Scientists at the University of Singapore in a series of experiments came to an unusual conclusion: falling in love can make the dessert you eat much tastier. The familiar cliche about the direct relationship of love and sweetness, it turns out, has a literal meaning: thoughts about romance can make us perceive what we eat or drink more sweet than it really is.
People who took part in the experiment correlated their emotions with different tastes - sweet, salty, sour and spicy. Then one group was asked to describe a personal romantic experience, and the other something boring. After that, the members of the group were asked to evaluate the taste of the food they proposed. As a result, for those who wrote about love, food seemed much sweeter (even plain water “sweetened”) than for those who described boring events, impressions or negative emotions, such as jealousy.
Scientists believe that such taste features are directly related to the work of the nervous system, which perceives, possibly from childhood, sweet as a reward for something. Studies have also shown that a certain area of the brain that plays a role in predicting rewards is activated by looking at the image of a pair of lovers or tasting sweets.
