can you really change your eating habits this easily?
‘Shroom haters nightmare turned ‘shroom lovers heaven!
I swung by the frugalwoods the other day and saw their $0.39 per serving rice and beans recipe. It looks and sounds mouth wateringly tasty and so naturally it got me thinking about food, but not just as in putting some food into my belly right that second (as if I ever needed much help on that one!), but my my thoughts went off on a few random tangents.
force feeding
Have you ever tried to force yourself to like a certain food you have previously disliked for a long time, or am I the only weirdo out there who engages in this practice?
The Frugalwoods’ recipe included mushrooms you see, which I have previously hated since about the age of 5, so it got me thinking they maybe it’s time I harden the fuck up 1 and get back to liking them again.
Why miss out on eating this natural and healthy ingredient just because of some arbitrary change in my tiny irrational mind made me decide to dislike the taste and/or texture of those wonderful ‘shrooms one day?!
So I decided to give my previously tried and trusted 3 step method of overcoming a dislike of foodstuffs:
- Force feed yourself the hated food in question
- Keep doing this until you can at least stand eating it without gagging or wincing
- Finally ratchet back to normal eating habits and include foodstuff as normal people would, and around 6 months to a year (maybe even sooner!) you will find you actually damn well LOVE the previously hated food
This is just another example of how it is really quite easy to change our habits, whether they be eating, financial, exercise, personal hygiene (you know who you are 🙂 ) or just stopping a bad kind of habit altogether and replacing it with a good one instead.
it’s worked before, olive you believe!
So what have I been successful in forcing myself to like?
Well the obvious one that I bet a lot of you out there must have gone through is the whole “Olives” thing.
There is an urban myth that it only takes you X* amount of olives to become addicted to them.
*Replace X with whatever number the Billy Bullshitter telling you the myth decided to insert. I often heard it was 10. Pah!
Whilst I don’t quite believe it’s that cut and dry, I do think that many people trying olives for the first time (I guess they would be called olive virgins? And if another came along they’d be an extra olive virgin? Oh stop it… I’m too funny I know!) will a bit like…
“What the f*** did you just tell me to put in my mouth!?!??!”
… And at that point they may never eat another olive again. Or they may persevere and after a while find the taste quite pleasant.
I happen to have been in the latter group and now if you put a bowl or olives in front of me and especially if I have a beer or wine to go with it, they will be gone before you can say “popeye… saaaaave meeee!!!!” in a shrill, whiney voice.
Previous to that, I didn’t like tomatoes and thought that was just a bit stupid and inconvenient when a lot of sandwiches and other things came with tomatoes in them, so at around the age of 18 I just started eating them. Again… now I bloody love the things! I have also succeeded in liking chick peas and beans – as in kidney beans, not baked beans. I still hate those but have no desire to want to like them as they are essentially crappy sugary beans out of a tin and easy enough to avoid at most good eating establishments (i.e. anywhere without the word “Greasy” in the name). This may turn out to be a short sighted attitude when the zombie apocalypse finally comes but I guess I will have to deal with it!
what’s the worst that could happen?
I can imagine there are certain things this trick would not work with, particularly strong tasting food like smelly cheese may be a bridge too far for some people. And I wouldn’t advise trying to get into deep fried mars bar donuts if you currently don’t like them. But I reckon most people dislike at least one major food type that is either healthy and so they are unnecessarily missing out on getting some nutrients, or is present in a lot of dishes and therefore causes them to look like the picky barstard when eating out.
Why not give something you previously have disliked another go and see if you can change your default behaviour of “not liking it” to “liking it”?
It’s a fun experiment.
And obviously let me know how you get on, or if you’ve tried this sort of thing before already either successfully or not.
Notes:
- Thanks to Mr Zombie who put me onto that one on his letter post. Hilarious! It’s almost like a parody of MMM on steroids! ↩
Discussion (19) ¬
As a child I used to hate cheese. It is a source of great regret that I overcame that dislike in my twenties 😉
I think people generally become more tolerant of things they used to hate as kids as they get older. I used to also hate aubergines and I can’t see what the problem is now. But I still find Marmite and fennel revolting, and have never made peace with the sweet and sour combination. Never understood the British fondness for baked beans either.
