Food Preferences and Dark-side Personality Traits

This study investigated the association between a variety of taste preferences and the Dark Triad personality traits. We noted over twenty studies that linked personality to taste/beverage preference and experience. In this study just under 200 participants completed a personality and food preference questionnaire. Results demonstrated that dark side traits accounted for around ten percent of the variance in tastes, including bitter and sweet as well as alcohol and coffee strength preferences. For a number of the taste preference measures sensation seeking and harm aversive personality traits were particularly influential in determining taste preferences. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Genetic determinants of liking and intake of coffee and other bitter foods and beverages

Coffee is a widely consumed beverage that is naturally bitter and contains caffeine. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of coffee drinking have identified genetic variants involved in caffeine-related pathways but not in taste perception. The taste of coffee can be altered by addition of milk/sweetener, which has not been accounted for in GWAS. Using UK and US cohorts, we test the hypotheses that genetic variants related to taste are more strongly associated with consumption of black coffee than with consumption of coffee with milk or sweetener and that genetic variants related to caffeine pathways are not differentially associated with the type of coffee consumed independent of caffeine content. Contrary to our hypotheses, genetically inferred caffeine sensitivity was more strongly associated with coffee taste preferences than with genetically inferred bitter taste perception. These findings extended to tea and dark chocolate. Taste preferences and physiological caffeine effects intertwine in a way that is difficult to distinguish for individuals which may represent conditioned taste preferences.

Nápoje na dvorech králů a knížat z dynastie Jagellonců konce 15. a počátku 16. století

This study presents an analytical probe into the field of beverage culture as it was cultivated in the late 15th and early 16th century at the courts of the descendants of the Polish‑Lithuanian ruler Casimir IV († 1492) of the Jagiellonian dynasty: the Czech and Hungarian king Vladislaus († 1516), his son, the Czech and Hungarian king Louis († 1526), and then his brothers, the Polish king John Albert († 1501), the grand duke of Lithuania and later also the Polish king Alexander († 1506) and the future Polish‑Lithuanian ruler (the then Duke of Opava and Głogów and the governor of Silesia and Lusatia) Sigismund († 1548). The starting point of the research was a comprehensive analysis of rare, preserved account books kept at the courts of these monarchs. This study describes the various types of beverages consumed (especially wine and beer) both in the social and geographic context. In addition, it also includes the sphere of consumers‘ taste preferences.

«Воспитательно-образовательные возможности авторской песни на примере песни В.Моисеевой "О Войне" и песни "Гурзуф" из цикла песен В. Моисеевой «Крымские Арабески»»

Today there is an acute problem of educating the creative potential of the younger generations, their artistic taste, preferences. Among the goals and objectives of education - the formation of artistic thinking (and as a variety - musical thinking) is very relevant. Therefore, the article considers some problems of the development of creative activity as the basis of artistic and musical thinking. Based on the study of the methodology of working on songs, it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of the influence of the author's song for voice and piano accompaniment on the formation of holistic ideas about the surrounding nature, the social environment of the cities of Crimea, the place of a person in it, self-esteem, the harmonious manifestation of patriotic feelings. Creation and testing of a song cycle as an accompanying material in solving the tasks of the regional component in education.

Influence of leptin administration to pregnant female mice on obesity development, taste preferences, and gene expression in the liver and muscles of their male and female offspring

The consumption of food rich in sugar and fat provokes obesity. Prenatal conditions have an impact on taste preferences and metabolism in the adult offspring, and this impact may manifest differently in different sexes. An increase in blood leptin level in pregnant females reduces the risk of obesity and insulin resistance in the offspring, although the mechanisms mediating this effect are unknown. Neither is it known whether maternal leptin affects taste preferences. In this study, we investigated the effect of leptin administration to pregnant mice on the development of diet-induced obesity, food choice, and gene expression in the liver and muscles of the offspring with regard to sex. Leptin was administered to female mice on days 11, 12, and 13 of pregnancy. In male and female offspring, growth rate and intake of standard chow after weaning, obesity development, gene expression in the liver and muscles, and food choice when kept on a high-calorie diet (standard chow, lard, sweet cookies) were recorded. Leptin administration to pregnant females reduced body weight in the female offspring fed on the standard diet. When the offspring were given a high-calorie diet, leptin administration inhibited obesity development and reduced the consumption of cookies only in males. It also increased the consumption of standard chow and the mRNA levels of genes for the insulin receptor and glucose transporter type 4 in the muscles of both male and female offspring. The results demonstrate that an increase in blood leptin levels in pregnant females has a sex-specific effect on the metabolism of the offspring increasing resistance to obesity only in male offspring. The mechanism underlying this effect includes a shift in food preference in favor of a balanced diet and maintenance of insulin sensitivity in muscle tissues.

