The Science Behind the Foods We Love (and the Ones We Hate!)

Adulthood: Food That Has Made You Sick

Avoiding meat and plants that caused intestinal distress is one way our ancestors survived. But today that survival instinct can doom any fare that coincided with a stomach flu or food poisoning. Researchers have created food aversions in subjects with just one negative exposure. And some aversions can continue indefinitely: The next time you eat something that sparks bad memories, your sympathetic nervous system (which controls your "fight or flight" mechanism) will kick into gear. Your digestion will slow, the food will sit like a brick in your stomach, and you'll redouble your vow never to eat it again.