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Picky eaters - how do you make yourself like food?
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I've always had trouble with textures too
I've found that as I get older, I enjoy food more (specifically food that I used to hate). I now enjoy blue cheese and horseradish, but I used to hate both of those. I still dislike sour cream, though.
The best thing to do is keep your mind open. Don't order entire dishes that you dislike. If you're eating with a friend who orders a dish you dislike, ask if you can try a bite. If you dislike it, that's okay. Try condiments that you normally dislike, but only enough for a bite so that your whole meal isn't accidentally ruined.
I love lettuce, but dislike salad. It's the dressings; I hate salad dressing, but dry salad doesn't taste good. I've tried pretty hard to overcome this, since salad is good for you and comes with the meal at a lot of places (lots of opportunities to overcome a challenge). Sadly, a lot of these places will let you get soup instead of salad, which is what I do when the opportunity presents itself 😛
I've found that as I get older, I enjoy food more (specifically food that I used to hate). I now enjoy blue cheese and horseradish, but I used to hate both of those. I still dislike sour cream, though.
The best thing to do is keep your mind open. Don't order entire dishes that you dislike. If you're eating with a friend who orders a dish you dislike, ask if you can try a bite. If you dislike it, that's okay. Try condiments that you normally dislike, but only enough for a bite so that your whole meal isn't accidentally ruined.
I love lettuce, but dislike salad. It's the dressings; I hate salad dressing, but dry salad doesn't taste good. I've tried pretty hard to overcome this, since salad is good for you and comes with the meal at a lot of places (lots of opportunities to overcome a challenge). Sadly, a lot of these places will let you get soup instead of salad, which is what I do when the opportunity presents itself 😛
Zenmervolt
Elite member
Ditto. It's like biting into a piece of tinfoil.
ZV
thirtythree
Diamond Member
I use carrots after eating something to clean my teeth. That's a good way to get some veggies in your diet. I also like asparagus and put onions or chopped peppers in things. Or there's salsa with chips, celery with peanut butter, plain peeled cucumbers, pickles on sandwiches, etc. Just try different things out and you're bound to find something you like.
As for training yourself to like certain tastes or textures... I read a book that got me thinking about how arbitrary our taste/smell preferences are. Obviously there's some sort of biological or experiential reason for them, but they can be changed. I've found that instead of resisting a smell, for example, if you sort of inhale deeply and savor it, you can learn to like it. I still wouldn't do it with icky bodily smells, but I taught myself to like the strong pollution smell of North Salt Lake. Taste is a little harder to mold but probably doable.
Also, how 'bout tea instead of soda? Or fruit juice, or veggie/fruit juices like V8 Splash. (Actually, I'm not sure on the ingredients of V8 Splash--check to make sure it's not just full of high fructose corn syrup.) EDIT: Add salt to the cucumber, actually... or sliced in vinegar is also good.
As for training yourself to like certain tastes or textures... I read a book that got me thinking about how arbitrary our taste/smell preferences are. Obviously there's some sort of biological or experiential reason for them, but they can be changed. I've found that instead of resisting a smell, for example, if you sort of inhale deeply and savor it, you can learn to like it. I still wouldn't do it with icky bodily smells, but I taught myself to like the strong pollution smell of North Salt Lake. Taste is a little harder to mold but probably doable.
Also, how 'bout tea instead of soda? Or fruit juice, or veggie/fruit juices like V8 Splash. (Actually, I'm not sure on the ingredients of V8 Splash--check to make sure it's not just full of high fructose corn syrup.) EDIT: Add salt to the cucumber, actually... or sliced in vinegar is also good.
Crazy. It just tastes incredibly fresh and delicious to me, hard to describe. I've heard people say it tatstes like soap, but I just can't taste that at all.
I wish I were a geneticist, I would totally make it my life's mission to discover the cause of this. Then I could produce a cure so everyone could enjoy the wonderful world of cilantro/coriander.
KT
The problem isn't that you don't like the taste, the problem is that you've convinced yourself you don't like the taste long before you even try it. It's entirely psychological.
Lemme guess. You're the kinda guy that eats pasta with every other meal, you slather things in cheese and seasonings and 95% of what you eat your mom made for you when you were younger and didn't make you eat the vegetables. If so, the problem is so deep-rooted that you're going to be lucky to give in to anything.
You wanna change this? When you go to a restaurant, just ask for the waiter/waitress to give you a suggestion and go for it without asking for it to be made specially. Get in a situation where you have to try other people's cooking. See... if YOU cook it, you're gonna wuss out or throw it all away... or pour on sauces and cheese and condiments...
