FOOD DISLIKES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17470, 2 June 1922, Page 13

FOOD DISLIKES.

(By a Dietetic Specialist.; Contrary to general belief, likes and dislikes in the matter of food depend more upon mental than upon physical conditions. I The palate is influenced by the temperament, not the temperament by the palate, and to the doctor a knowledge of his patients favourite dishes is a sure index of their mental and emotional | state. ' r Certain temperaments create cravings for certain forms of diet, and one need not be a doctor to gauge the mentality of the man whose labourite foods are roast beef, potatoes, and suet puddings and whose f avpurite drink is beer. Ho would naturally be credited with a less sensitive palate than the man to whom soft roes are the most attractive dish and champagne the only drinkable beverage. But the difference is really a difference of temperament. | If the beef-eater despises the epicure , for his fastidious taste, he is actually despising him lor possessing a more delicately sensitive mentality; and the epicure who accuses tue beei-eater of being a tempcraintntally coarser creature than himself has science on his side. Because a certain form of diet is most appetising to the palate it does not follow that it is the one best suited to the requirements of the body. Anyone, for instance, susceptible to great mental or emot.onal changes naturaily craves for a stimulating diet —the very diet to be avoided. iiie temperament which impels a person towards the cultivation of psychic powers invariably produces a craving for fruit, but it is quite possible that such a diet might be totally unsuitable. ' The palate rarely undergoes any radical change. What appeals to it in childhood usually appeals to it in later life. A man may not perhaps, take the same delight in sucking sweets at the age of forty as he did at the age of ten, but he probably takes his sugar in the form of whisky. There is a broadening of taste to correspond with the broadening of the mind, but only a radical change of temperament could produce any great variation in the likes and dislikes of the palate. There is, of course, such a thing as an acquired taste, but the change that is brought about is primarily a mental change. Tho change of the mental attitude from "I don't like it" to "I i shall like it" would soon produce a cor- ■ responding change in the palate. Sudden changes.in the palate are the ! common result of sudden changes of environment, and under the influence of unusab emotions people will often develop a craving for foods which under normal conditions they cannot touch.