stop saying yuck!
I can’t remember which magazine this article was from but it was so interesting that I think you should read it. It was written by Jennifer Chen:
We all have foods we can’t stomach. To help ourselves get over them, we asked molecular biologist and nutitional scientist Eric Nowicki for a one-way ticket out of Gagsville.
About one in four people actually tastes vegetables like brussel sprouts and broccoli as extremely bitter (it’s a survival instinct to protect you from eating poisonous plants). Taste buds detect sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami (a Japanese word for savory). Try masking bitterness by playing up some of the other tastes. Don’t over cook veggies – that enhances their sharpness. And instead of steaming or boiling, lightly saute then in oil with salt and a dash of sugar.
Childhood associations influenced you? Maybe your parents disliked the food, or you had a bad experience (you ate corn on the cob with a loose tooth and it hurt)? Wait until you’re really hungry before trying foods after a long hiatus. When you’re that famished, your body will start to associate those flavors with a positive benefit: relieving your hunger. Smells change as we age, too, so maybe the food you’ve always hated won’t seem as offensive as it did when you were a kid. To ease into it, try plugging your nose for the first few bites.
It’s a texture thing? There’s no scientific research that says why, but something about a rubbery glop of mayo or slimy slice of ham just makes you shiver. Play with your food. If texture is your one problem, try cooking the food to change its consistency. You may hat woody mushrooms or fleshy tomatoes, but spicy tomato salsa or a creamy mushroom soup might appeal to you. When foods aren’t a surprise (like, say, finding a chunk of tomato in your salad), you may not react as strongly either.
I read another article once that says you need to try something 8 to 10 times before you will adjust to the taste. And, also it takes 6 to 10 weeks to form a habit. Keep trying mushrooms, eggplant or avocados. Your taste buds will adjust to the taste.
Another article I read said that if you don’t like something, add it to something you do like in a very small quantity and slowly build up. So if you do not like brown rice, put a little brown rice in a pot of white rice. A few days later, do 1/4 brown to 3/4 white. Then combine, 1/2 brown to 1/2 white until eventually you have a whole pot of brown rice.
Chef Dawn Walker is owner of Dawn’s Dinners, SCV’s best kept dinner secret. This week at Dawn’s Dinners she is making Bistro BBQ Turkey Potpie, Chickpea and Parmesan Casserole and Braised Honey Lemon Pot Roast with Carrots and Orange Quinoa. In the freezer she split pea soup, black bean sweet potato soup, turkey chili, butternut squash lasagna, hoisin pork tenderloin, turkey apple meatloaf, bistro chicken and veggies and Italian beef and macaroni casserole. Many meals are low fat, gluten free, dairy free, low glycemic index or vegetarian. Each meal costs $25 and feed four and are kid tested. Monthly meal plans are all the craze costing as low as $100 per month for four full meals! Go to her website to sign up for her weekly menu newsletter and see whats cooking at Dawn’s Dinners.
