Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist John McQuaid in his new book "Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat" claims that the human mouth has only 3 types of receptors for sweetness but 23 for bitterness. Taste developed as a primitive aversion-attraction binary that helped the earliest organisms find (sweet) sustenance and avoid (bitter) poisons - jellyfish, fruit flies and even bacteria can recognise bitter compounds - which is why they are still around today.
Also, apparently, human beings seem to take pleasure in eating painfully spicy food to feed the human hunger for risk and arousal without the downside of actual bodily harm. Food for thought!
Source : Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East Feb 2015 edition.
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