Bae May Actually Change Your Tastebuds
Your shared love of guac may be pure science.
My boyfriend and I eat Tex-Mex all day every day. Breakfast? Tacos. Lunch? Tacos. Dinner? Fish. Just kidding, it’s tacos. We legit never tire of it.
It’s difficult to say who started the taco trend. Was it my BF’s Texan upbringing or my weekly college taco nights? We may never know for certain. But what we do know is that our likes and dislikes are constantly fluctuating and science says our relationship with our significant other may have something to do with it.
According to a recent study published in the journal Appetite, the longer couples stay together, the more their tastes begin to converge. You read that right — your long-term boo may be impacting your taste and scent preferences.
To test this theory, researchers from Poland and Germany examined 100 heterosexual couples who had been in relationships for between three months and 45 years. The researchers asked the pairs to sniff scents like rose, eucalyptus, smoked meat and leather and assign a rating to what they smelled.
Later, scientists took a series of flavors ranging from sweet and salty to umami and bitter and sprayed them on the participants’ tongues. The couples rated the flavors and scientists were able to determine that people who had been in relationships with their significant other for longer had more taste and scent picks in common.
It’s unsurprising that people who have lived together for 45 years have more shared food interests than couples who’ve only been together for three months. Partners who live together likely share meals and eat similar foods.
But science suggests there may also be a biological connection. Experts say that if a couple is drawn to similar scents, they’re more like to be compatible. It’s almost as if evolution is conspiring to help us find someone to eat cheese with.
More research is required before we can definitively say why partners want to nom on the same dishes. That being said, I’m still convinced that tacos = love.