Consumer Seafood Waste and the Potential of a ‘Direct-from-Frozen’ Approach to Prevention

Few food waste interventions focus on drivers distinct to particular food groups, such as seafood. Given suggestive evidence that seafood may be wasted at exceptionally high rates, and given its environmental, economic and nutritional value, this research provides insights into seafood-specific consumer food waste interventions. We performed three complementary sub-studies to examine consumer and retailer views regarding seafood waste and frozen seafood as well as perceptions of an intervention providing chef-created recipes to promote cooking frozen seafood without defrosting. The findings indicated an openness to a direct-from-frozen intervention among many consumers and retailers, and suggested seven potential barriers to adoption, along with ways to address them. Underlying the potential for this intervention, and more broadly contributing to addressing consumer seafood waste, the research formed the basis of a new “4 Ps” concept model to characterize the drivers of discarded seafood: proficiency, perceptions/knowledge, perishability, and planning/convenience. These factors shape waste through pathways that include behavioral protocols; taste preferences; waste-prevention efforts; and food safety concerns, precautions, and errors. This research suggested the benefit of testing a larger-scale direct-from-frozen intervention using insights from the concept model and, more broadly, the benefits of exploring approaches to food waste prevention rooted in specific food groups.

No place like home? Producing and consuming eldercare design

As the American eldercare industry prepares to attract and receive consumers from the “baby boomer” generation, facility designers and administrators are increasingly concerned with catering to the lifestyles and taste preferences of aging adults perceived to be more “active,” affluent, and accustomed to “choice” than previous generations. This article considers these trends in terms of their material, aesthetic, and discursive impacts on the socio-material construction of space in residential eldercare facilities. The study draws on discourse and visual analysis of winning entries in published design competitions sponsored by the architecture, interior design, and eldercare industries. Through this analysis, eldercare spaces emerge as sites of consumption where designers privilege both “household/home-like” and “commercial/hospitality” aesthetics and atmospheres. In recent years, placemaking strategies to create home-like environments increasingly overlap with social spaces inspired by the hospitality industry. Our discussion demonstrates how these strategies materialize in structures and interiors increasingly open to the non-resident public and integrated into their surrounding communities. As such, we argue that the negotiation of degrees and kinds of “publicness” and “privateness” in spaces of care reflect shifting views of the roles and characteristics of acts of consumption and consumers in these facilities and in the broader healthcare industry.

Darwin's finches can have taste preferences, but not for human foods

Urbanization is rapidly changing ecological niches. On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin's finches consume human-introduced foods preferentially; however, it remains unclear why. Here we presented pastry with flavour profiles typical of human foods (oily, salty, sweet) to small and medium ground finches to test if latent taste preferences might drive selection of human foods. If human-food flavours were consumed more than a neutral or bitter control at sites with human foods, then we predicted tastes were acquired after experience with human foods; however, if no site-differences were found then this would indicate latent taste preferences. Contrary to both predictions, we found no evidence that human-food flavours were preferred compared to control flavours. Instead, medium ground finches consumed the bitter control pastry most and wiped their beaks more frequently after feeding on oily and sweet pastry (post-ingestion beak wiping can indicate aversions). Small ground finches showed no differences in consumption but wiped their beaks most after feeding on sweet pastry. Our results suggest that unlike many species, medium and small ground finches do not find bitter-tasting food aversive. Furthermore, taste preferences are unlikely to play a major role in Darwin's finches adaptation to the presence of human foods during increased urbanization.