the very bottom of your food list. rational nutrition. Experts call them harmful and say that they should be consumed no more than once a week, and then in moderation. Why is food that tastes so good considered unhealthy?

The reason is that the most “tasty” foods contain a lot of fat, sugar or salt, or both, or a third. And our taste buds prefer these substances due to the fact that in the process of evolution we have developed an addiction to them. Our ancestors did not know the food abundance available to us today, and the listed substances were in short supply, so the human body learned to value and preserve them.

Why we love fatty foods

There is a huge list of products that have high content fat, and we like them all. The most popular ones are listed below. This also includes anything that is fried and any food that can be described as “oily” or “creamy.”

French fries, fish and chips, donuts, pizzas, cheesecakes, confectionery,
bacon, salami, burgers, milkshakes, ice cream.

It allows you to accumulate energy. Fats are very high in calories - they contain twice as many calories as carbohydrates. However, because they take longer to digest, the body prefers to store them for use when food shortages occur.

The food resources of our ancestors were very variable. When a mammoth was caught, for example, there was enough food to feed the entire tribe for several days. However, this happened rarely enough that our ancestors learned to store as much fat as possible, and depended on fat reserves during periods of food shortage. The person who had the largest reserves of fat was considered from an evolutionary point of view to be the fittest - he was able to survive difficult times. For this reason, our brain and taste buds like fatty foods.

Why we love sweets

These products, of course, include desserts and various cakes and cupcakes, especially those covered with frosting and jellies. However, flavored milk and yoghurts also contain a lot of sugar. In addition, high fructose corn syrup is added to many products, which, from a biological point of view, is also sugar.

Cakes, cookies, ice cream, donuts, biscuits with cream filling, jams, packaged juices,
carbonated drinks, candies, chocolates, most desserts, flavored milk.

Why we like salty

Foods such as chips and crackers are known to be high in salt, but salt is also present in excess in many canned meats and packaged foods. If you read the labels, you will find that even sweet-tasting foods contain small amounts of salt.

Chips, crackers, packaged nuts, crackers, fried potatoes, pretzels,
salty cookies, popcorn, salami and meat pickles, cheese, pickles.

Previously, salt was not as accessible as it is now. At the same time, it is the best source of sodium, a mineral extremely important for muscle function and nerve cells. Apart from table salt, sodium is found in small amounts only in animal blood, meat and eggs. Therefore, salt was highly valued. Some scientists also believe that this substance, like sugar, promotes the release of dopamine in the brain.

Why We Don't Like Greens

Most green vegetables (broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, etc.) have a bitter taste, and their “tastelessness”, again, is associated with the set of products that were available to our ancestors. Many people have a bitter taste poisonous plants, and through the process of evolution, our brains have learned to simply not like it.

On top of everything else, there are also processed foods. During processing, they become bland, and to make them tasty again, manufacturers add various flavors and flavor enhancers to them. However, the processing also destroys all the vital nutrients, and in the end all we get are empty calories. For this reason, many processed foods are not considered healthy either.

However, some of the "bad" foods may actually be rich in important nutrients. An example is salt. What makes foods truly harmful is the quantities in which we consume them. An excess of anything is bad for us, but the achievements of modern civilization make a variety of goodies so accessible that it becomes difficult for us to resist the craving for them.

The Psychology of Junk Food Cravings

Children often receive sweets (sweet and fatty foods) as a reward for being good. Their brain gets used to this, and as a result, they begin to associate such products with something cherished and desired. This pattern of behavior often continues into adulthood - when under stress or emotional disorder, many people calm themselves by eating food, and, as a rule, food that is tasty and unhealthy.


IN Everyday life you have to interact with many people, both at work, at home, and in stores and others in public places. Some people are perceived by the delight of positive emotions, and there is a circle that causes negative ones. This is the perception of each person. This is how we are perceived by the people around us with absolute different sides. You can dislike a thousand different people, but there will also be many reasons for this, since each individual has his own perception.

20 reasons why people don't like you

There is a totality general characteristics, which can irritate every person.

Using "I" too often

People around you get the impression that you are being selfish by using this pronoun too often.

It is necessary to “yak” as little as possible so that your interlocutors feel respect from you and feel comfortable during the conversation.

Inability to listen, and most importantly, to hear

An individual has a special talent if he does not interrupt his interlocutor, but listens to him conscientiously.

In a conversation, there are 2 manifestations of disrespect for a person.

First: indifference to the conversation and absorption in one’s thoughts, while completely ignoring the interlocutor.

