Weird History Food is getting into the Genetic Reasons Why You Like Certain Foods. Here's some good news for picky eaters: genetic dispositions cause you to enjoy the taste of certain foods but not others. If some cultural food choices seem baffling to you, that's normal. Why do people eat what they eat? Why does something you eat taste completely different to someone else of a different race or ethnicity? Of course, taste can also be influenced by things that happen during your upbringing or by disease risk factors coded into DNA. Mainly, though, it's a mixture of many of these.