Foodist Read online

  Why Should You Try and Try Again?

  As children, most of us are naturally averse to beer, coffee, and wine. A sip might be granted by a grandpa wearing a grin, which of course is followed by a grimace from the grandchild. So how do most of us end up liking all three beverages despite the horrible trials we go through?

  Practice, exposure, and repetition are the keys to comfort. I expanded my taste in music the same way. I started listening to any music I could get my hands on and, as with food, I started having mini music epiphanies too. Consider this: Why did most of us enjoy listening to the radio when we were children? We knew the songs, and they were comforting, like canned ravioli. How do country music haters end up enjoying Neko Case or Ryan Adams? It’s fresh and it didn’t come out of a can. You get the point.

  A Simple Request

  As a born-again foodist, I sit here in Seattle writing to you, Picky Eater. I’m late to work, because I care that much about your palate. I want you too to discover the pleasure of new foods. It has changed my life and given me unforgettable experiences with old friends and new.

  As a bonus, it’s easier to get out and exercise, because I’m not so weighed down by the processed junk food that I used to love. And my waistline is trim now.

  Change your ways for those last two reasons if you must, but try new foods because they will eventually taste good and the rest will follow. Just don’t expect it all to happen overnight.

  Chances are there are foods you love now that you hated as a kid. But how many foods do you still avoid just because you think you don’t like them? Young palates struggle with things like mustard, onions, and asparagus and instead prefer blander, less intense flavors. But as adults we sometimes cling to these preferences without ever stopping to question the value or meaning of our opinions. But when it comes down to it, what joy is there in being a picky eater?

  It is true that taste is subjective, but I’ve never heard a convincing argument that it’s better to dislike a food than to like it. It is certainly more fun to like things, and it is often far more convenient. Just try getting a serious chef to make a signature dish without onions. It isn’t easy. But how can you learn to like a food if you don’t like the taste?

  It turns out that most of the time we decide what we like before we bother to experience it,* and this prejudice clouds our perception of what we actually encounter. This effect of perception bias has been demonstrated repeatedly in psychology experiments in which food color and taste have been manipulated. To see this for yourself, use food coloring to alter the appearance of several bowls of lemon Jell-O and have your friends guess which flavors they are tasting. Very few will say they taste lemon unless the color is still yellow. Most of us taste what we expect to taste, not what we actually experience.

  The psychology of taste is further complicated by our natural aversion to things that are new or different from what we are expecting. In these cases the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the food makes us slightly uncomfortable, and we interpret this feeling as a personal dislike. However, this reaction reflects the food’s uniqueness rather than its true character. Our tendency to dislike and often hate things that extend beyond our perceptual comfort zones is explored by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.3 He argues that we make snap judgments about everything we encounter based on prior experience. And although this ability can sometimes help us make wise decisions, it can also explain why pilot testing can’t predict the success of new-concept TV shows like Seinfeld. Gladwell’s book shows us that it’s common for our first impressions to be wrong.

  Knowing about this bias can help you overcome aversions to foods you think you don’t like and even learn to love them. The first step is deciding that there is value in enjoying a food you currently do not enjoy. I’m not saying you need to develop an appreciation for canned peas,* but most fresh, natural whole foods are worth rediscovering for both taste and culture. The second step is persevering in trying the rejected food until you find it prepared in a way you like. This process is not as bad as it sounds, since there is a good chance that the reason you did not like a food in the first place is that what you were served as a child was either canned, frozen, or of industrial (low) quality. Since peaches and plums taste completely different when you get them in season at the farmers market, doesn’t it stand to reason that the same is true for green beans, broccoli, and beets? Also, with each new venture your taste will become more acclimated to the flavor and your aversion will dissipate.

  Fine dining is a fantastic opportunity to explore foods you haven’t enjoyed in the past. I was finally won over on brussels sprouts (my most hated of all vegetables) after a spectacular meal in San Francisco. I learned how to adapt a similar recipe at home and now consider them one of my absolute favorite autumn ingredients. Even if a certain food doesn’t end up on your favorites list, learning to at least enjoy it in a casual way will enrich your life and help you develop an appreciation for new and unique experiences.

  IT’S A TEXTURE THING

  Taste is the sensation we usually associate with food, but picky eaters can be just as fixated on texture as flavor. Ask people who don’t like mushrooms or eggplant what turns them off and they are just as likely (if not more likely) to say the food is “slimy” or “mushy” as they are to complain about how it tastes.

  How to Make Brussels Sprouts That Aren’t Gross

  This is the recipe that finally made me love brussels sprouts. Bacon makes anything taste good, but these days I appreciate the sprouts even without it.

