The study of food aversion in humans by the induction of illness is ethically unthinkable, and it is difficult to propose a type of food that is disgusting for everybody. However, although cheese is considered edible by most people, it can also be perceived as particularly disgusting to some individuals. As such, the perception of cheese constitutes a good model to study the cerebral processes of food disgust and aversion.
I should state here that I love cheese. Just about any variety.
In fact I can honestly say that I have not come across a cheese that I do not like.
Yet, according to the aforementioned scientific study published in October 2016 by Royet, Meunier, Torquet, Mouly and Jiang in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience it turns out that some individuals are actually disgusted by cheese and that the level of disgust is the highest for any type of food.
It is not just a case of expressing this emotion by making a face, gagging, feeling physically sick or having an allergic reaction but more of a definite change in the brain that can be detected by the magnetic resonance of a scan.
Dislike of any foodstuff can be based on an unfavourable taste experience, a fear of poisoning, intolerance or even a bad childhood memory. In my own situation I developed in my formative years an intense but somewhat illogical hatred of caramel cup cakes.
The anthropologist Charles Darwin first defined disgust as an emotional response as early as 1872.
Previous studies into our attitude towards food tended to concentrate on the physical traits such as facial expressions when confronted by the sample product or reactions to pictures or odours.
Food studies have always been a bit of an ethical minefield as the participants have to some extent to be induced into a reaction whether that is by intentional over-indulgence or other less tasteful means.
The 2016 investigation sought to establish what proportion of the population at large was disgusted by cheese and to compare the brain activity of those who hated it and liked it.
A newspaper advertisement attracted an initial group of 145 men and 187 women who were tested for their suitability for the actual experiment.
A tabulated collection of 75 foods over eight categories of fruit, cheese, charcuterie, fish, vegetables, meat, dessert and various others was graded by the participants as a like or dislike. Some cited the reasons for a negative response as cultural or dietary for example being a vegetarian or vegan.
The final study sample was honed down to 15 cheese lovers and the same number of cheese haters.
There was further screening for any potential medical impairments to the senses such as a cold or virus.
This select few progressed to a session of training with 28 different odorants before being exposed to six types of cheese- blue, Cheddar, goats, Gruyere, Parmesan and Alpine Tomme and also a control group made up of cucumber, fennel, mushroom, pate, peanut and pizza.
The odours were delivered to the candidates by an airflow olfactometer in an oxygen mask.
Each participant had to record their reaction to the odours on a keypad ranging from very unpleasant to unpleasant, neutral, pleasant and very pleasurable at the other end of the scale.
In a separate session in an MRi Scanner recordings were made of the cerebral processes associated with exposure to cheese.
The results were interesting in that it was determined that some 10.5% of the population are disgusted by cheese.
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