The same results are interpreted two ways, but there is only one model for food choice and for mate choice. That model is clearly based on ‘olfaction’, even as it is portrayed in bacteria.
1. “Nature” posits that bacteria are sniffing out their food. Bacteria sniff out their food. The simplest form of cellular life can scent nutrients from a distance. Nijland, R. & Burgess, J. G. Biotechnology Journal (2010) Source Nature
2. “The Scientist” posits that bacteria are sniffing out each other. Bacteria sniff each other out. When sensing the presence of other species, bacteria meet the textbook definition for olfaction. Nijland, R. & Burgess, J. G. “Bacterial olfaction,” Biotechnology Journal, 2010. Source: The Scientist
The all-too-common visual approach to human physical attraction is akin to the visual perception of attractive foods being causal to the development of food preferences. I discussed this in my July 2, 2010 presentation to the American Mensa Society, as seen in these two ( of four) 5-minute excerpts from the presentation:
James V. Kohl detailedl how quantized energy-dependent microRNA biogenesis links the pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction to biophysically constrained viral latency and healthy longevity. Links from what organisms eat to the enzyme-dependent metabolism of food also link metabolic networks to microRNA-mediated genetic networks in the context of RNA interference. Drug therapies alter RNA interference by altering cell type differentiation in all cells of all individuals of all species. For comparison, during the past 26 years, Kohl has detailed how the chemistry of protein folding is biophysically constrained at every level of biological organization by conserved molecular mechanisms.