Targets of learned food aversions in humans.

In order to determine whether some nutrients are more salient targets than others for the development of learned taste aversions a large group of normal human subjects were surveyed about their experiences with such aversions. The targets of these spontaneously occurring food aversions were identified and classified into general food categories. A prominent category for human aversions proved to be foods which were protein sources. This finding was similar to our observations in the clinical setting as well as those we have obtained using an animal model. It suggests that taste and/or postingestive properties of protein foods may make them particularly salient targets for food aversion learning.