Science Says That Being In A Relationship Can Actually Change Your Tastebuds
For better or worse?
It turns out being in a relationship does more than just change your TV preferences and attitude to sharing food because being loved-up for a long period of time has been scientifically proven to alter your taste buds.
In a study published in Appetite, researchers have taken notice of the fact that couples tend to grow and adapt alongside each other over the years – and that this pattern doesn’t just relate to developing a super niche music taste by the time you hit 50.
Let's get checking out an update from MTV News...
In the experiment, 100 couples were instructed to report back on a series of flavours sprayed directly on their tongues. The people sampled had been together from between three months and 45 years, and the flavours included sweet, spicy, sour and bitter tones.
The results of the study were pretty fascinating. The longer the pair had been together, the more likely they were to have similar opinions on the flavours. What makes the study even more interesting is that said result had *no* correlation with relationship satisfaction.
Long-lasting couples who weren’t particularly happy in their relationship were still far more likely to have aligned tastes than the loved-up youngsters who were totally infatuated with each other.
"Our study shows that partners become more congruent over time in terms of smell and taste preferences, however, this congruence is not equally related to relationship satisfaction," the researchers explained.
"This surprising result highlights the need for more research aimed at exploring mating mechanisms linking partners’ congruence in odor preferences and the relationship satisfaction.”
So if your current partner has any annoying food habits, the obvious solution is to invest 45+ years into the relationship in the hopes they might one day change their ways.