What inside our bodies makes us prefer the smell of candy to garbage?

Question

Why do humans prefer things that smell sweet to things that smell sour? Sorry if you don't get what I mean.

Answer 1

Genetic memory.
When our ancestors were roaming around the African plains searching for food, they learned that rotting food smelled a certain way and made them sick. After so many millennium, the genetic imprint was encoded, and we now prefer the sweeter smells.
Another argument for this is to examine how strongly the sense of smell is to memory. Smell is often called the sense tied most closely to human memory, profoundly influencing people’s ability to recall past events and experiences. Here are a couple of links:

Answer 2

I agree with everyone, it's a defense mechanism perpetuated by evolution. In the wild you can find a lot of things that we would eat that smell sweet, but not sour. Kiwis are kind of sour, but they smell sweet. Something like rotting food may smell bad to us, but not to a scavenger like a raccoon. In order to survive, our bodies have evolved to use our sense of smell to protect us.
To answer the question below, we do know. It's because we do not need to eat rotten meat or trash to survive.

Answer 3

Gunk builds up inside the grind chamber.First,does the disposal work and spin properly? The disposal has to work in order to clean itself.Let's assume it works properly.A number of things can be sent through the disposal to try and clean it.Lemon peels , Ice cubes ,chicken bones and some commercial products (Disposal care,Chlorine bleach ,Disposal Pellets) can be sent though to try and dislodge gunk.Talk to landlord first. Be careful sending any solids into disposal.The best solution would be to get some Roto -Rooter concentrated build up remover and use on regular basis.It is safe for pipes and disposal

Answer 4

Sweet things used to be good for us (like fruit), so we evolved to like the taste and smell. The smell of garbage is caused by rotting organic material, which isn't particularly healthy to eat, so we evolved to generally find it disgusting.

Answer 5

I think it is probably a defense mechanism. Our bodies use smell to help us differentiate between things that are safe and things that are harmful. Of course there are exceptions to this (for example, cyanide smells like almonds) but I think that's probably part of it.

Answer 6

why didn't our stomachs and intestinal tract evolve into having the ability to eat rotted meat and trash like some animals? guess we'll never know.

Answer 7

it has everything to do with the sosciety you were raised it.it's physcological.
if you were given garbage as a treat when you were little,you would find the smell quite pleasant.