Struggling to find pleasure in healthy foods? Keep trying. Sampling foods repeatedly, even if we don’t initially dig the flavor, is worth the payoff of acquiring a taste for them.

A more organic, less deliberate process sees us latching onto grub a different way. Merry vibes mold our food choices. Positive sensations shape our general preferences. Most of the time, this begins in our childhood.  From the European Food Information Council:

The preference for energy- and fat-rich dishes is also shaped by the social context. Children often like foods they have eaten in pleasant situations and reject dishes linked to something negative. This is further enhanced by the selection of foods for specific occasions. Tasty foods (high energy density, high fat and sugar content; e.g., desserts) are commonly served on pleasant occasions such as celebrations or when guests are visiting. In contrast, foods considered less tasty, e.g. vegetables, are often consumed under pressure: “Eat your veggies or you won’t get any dessert.” This results in doubly negative coupling and at the same time increases the popularity of energy-dense, tasty dishes and the aversion against less savory foods.

Speaking of dessert, I came back from a workout today to find my son, Dane, crushing a giant bag of chocolate chip cookies for lunch. He must have had some positive sensations as a toddler. Wait, I remember when his mom took him for ice cream when he was two years old. It’s all her fault. Come to think of it, she bought the cookies too. I’m off the hook.

His desire for cookies may be associated with familiarity. The trick is to make him more familiar with healthy foods, like coffee (kidding, relax).

Coffee is a drink that is only liked upon repeated consumption. Often, one approaches the bitter taste very carefully with the help of milk and sugar. Repeated exposure is usually required to actually enjoy coffee, and the development of such a taste preference has been coined “mere exposure effect”. This means that only foods or drinks are liked which one consumes on a regular basis and which therefore have become an acquired taste. It is assumed that there is a direct link between taste experiences and preferences. A biological safety principle builds the basis for this effect: through careful tasting and waiting for any negative consequences (intolerance), our ancestors have gathered taste experiences. However, our own food behaviour is rarely mere intake, but rather coupled with emotions, social aspects and digestive processes that may influence the mere exposure effect.10 One biological principle opposing the mere exposure effect is the fear of new foods, termed neophobia.

I never feared tomatoes as a child, but I hated them. They were frequently placed in front of me; I continually turned them away. As an adult, I began to pick at them. Slowly but surely, I acquired a taste. Now, I eat them like you eat apples (or cookies, if you’re my 12 year old). I pull fresh, sweet representations from my garden daily. I simply need to duplicate the process with my rugrats. From US News:

We know that one of the most powerful influences on children’s acceptance is simply exposure. Give children repeated opportunities to experience foods.

If that were really true, those cookies Dane was eating would have been kale. I kid, I know the good stuff is working with my young men, too. My older son put arugula on his plate with no prompting tonight. Boo ya.

To trying new things,

Kap