Food Connecting With Memory

By: Annabella Graffius

It is well regarded that grape flavoring is not good. Why is that? The smell and taste of grape flavoring might remind them of medicine or “sickness.” When I was younger, I would take kids benadryl when I was sick; that medicine more times than not was flavored as grape. Over time my brain and many others would recognize the correlation between the memory of coughing, sneezing, and even throwing up with the grape flavoring. Memories connect to food and drink all the time. Why is that?

Biological Reason

The article on BrainFacts.org, “Savor the Moment: The Peculiar Connection Between Taste and Memory” by Michael W. Richardson states, “Humans have 450 different types of smell receptors, each of which can detect slightly different smell molecules…. It’s this sense that can really tell the difference between store-bought sauce and your grandmother’s closely guarded secret recipe.” Each different smell is specifically unique so the brain would be triggered to remember a time where one has smelled that smell before. Therefore, mac and cheese at a Mexican restaurant would taste different than Grandma’s.

“The Science of Flavor: How Food Creates Memories” by Joe Malicdem agrees, “In the brain, the hippocampus is vital to a person’s memory, particularly long-term ones. A flavor can also connect with parts of the brain tied to emotion and smell. In other words, we are biologically wired to form strong memories around food.” People subconsciously remember a smell or taste and the time they smelled or tasted it. Your grandma made you home made sushi and years later you tasted sushi and it reminded you of her; that is because your brain connects the memories of sushi with the memory of your grandmother.

What Do People Think About Their Food Memories?

Ms. Mary Ledoux and Ms. Elliot Martin shared of times where they ate something really good or wouldn’t eat something anymore. Interestingly enough, not all people think of foods with memory but rather establishments such as restaurants with memories. People also might think fondly of a food because of a particular person the food reminds them of. Overall, when people eat strongly affects what they think of the food.

food connecting with memory.mp4

Directed by Annabella Graffius; filmed and edited by Sophia Marquez Berestecky

This shows that food is a big part of ordinary people’s lives. A faint memory of a stomach bug in fourth grade might affect how you see a food for the rest of your life. You might remember a time where fried rice and chicken comforted you when you were sick, and that’s why you love it so much. That goes to show how powerful the hippocampus and the brain as a whole is when it comes to food connecting with memory.

Life Surrounding the Meal

People remember liking a food, but it might not be the food they liked, but the memory. If someone was enjoying a meal, experience, or event, they are most likely going to connect the foods consumed with that time. Whether it was a wedding cake, hospital pudding, or soup your neighbor gave you, the event in which you ate would affect how you perceive that food, fondly or otherwise.

Food is such an important part of everyone's daily lives and the brain takes note of that. It is no supprise that people remember many points surounding food for that is what our brains were made to do. Overall, food connects with memory in many different ways every day.

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