evolution, mate preferences, naturalistic fallacy
Why do doughnuts taste so good? Think of fat, sugar and salt — scarce in the wild, but plentiful at the local grocer. Throughout 99% of our evolutionary history, humans lived as hunters and gatherers. We lived in the wild, and those who preferred to eat substances containing fat, sugar and salt (meats, nuts, fruits and honey) tended to out-survive those who did not. As a result of this Darwinian process, it is likely that humans evolved taste preferences for these substances. While we may not benefit from eating a lot of fat, sugar and salt in today’s modern dietary landscape, we still possess these preferential desires. In our ancestral past these drives kept us alive and reproducing.
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