Second: it is absolutely rude to interrupt when expressing your comments, to show that the subject of the conversation itself is uninteresting.

Such behavior is inappropriate if the topic is far from the concept, and an incompetent opinion can put you in an awkward position. Therefore, you need to find strength and always listen to what the person is trying to convey, and only then insert your comments.

I liked the guy. I really want to date a guy. How to show that you like a guy?

In our progressive age, many priorities in the relationship between men and women have long changed. Modern youth go through life with more progressive views on the world. But despite all the changes in relation to dating and the development of relationships, many different “taboos” remain as before. For example, more than half of people still cannot overcome their natural and socially-bred shyness. This is where problems arise in making contacts.

I really like the guy, what should I do? - Modern effective recommendations.

Not every person is able to freely approach the individual they like and offer themselves as a partner, not to mention confessing their love. What to do if you really like a person, but you have no idea where to start contacting him? In this situation, the most advantageous position is for men. Throughout almost the entire history of mankind, it was they who retained the right to be the first to make contact, to make a choice, so to speak, to conquer, to win. And the woman was supposed to accept this or disagree. Glimpses of a change in the situation gave the woman the opportunity to show her emancipation. But to a greater extent, these opportunities were used only by a third. But sometimes it’s worth remembering the legendary Amazons, who commanded men and subjugated them to their power. They certainly didn’t have to blush and turn pale, stutter or almost faint while trying to talk to the person they liked.

The whole problem is in ourselves. Already at the subconscious level, we experience fear of possible future rejection and are even more afraid of being ridiculed and misunderstood. After all, after a public embarrassment, the path to the person you like will be almost forever closed. What then should you do, just stand aside and modestly cast glances at the object of your desire in the stupid hope that he will suddenly come to his senses and come up to you and embrace you and call you his only one? This scenario is more suitable for another soap opera. If you want to get something in this life, then you need to “ take the bull by the horns».

To start determine for yourself whether you really want to get your hands on this particular candidate and honestly answer the question: are you ready for possible, even minor, humiliation in order to achieve your goal. After all, in fact, your chosen one may be good-looking, but hard-hearted. Determine your priorities in relation to him, what you want from him - satisfaction of a simple physiological desire or the development of your romance gradually into long-term and serious relationship. Be that as it may, to begin with, it is vitally important, in order not to get into trouble, to be patient and watch carefully the one who excites your imagination. Look at his social circle, clothing style, and manner of conversation. Try to find out what he is interested in, what interests him. This will serve you well in the future. To do this, you can also connect a faithful friend or friend. Moreover, you will get much more benefit from communicating in this matter with a friend, if only because his thinking is not very different from the thinking of your desired young man. Having collected information, do not be lazy to study and analyze it carefully. This way you will understand what kind of “bird” you have decided to kill, then it will be easier to outline “ war plan».

If your chosen one mainly relies on visual perception of the environment, drawing quick conclusions, then greater value give it yours appearance. Attract his attention with a well-groomed wardrobe, fashionable manicure, and stylish hairstyle. If a young man listens to what is said, then he should focus on his speech. For an experiment, you can think it over and record it on a voice recorder (fortunately this function available even on the simplest models of phones or players) those phrases that would be said to him upon meeting. This is a great way to evaluate yourself and the situation as a whole from the outside. You can thereby adjust your intonation, voice timbre and tone somewhere. Additionally, you can observe the change in your facial expressions while pronouncing this homemade preparation. So, while pronouncing this or that phrase, you can imagine what the person for whom you are trying so hard “reads” on your face or in your eyes.

Particularly mesmerizing Almost all men (regardless of age) have a melodious, gentle laugh, which can also attract attention. Therefore, practice at home alone or hone your “skill” on your friends. If your boyfriend is a cheerful person, then try to memorize three or four funny jokes, but tell them masterfully, so that, as they say, “without a hitch.” However, you shouldn’t overdo it either, if jokes flow out of you like a cornucopia, then he simply won’t take you seriously, and besides, you threaten to be branded a talker.

Important in relationships with guys personal contact, that is, try to casually touch his hand, pass him something more often. Try to be close to him, in his constant field of vision, but not quite close to him, otherwise he will perceive it as an intrusiveness. With this you can push him away from you.

Try to evaluate your behavior yourself from the outside, avoid approaching the “too much” scale. Having established contact with the person you like, do not press on the gas, but smoothly move from one stage to another. Even if on the first date he wants to fulfill your long-awaited dream of intimacy with him, do not rush, because practice shows that what you get quickly and easily loses interest. If you are only interested in the physiological side of the issue, then you can safely rush into the breach somewhere from the third or fourth date.

