This article comes from the stern archive and first appeared on April 2, 2023.
A famous experiment from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) from the late 1980s shows how firmly anchored our preference for sweets is: Newborns relax their faces when sweet liquid is dripped into their mouths. When they hear something bitter, they squint their eyes, stick out their tongue and turn their heads away. We are born with a preference for sweet things and a dislike for bitter things. Bitter warns of poison, sweet signals: Here you can get energy-rich food. While sugar was still a rarity for our ancestors and was only available in ripe fruits and honey, today it is increasingly becoming a threat to our health. We consume it as table sugar in desserts, as fructose in fruit, and as glucose in soft drinks. And it doesn’t even have to taste sweet: it’s found in bread, pasta, rice and potatoes in the form of starch and other carbohydrates.
Access to all STERN PLUS content and articles from the print magazine
ad-free
Already registered?