  Buy the freshest sprouts you can get your hands on (hint: they’re in season in autumn), preferably from your local farmers market. Like any vegetable, the fresher it is, the tastier and more nutritious it will be. I usually buy a pound or so. The smaller they are, the sweeter and less bitter they taste.

  The secret is to halve and blanch the sprouts before cooking them with other ingredients. This helps them cook through and gets rid of the nasty, bitter taste that can be so characteristic of brussels sprouts. The other trick is to balance the remaining bitter flavor with an acid like lemon juice or red wine vinegar. Oh, and did I mention bacon? I prefer to purchase my bacon from a local butcher. Get two slices, but for a larger batch of sprouts increase it to three.

  This recipe is delicious with either walnuts, pine nuts, or hazelnuts. If you decide on hazelnuts, try them toasted. I like to bake them in the oven (350˚F) until the skins start to turn dark and crack, about 10 to 15 minutes. I then roll them in a paper towel or plastic wrap to separate the skins from the nuts. Don’t worry if all the skins don’t come off; they’ll still taste good.

  Brussels sprouts pair beautifully with almost any protein. Pork, chicken, and fish work especially well.

  Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

  SERVES 3 TO 4

  1 pound brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved

  1 cipollini onion (or shallot or leek)

  ½ cup walnuts or hazelnuts

  2 slices bacon

  1 tablespoon butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)

  Sea salt and pepper, to taste

  1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped

  1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or lemon juice

  To blanch the brussels sprouts, bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add a few pinches of salt. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the sprouts and set a kitchen timer for 5 minutes. Important: do not rely on yourself to remember, as overcooking at this stage will ruin your dish. Boil the sprouts exactly 5 minutes, rinse with cold water, drain, and set aside.

  In the meantime, chop the onion and nuts. Stack the bacon and slice into ½-inch pieces. Heat a large sauté pan on medium heat and add the bacon pieces. Allow the bacon to cook about 4 to 5 minutes, until the fat starts to render in the pan. Add the nuts and stir. If you are using cipollini onions or shallots, add those too (wait if you are using leeks).

  Cook the nuts and bacon until the bacon is almost
done; then add the butter. You can add leeks at this point. When leeks just begin to soften (about 1 minute), add the sprouts, sea salt, and pepper.

  Stir the sprouts and turn most of them so the cut faces are down. I strongly recommend using tongs for this. After about 2 minutes, stir the sprouts and sprinkle on the oregano. Continue to cook, stirring every 2 minutes or so until the faces of the sprouts are all browned and onions begin to caramelize, 8 to 10 minutes. In the last 3 or 4 minutes, add the vinegar or lemon juice. This step is essential to cut any last bit of bitterness remaining in the sprouts. Use the taste test to determine precise cooking time (depending on the size of the sprouts).

  Of course, texture is important. It is the essential difference between fresh and stale popcorn and between the springy crunch of a fresh grilled shrimp and the rubbery give of an overboiled one. But for most picky eaters, the issue is rarely a matter of cooking preference. In the human mind, texture is easily associated with other, nonedible substances that often look, sound, or smell gross. A picky eater who doesn’t like a specific texture will often describe the food as feeling like brains, snot, rubber, or other things most of us would agree are unappetizing. Once an association like this is made, the idea can overpower any pleasurable experience that might come from the food.

  One way to address this is to form a new association. One of my readers told me he was able to overcome the “dead tongue” feeling of raw fish in sushi when a friend suggested he think of it as lunch meat instead. Though sushi and lunch meat have little in common, this small shift in perception was enough for him to become an avid sushi lover. To implement this on your own, try to think of a food you enjoy with a texture similar to one you don’t like. For instance, instead of associating a tomato with snot (I lost track of the number of people who have told me this), try pudding, egg yolk, or a fruit smoothie. If your brain can only come up with gross things, try asking a friend for help.

  Another useful technique is to try the offending food in a new setting. An important part of the sushi story is that the person was on vacation in Mexico when he decided to try the raw fish again. When many things are unfamiliar, the strangeness of a particular food texture is less noticeable than it would be if it were the only new thing you were confronting. In another example, a mother cured her child of picky eating by taking him on a trip around the world. The new cultures and environments were enough for her nine-year-old to feel comfortable stepping out of his normal habits and becoming more adventurous.

  Indeed, embracing a sense of adventure is very important. Whenever the jet-setting child was nervous about a new food, his mother said she could hear him repeat to himself, “I just have to try it.” And no one forced him to eat anything. Repeated brief exposure to something new is sometimes enough for a person to get over the unfamiliar component, which is often the main reason for the aversion in the first place. Almost everyone can learn to like something new if they are persistent enough.

