Fried food is one of my country’s traditional delicacies. Whether it is fried meatballs and fried spring rolls during the New Year, or the fried stinky tofu and fried chicken legs that everyone loves, just think of their crispy and fragrant taste. , many people have already drooled "unsatisfactory". Although fried food has always been considered unhealthy, people's pursuit of delicious food still defeats reason most of the time. Why can’t many people resist the temptation of fried food?

Our innate love for fried foods likely originated from adaptive evolution in the long process of human evolution. Over the course of evolution, humans have developed unique taste and texture preferences. In ancient times, human food was often obtained from nature. And humans will also like some of the characteristics of these easily available foods. Occasionally, humans will face food shortages, and some wild fruits and vegetables, plant roots, and even insects will become backup foods to temporarily solve the problem of food and clothing. Although these backup foods are not very tasty, their "crispy" texture makes them unique, and humans have gradually adapted to and accepted them. Therefore, humans’ natural love for crispy food may be the result of this adaptive evolution. Later, humans learned to use fire to cook and process food. This method also promoted the "Maillard reaction" - carbohydrates and amino acids react at high temperatures to produce a series of flavors and aromas. This gives the food not only a crispy skin, but also an attractive taste.

The appeal of backup food and the evolution of cooking methods have provided an evolutionary basis for the appeal of fried foods. So why do people love them so much in a modern society where food is abundant? The main reason is because of the taste experience they provide. Crisp, not only stimulates the sense of taste and smell, but also stimulates hearing. We often use it to evaluate the "color, aroma, and flavor" of a dish, which corresponds to human vision, smell, and taste. The neglected auditory experience actually plays a decisive role when we taste delicious food. Sometimes even if the food is not delicious enough, the crispy texture will give the eater a pleasant feeling of chewing. This sense of pleasure comes from the auditory experience.

All human sensory systems have the same characteristic, which is that they will become numb to a long-lasting stimulus. This phenomenon is called response weakening. The stronger the signal stimulus received by the senses, the longer it takes for the response to weaken. We can find that the sound made when chewing crispy food is significantly louder than that of non-crispy food. This increased stimulation makes the auditory system less prone to "aesthetic fatigue". So every time we eat crispy foods, we enjoy them longer.

Humans’ special experience of sound is also used in some audio and video sounds to aid sleep. Producers will deliberately choose the sounds of chewing potato chips, fried chicken legs, popcorn and other crispy foods to satisfy the pleasure of the sensory system, thereby achieving a "massage" effect on the brain.