Does the taste for candy diminish with age?

[Elaini]

I mean store bought candy with all the bright coloring and artificial flavors. It kind of feels like it does diminish naturally with age, at least in my experience. If I'm craving sweets, I'd rather prefer ice cream, cake and brownies. Or it has to be chocolate or self made fudge.

But then again my food habits have become healthier altogether, saving the sugary sweets for special occasions and hardly eating or buying them alone. Fruit, dried or fresh will do the trick if it becomes overwhelming.

[Seige]

I used to need candy on a daily basis when I was in my 20s... as I got older I craved sweets and really didn't understand why I had to have something. When I finally found out what was going on I was at the point that when I saw candy it would make me feel sick... just by looking at it. I avoid the entire Isle in the store. I do know that with age sometimes your taste buds change so that could be what's going on. But it could also be a Health issue your body is telling you to take care of as well. When I finally found out what was going on with me It all made sense.

[GuySBot]

Sure your own senses will become less sensitive to things you saturate yourself with and emotion for anything known or even new will be more controlled . Yet having said that these companies change ingredients for instance from real sugar to high fructose and the flavors changed , they are less expensive to make for them so profits increase and it fools those who are young , naïve or moreso never knew the real thing . To add there if you loved something for so long like a certain favorite candy - over kill with eating it your whole life . You still may want chocolate/whatsoever but just something a bit different than the same old milk duds/whatever .

[SqkyC]

I don't like fructose candy. It gives me heartburn. It didn't used to.

When I was a kid in the 70's there was still a lot of hard sugar candy available, now it's mostly switched over to fructose. I always read the ingredient labels now. (Ya, I'm that lady in the store holding items at arms length while squinting at the label!) As a child I could eat corn syrup products no problem (unless in excess of course). Now even one candy does nasty things to my guts.

I have learned that sometimes sinus bacteria drips down the throat, travels to just past the stomach and fits ever so nicely into the little fructose receptors in the upper small intestine, blocking them right up. When that happens any fructose you eat then has no place to go. It travels through the rest of the digestive track with all sorts of digestive juices attempting to break it down causing lots of gas and heartburn. That feeling like you've just downed an entire can of whipped cream or as if you'd eaten balloons for dinner? That's the one. (I could go into it more but you get the idea)

Sugar candy does not do that.

I've taken to buying old fashioned candy cough drops to satisfy a candy craving. I mean, ya I could just buy old fashioned candy but when the temperature is over 100 outside and hardly dips below 90 inside the house (unless standing in front of the window unit!) a little menthol or peppermint is kinda nice.

I think our taste buds change over time too, and things that tasted not so good as a child are much more palatable as an adult. It would make sense that some of that goes the other way.

[Roy]

I think kids just generally eat candy more often, so perhaps get the cravings for it more. (most is marketed for kids)

I am in only in my twenties and I can not stand candies too much. Sometimes chocolates..but only when I am in the mood for it. Sometimes the thought of eating a lot of it actually grosses me out.

I do like snacking on dried fruit too.

[oOChrissyOo]

As we grow older, our taste buds slowly die, and our sense of smell diminishes also...Sad but true. I personally was never a kid who really liked "sweets" anyway. I was more of a fruit/veggie snacker, due to my parents upbringing, and that carried into my adulthood. As far as kiddos go...They crave anything ( sweets ) that is pure sugar. And advertising...they have it by the horns...BRIGHT colors, Commercials, and "placing it right by the checkouts at grocery stores". What kid wouldn't look at all that candy, and want it? However, although its proven that taste buds and sense of smell diminish..I tend to question why elderly people tend to ( "go back to their childhood" ) and request it so often......