Palates link soil and plants with herbivores and humans

Palates link animals with landscapes. An attuned palate, which enables animals to meet needs for nutrients and self-medicate, evolves from flavour–feedback associations, availability of biochemically rich foods, and learning in utero and early in life to eat nourishing combinations of foods. Unlike our ancestors who ate biochemically rich diets, the palates of many individuals are no longer linked in healthy ways with landscapes. Selection for yield, appearance and transportability diminish phytochemical richness of vegetables and fruits, which adversely affects the flavour and nutritive value of produce for humans. Likewise, phytochemically impoverished pastures and feedlot diets can unfavourably affect the health of livestock and the flavour and nutritive value of meat and dairy for humans. Not coincidentally, as the flavours of meat, dairy and produce became blander, processed foods became more desirable as people in industry learned to link feedback from energy-rich compounds with artificial flavours that obscure nutritional sameness and diminish health. Thus, the roles plants and animals once played in nutrition and health have been usurped by processed foods fortified and enriched in ways that adversely affect preferences by stimulating appetite for processed over wholesome foods. The health of soil, plants, herbivores and humans could be improved by creating cultures that know how to produce and combine biochemically rich foods into meals that nourish and satiate.