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Humans are born with hardly any pre-set taste preferences. But we don’t remain blank slates for long; our appetites are rapidly moulded by the flavours around us. Nowadays that can mean trouble because our taste-tastic culture radically amplifies our inbuilt urge to consume food whenever it appears before us. Experiments show that babies’ only clear taste preference is for sweet tastes, he says. The rest is learnt. And we are very adaptable. Every time you get a new taste experience, your appetite goes up. You will quickly get to enjoy tastes that you didn’t originally like. Even rats won’t do that. If you consume something that affects your brain positively, you’re going to start liking it. This is why initially repulsive, bitter tastes such as alcohol become attractive. You quickly learn that high-fat food is positive because it’s got lots of energy. So the easiest way to get food to entice the human brain is to pack in energy and provide a wide spectrum of tastes. The food industry now does both of these things, but it didn’t start doing this intentionally; it’s just discovered over time what’s most popular. So in the modern world, you are surrounded by things that spark off your hunger associations. The lunch bells are ringing all the time.

Excerpted from pages 51 of Enough: breaking free from the world of excess by John Naish