The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

America is a nation that suffers from “taste inflation.” Virtually all prepared foods in this country, whether they’re restaurant foods or convenience foods, are made with such outrageous levels of salt, sugar and MSG that they can only be called extreme foods suffering from taste inflation.

What do I mean by taste inflation? If you studied newborn babies and were able to analyze their chemical taste sensors, you’d find they were able to experience a broad range of various tastes – the bitters in green leafy vegetables, the natural fruit sugars in apples and berries, and even the sweetness in cashews or tomatoes. But when you introduce them to standard American foods – infant formula, and then later in life, candy bars, fast food, soft drinks, etc. – you basically obliterate their natural taste senses, desensitizing them to the flavor subtleties found in natural foods. You end up with people who can really only taste two things: Sugar and salt. That’s why, in our country, most prepared or processed food is loaded either with one or the other. (more…)