I figured I would start a new thread so we weren’t going to far off on the original topic.
I read an article yesterday about the taste of fear and it made me think of your awesome descriptions of how feelings taste. Apparently we can make connections in the embryo stages between emotions and taste and this can show itself after birth. The article was about mice or rats but they were extending it to humans as well I do believe. I sometimes wonder about your emotional response to, is it blackberries? Sorry just thinking out loud
Yep blackberries are very emotional to me. I don’t actually KNOW what a blackberry taste like, because the emotions hits me harder then the flavor. The smell of them will also bring it all back too…
It’s a sort of a powerful joy mixed with an edge of sadness that makes me get a bit teary eyed and thankful at the same time. I also associate them with a deep sense of calm. The calm space in my head is a blackberry vineyard, on a strong cliff, over looking a mediterranean blue ocean.
I know exactly the moment where this all comes from… so it’s highly nostalgic for me as well.
I do believe that the nostalgia of a food will also trigger emotional responses. Think of how many places advertise… “comfort food”
I was reading that panic in a bee hive smells like bananas. There is something about the Bee’s smell they give off when they sense the hive is in danger… that bees get agitated around bananas because it triggers a fear response… List of honey bee pheromones - Wikipedia
It’s sort of interesting reading up on all the psychology of taste and how taste triggers emotions and memory. I think my cross wiring is doing this in reverse. The emotion hits me and then triggers the flavor.
Sorry to reply again… but this is one of my favorite topics…
I was wondering if you have ever been around food during a traumatic time and now… you don’t even like that food.
Example… A kid that gets sat in a chair and yelled at to eat their peas… and as adults… peas just bring up memories of being yelled at. (That wasn’t me. I actually really like peas)
For my sis… it’s cheez-its, goldfish crackers and fruit roll-ups… She hates them. They make her upset to even see them in the store. She rants about how dangerous they are. The smell makes her gag, she doesn’t even let our niece and nephew eat them.
I think I know what triggers this reaction in her around this food. My swan song of an episode when she was 6. I was told by my parents and doctors… that I had huge boxes of this stuff in my car as my “survival food” and I was feeding it too her to try and keep her calm… as I was falling apart and driving at the same time. That is just my guess… I haven’t run this theory by her yet.
There are some smells that turn my stomach although they tend to do this for a lot of people. For me it’s fish and hard liquor. I’m sure they are both tied to my father. When I was young and my dad would rage, my sisters and I would run to a neighbor who’s husband was a fisherman and would have cod drying on their front lawn. The smell of it from those memories is still fresh and strong. I hate the smell of fish and it instantly turns my stomach. I do however like other seafood’s like mussels and crab but sometimes the smell still affects me. Hard liquor is the same. I don’t even like the smell of beer. Yeast now that I’m baking bread sometimes hits me and I can’t decide if I like or dislike the smell. Hard liquor consumption or too much beer usually meant my dad flying off the handle.
Lately I’ve been trying to eat what I was told to for various medical reasons. I’ve gotten to the point where there are several foods (I don’t cook)…I say - eat one of each every day. Sometimes I can go by which of those I feel like eating. Sometimes I’m more dictated.