But most importantly, dear girls, do not lose your head and always remember about contraception, so that later it will not be excruciatingly painful in case of disappointment. After all, in life, a fairy-tale prince may actually turn out to be an ordinary redneck, or even worse. The main thing is cold calculation and excellent preparation. With these two components you can achieve a lot.

To be continued:

Until the age of 2–3 years, children eat almost everything. My son happily devoured broccoli puree without salt or other additives. Now, when I hear the word “cabbage,” hysterics begin. As a child, I hated liver, and my girlfriend didn’t eat tomatoes. Why this happens can be answered by the psychology of food.

All people have a list of foods that they didn't like as children and that they enjoy now. But the smell of liver still makes me sick, and some of my friends don’t understand how anyone can eat prunes. Most often the problem is not in the stomach, but in the head.

How to make friends with foods you don't like? Psychologist Elizabeth Phillips studies the psychology of food. She tells us how to cope with food aversions that we have not tolerated since childhood.

Why we love or hate food

People form their menu under the influence of innate and learned preferences. In the first case, each person’s brain makes decisions according to the same laws. And in the second, the secret lies in childhood.

Innate preferences

It turns out that our innate taste preferences play an insignificant role in the choice. From birth, we are programmed to crave sweets and reject sour and bitter foods.

Taste preferences can be explained from an evolutionary point of view. Sweet food - good source nutrients, so we tend to choose it. For example, ripe fruits are most often safe and rich in vitamins. While poisonous plants are almost always bitter, so we genetically reject this taste. This partly explains why some people dislike vegetables so much.

From the first days, babies show an attitude towards sweet and bitter, and their reaction to salty develops a little later.

Phillips believes that our craving for sodium chloride can also be easily explained by adaptation. The water of salt lakes contains many microelements necessary for the body.

We love and fatty foods: it gives a significant amount. That's why people love the combination of fatty and sweet (ice cream) or fatty and salty (fried potatoes).

Learned preferences

Congenital factors are corrected eating behavior, but learned preferences have the main influence. They are formed even before we are born.

We learn our first lessons about taste while in the womb. The child absorbs knowledge from the mother through the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid. Scientists have proven Human fetuses learn odours from their pregnant mother’s diet that children express less negative reaction to the smells of anise and garlic, if women pregnant with them consumed these products. The same goes for . Babies liked the taste if their mothers drank it. carrot juice during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

You already know that taste preferences are formed over the course of two years. First you eat everything adults give you, and then you become neophobic. Now you don't like the new food. So, if your mother did not like garlic, onions or liver, the chances of enjoying them are close to zero.

This is where many parents make the biggest mistake. They believe that the child simply does not like this kind of food. But children generally do not like new food. If you stop trying to feed your offspring these foods, they will hate some of them as adults. Parents simply do not know that if they continue to treat their child to boiled vegetables, over time he will like them.

The solution to the problem is to make this food. Try again and again. This may take 10 to 15 attempts. So if you don't like a dish, put it on the menu more often.

We don't just eat foods because we love them. Vice versa. We love them because we eat them all the time.

But switching to a new diet is not as easy as it seems. This must be done within 2–4 months. If you are used to drinking full-fat milk, 10 glasses of skim milk will clearly not be enough to generate warm feelings. Your body needs time to readjust its taste buds.

How to accustom yourself to unloved foods

It would seem that since most of our preferences are learned, then it is enough to adjust our diet and simply force ourselves to become addicted to new food. But there are many interesting nuances in the psychology of taste that are worth knowing.

For example, there are people who are hypersensitive to bitterness, which is why they try to avoid green vegetables.

Also, do not forget that the senses play an important role in taste preferences. The smell of food greatly affects us, but we also evaluate a dish by its appearance. If you change it, it will be perceived differently.

Remember how long you can’t even look at what you recently poisoned yourself with. It’s all in the head: a kind of program has been developed in order to protect us from poisonous food.

Remember: if you want to change your attitude towards certain products, you need to prepare psychologically and accustom yourself to new things gradually.

If you have one, try to diversify their menu as much as possible. They should try new things. And even if they don’t like something, perhaps on the twentieth time they will say that now it is their favorite dish.

Develop taste buds and get used to different foods not only beneficial for the body. This will come in handy when you travel. For example, Asian cuisine is characterized by tastes, colors, and smells that are unusual for Europeans. It’s more interesting to try something new than to frantically search for the nearest McDonald’s.