Would children eat more vegetables if they taste like macaroni and cheese? They may probably love it and parents would have no more worries during meal time. This is not unlikely to happen as experts focus their studies on making food flavors and tastes appealing to anyone.
The Inaugural International Conference held last November 07 revolves mostly on the idea about Neurogastronomy. According to Eater, "This new science, called neurogastronomy, merges the science and culinary worlds by studying the human brain and the behavior that influences how we experience eating and drinking. First conceived in 2006, the field has now evolved into its own area of learning that delves into the molecular biology of the olfactory receptors, the biochemistry of food preparation, and odor images and the brain flavor system." This field of Science gives one a different view on food tastes. It's a kind of system where instead of modifying the flavor of food, experts focus on changing the humans' perception of a meal. Hence, instead of producing a macaroni and cheese broccoli, experts trick the child's brain instead and make vegetables pleasurable to them as how macarani and cheese make them feel.
This invention would be beneficial especially to those who have difficulty in identifying food flavors as their sense of smell was impaired. "People who have lost their sense of smell as adults are another population that might benefit. Some of these people experience unpleasant "phantom" odors-one common phantom odor is cadavers and these odors affect taste and flavor, "Dr. Tim McClintock, physiology professor at the University of Kentucky, stated.
The researchers found a proof of the possibility that food taste can be altered by influencing the brain which affects a person's sense of smell. Though the study is still in its early stage, it can flicker everyone's hope and excitement as experts find what smell triggers the change in food taste which is more likely to happen in the near future.