Lemme guess. You're the kinda guy that eats pasta with every other meal, you slather things in cheese and seasonings and 95% of what you eat your mom made for you when you were younger and didn't make you eat the vegetables. If so, the problem is so deep-rooted that you're going to be lucky to give in to anything.
You wanna change this? When you go to a restaurant, just ask for the waiter/waitress to give you a suggestion and go for it without asking for it to be made specially. Get in a situation where you have to try other people's cooking. See... if YOU cook it, you're gonna wuss out or throw it all away... or pour on sauces and cheese and condiments...
sygyzy
Lifer
There are two types of picky eathers:
1. Naive/Ignorant people who don't know what good food is. These people are usually unadventurous as well.
2. People who are foodies or gourmets who can't bring themselves to eat cafeteria lunch food because it's really that bad.
Both are hard to fix but #2 is less annoying than #1 when dining in a group.
1. Naive/Ignorant people who don't know what good food is. These people are usually unadventurous as well.
2. People who are foodies or gourmets who can't bring themselves to eat cafeteria lunch food because it's really that bad.
Both are hard to fix but #2 is less annoying than #1 when dining in a group.
pyonir
Lifer
I used to be like you. Then i just started not caring anymore and started trying something new every time i went to a resturant or trying different things when grocery shopping. If i dont like it at first, i eat it anyway. if i dont like it the second time, i dont buy/get it again.
i learned to drink coffee while on a college trip to the UK and Ireland. It was tea or coffee, and i couldnt stand the taste of tea, so started drinking coffee. Besides, coffee is great when you are hung over as hell from Guinness and have to be up at 7am to meet your group for a tour. lol.
i learned to drink coffee while on a college trip to the UK and Ireland. It was tea or coffee, and i couldnt stand the taste of tea, so started drinking coffee. Besides, coffee is great when you are hung over as hell from Guinness and have to be up at 7am to meet your group for a tour. lol.
Suspicious-Teach8788
Lifer
I hate picky eaters. Half the time they don't even appreciate good food. It's like dude, go DIAF. You gotta force yourself to try new things.. yeah. It's amazing when you start forcing yourself to eat things.
PepePeru
Diamond Member
mushrooms can be tough for me to eat.
i'm slowly getting over that spongy, meaty texture of them.
as for coffee. I used to doctor it up w/ cream & sugar, then I remembered how lazy I am, so I just drink it black now.
but i used to be picky as a adolescent. I didn't eat Chinese food (okay, Americanized Chinese food) until i was 19. I'll eat just about anything now.
I'm glad too. Im sure I passed over lots of good eatin' as a child.
i'm slowly getting over that spongy, meaty texture of them.
as for coffee. I used to doctor it up w/ cream & sugar, then I remembered how lazy I am, so I just drink it black now.
but i used to be picky as a adolescent. I didn't eat Chinese food (okay, Americanized Chinese food) until i was 19. I'll eat just about anything now.
I'm glad too. Im sure I passed over lots of good eatin' as a child.
I used to not like lettuce, onions or anything. Now I like lettuce in my tacos and on my burgers. I like onions in moderation.
I don't like tomatoes. Can't stand them. Blech.
Still can't really do salad though. I don't know. That green taste just doesn't do it for me. It feels like I'm eating a mouthful of grass, and makes me gag. lol
I don't like tomatoes. Can't stand them. Blech.
Still can't really do salad though. I don't know. That green taste just doesn't do it for me. It feels like I'm eating a mouthful of grass, and makes me gag. lol
Zenmervolt
Elite member
From your description of #1, it sounds very much like you're #2.
Good food is food that tastes good.
The problem with most restaurants today is that they use lower-grade or severely overcooked meats and then try to cover that up with fancy sauces and glazes and other crap. Good meat needs nothing beyond a little salt, a little pepper, and a dash of garlic and can still stand on its own without those things.
ZV
MagnusTheBrewer
IN MEMORIAM
Here it is again, proof that if a pill existed that was nutritionally complete and kept you from being hungry, 90% of Americans would not eat! Thank God for the other 10%! Whether the majority are just picky eaters or have some kind of emotional/mental hang ups about food I have no idea and don't care.
May you have a long and joyful relationship with national fast food chains. I'm done trying to educate people who have no interest in where, how or,when their food got from the farm to their plate. I'm sick to death of people who want "nutritious tasty quick food" with the emphasis on quick.
No, you can't have ketchup with that! No you can't have the sauce on the side! You must be worthy of my soup. 🙂
May you have a long and joyful relationship with national fast food chains. I'm done trying to educate people who have no interest in where, how or,when their food got from the farm to their plate. I'm sick to death of people who want "nutritious tasty quick food" with the emphasis on quick.
No, you can't have ketchup with that! No you can't have the sauce on the side! You must be worthy of my soup. 🙂
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