- Messages
- 12,978
- Location
- Germany
Are today's youngsters sticking their undershirts in their underpants, the old-fashion practical way?
A quick bit of online research verifies our senses of taste and smell (both of which are responsible for our perception of "taste") begin to decline as we age, usually after the age of 50. Interesting. I've often heard people remark, "My tastes have changed as I've gotten older," but I had never considered a biological component before now.Anyone here well-versed in how the human sense of taste (as in food and drink and whatever else one might put in his or her mouth) changes with age?
I ask because I can think of a couple of foods that repulsed me as a youngster that I like just fine now (but only a couple, I've never been a picky eater) and some that appealed to me then that seem just so insipid now, such as sweets that got nothing going for them but sweet.
I suspect it changes some around puberty. Swiss cheese actually pained me when I was a little kid. It stung. It hurt my mouth.
A simple and probably accurate answer is that kids crave highly caloric foods because they are growing and that for most of human history, when food was not so readily available as it is in the modern industrial world, such preferences were necessary to survival, for the individual and the group. But I'm curious as to the mechanism.
There's actually support for the theory that our intelligence decreases as a result of the aging process. I'd explain further but I can't understand the article where I read it.
I just know the saying from neurologic, that our ability for concentration falls down after the peak from 28 to 30.
What I'm finding, especially in just the last couple of years, is that I often choose the wrong word and don't notice it -- and I oftne confuse my homonyms when writing. "Reed this book" instead of "Read this book," stuff like that. I find that I have to proofread much more closely than I once did.
My math skills haven't deteriorated, though. I never had any, and you can't lose what you never had.
Hell, I know I'm not as quick as I once was. Judgment is better, generally, which is somewhat compensatory.
Still, I recoil at the suggestion that intelligence is measurable. Certain mental functions might be empirically assessed. But we can't agree on just what intelligence actually is. To measure anything it is first necessary to know what we're measuring. "Intellect" is amorphous. And it won't hold still.
I guess I'm not old yet:You know you're getting old when:
Looking sharp for the "babes" is no longer a priority.
Being old is like being high and going through withdrawal at the same time.
Can't confirm and I'm already 32!!