How on earth you could dislike tomatoes beats me. But grow them, don’t ever bother with bought ones. And grow them in the ground, rather than grobags and shedloads of Tomorite – ugh… Your yield will be lower, but the taste divine!
I detect some sarcasm there and I hope I am right, cheese is the food of gods!
I agree on that. I was fairly fussy as a kid but try to eat a lot more now.
Marmite is another that I used to hate but now like quite a lot actually 🙂
I am growing some tomatoes now with the “robo watering” pots which I guess is a halfway house between ground and bags, so I will let you know how they turn out.
There aren’t many foods I’ve ever disliked so much that I wouldn’t eat them. But one was carrots, a food I avoided through college. Turns out, I do like carrots. I just didn’t like how my mom prepared them: plain and steamed. It took a few cooking preparations to figure this out, and now roasted root vegetables are one of my favorite dishes.
Roasted carrots in honey = devine (not very healthy though!) 🙂
I love raw carrots as well as a quick and easy snack!
I think mushrooms are a lost cause really. The taste is bearable, but the texture is awful and you’re basically eating mould.
Anyway if you’re going to “harden the fuck up” you should only be eating meat from animals you’ve killed with your bare hands surely 😉
Haha, fair comment Matt!
I’m not quite on Bear Gryll’s level yet… working towards it slowly though 😀
I’m not at all keen on asparagus, broad beans, butter beans and celery, although I am forced to eat this at times as my husband often uses it in soups and stews. I can tolerate a certain amount but there is a “celery tipping point” at which my taste buds revolt and I can go no further. I’m never going to actually like that particular vegetable no matter how much I try.:-)
I can’t do raw celery. Why people use it to dip into things is beyond me. But yea I can tolerate it or even quite like it as part of a big dish of stuff for some strange reason.
I’ve never really forced myself to eat something I know I hate, but the past few years I’ve been really trying to expand the things I like. I’m always willing to try something that maybe I didn’t like in a new style of cooking or in a new dish. I’ve successfully started eating a much larger variety of veggies and I used to never eat beans as well.
Yea that’s what life is all about really isn’t it? Trying out new things whether that be food or experiences or something new to learn!?
I can’t get over to everyone how much I used to hate beans and now I fricking well looooove them!
I hated olives as a kid, and did have that “eww” reaction the first time my parents made me taste one.
Kind of really like them now
I can’t imagine anyone liking olives the first time they tried them, or any children liking them….
Apart from my 8 year old nephew who doesn’t like most basic foods yet seems to love olives (and has done from a very young age). Kids… who knows what goes on in their heads eh!? 🙂
I vaguely recall snacking on pizzas after a night out as a student and wondering what those nice ‘black bits’ were – yep, that was when I first fell in love with olives, lol! My olive-hating friends think I’m a weirdo! I also love mushrooms and have raw celery in my salad for lunch most days! There’s not a lot that I won’t eat, apart from certain cheeses that I find too strong and lamb, which for some reason I find too strong in smell/flavour.
Aha another olive lover. They are the marmite of the natural world aren’t they? 🙂
Everyone has their particular pet hate which most other people find weird I think. I always get ripped for being a fussy barsteward when I ask for my full english “without the beans”!
Thank you so much for trying out our rice and beans recipe :). And, glad to hear you liked it!! I agree with you–I think there’s a lot of value in trying out stuff previously thought odious. Never hurts to try :)!
Hey Mrs F!
Thanks for popping over to comment, and for the delish recipe of course 🙂
Huh. I used to eat only chicken breast until 7. Imagine that i learn to eat fruits in elementary and veggies in university and college. But I didn’t like it and last week i tried to eat peanut butter. Surprisingly good. Nice article, by the way.
Peanut butter is one of my nemises! I have tried it on many occasions and still find it so very odd tasting.
It’s a cheap and nutritious snack which is why I want to like it but still haven’t managed that one… will have to have another proper crack at it soon!
Cheers!