  A related approach is to try a food cooked in a new way. I’ve helped several people overcome an aversion to eggplant that they had attributed to texture by roasting it without much oil. Sautéing can often make eggplant oily and slimy, but roasting gives it a more chewy texture. Once these people realize they enjoy the flavor of the food in this new format, the slimy version is suddenly not so bad.

  To some extent, aversion to specific food textures is embedded in Western cultures. In contrast, the Chinese culture embraces food texture as a unique element completely distinct from taste. In Chinese cuisine (the real stuff, not fast-food Chinese), ingredients are frequently added solely for texture, such as jellyfish and sea cucumber. They have little flavor on their own, but add a springy crunch to a dish that is considered a delicacy. Westerners can learn from this approach and develop a more open mind when trying new foods. When you focus on the texture in food not as something you are being subjected to but as a unique and interesting experience to be appreciated, it can break those unpleasant associations and help you enjoy what a less adventurous palate would struggle with.

  If none of these works for you, there is always the boot-camp method. One reader explained to me how his son overcame his strong aversion to tomatoes and mushrooms in Marine Corps basic training. After a day of intense training, the recruits were taken into the mess hall, given a plate of food, and told they had five minutes to eat it—the drill sergeant would sometimes count down the final seconds. No other food was available to the recruits, so anything skipped meant less calories and energy for tomorrow. “The recruits ate what was put in front of them or went hungry,” he said, so his son tried not to think about it* and forced himself to choke down everything. It wasn’t until after he left basic that he realized he was over his food aversions.

  Although real, clinical food aversions do exist that can cause people and even babies to gag and vomit in response to certain food textures, most of us can get over texture issues if we want. Persistence, an adventurous spirit, and a few psychological tricks can go a long way toward helping you enjoy new foods.

  PICKY EATERS VERSUS FOODISTS

  It is far more fun to be an adventurous eater than a picky eater, but that doesn’t mean you should eat everything that’s put in front of you. Always remember to make mindful decisions and never accept food blindly. There is a difference between being picky about the type of food you eat and being picky about the quality of your food. A foodist sees a clear difference between the two, and if quality standards are met, foodists aim to be as inclusive as possible.

  That said, no one is here to judge you for your tastes. If you really can’t live without nacho cheese, by all means find a place to fit it into your healthstyle. Quality be damned! At the end of the day only you can decide what value to place on your health and happiness. Just keep in mind that disinclinations toward vegetables or other healthy foods can be overcome if you set your mind to it, and in general quality and value should be your benchmarks for making healthstyle decisions. If health and weight loss are important to you, monitor your weight and adjust your habits until the results start to tip in your favor.

  EIGHT

  THE WAY YOU MOVE

  NEAT, 10,000 STEPS, AND PUMPING IRON

  “If it weren’t for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn’t get any exercise at all.”

  —JOEY ADAMS, COMEDIAN

  “I really don’t think I need buns of steel. I’d be happy with buns of cinnamon.”

  —ELLEN DEGENERES

  Exercise hasn’t gotten much love lately in the world of weight loss. Most studies have shown that exercising more doesn’t lead to a significant drop in body weight, largely because it increases hunger and people make up for the lost calories with more food. But that doesn’t mean exercise isn’t important for your health (some would argue it’s the most important) or even how you look. Although you can certainly hit your ideal weight by tinkering with your diet, adding exercise will make the difference between looking good and looking (and feeling) amazing. If your healthstyle is important to you, physical activity is a must.

  OH, NEAT!

  Fitness doesn’t need to start at the gym, so don’t worry if you’re not the sweating type. In fact, all the little, seemingly extraneous movements you do each day can add up to burn far more calories and have a more positive impact on your overall health than a daily gym trip. The latest research has shown that being sedentary by sitting for long stretches of time throughout the day increases your risk of several chronic diseases, even when formal workouts are part of your schedule.1 In other words, too much sitting around is not the same as too little exercise—it’s much worse. The way to avoid this is to be more active, and not just while you’re wearing spandex.

  Scientists refer to the activity you do while moving around each day as nonexercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. Activities that qualify as NEAT include doing dishes, taking a shower, planting a garden, playing with your kids, shoe shopping, chopping vegetables, taking
the stairs, punching your little brother, getting the mail, walking to the bathroom, fidgeting, toe tapping, dancing a jig, walking the dog, and even just standing up. NEAT is win-win for busy and lazy people alike, and the more of these small activities you do, the better. Unfortunately, so many jobs require spending long hours in front of the computer* that very few of us come close to our recommended activity level.

  Small actions are easy to forget, but this is good news. That it is so easy to add or drop certain activities from your schedule means burning a few extra calories doesn’t need to be a chore—in fact, you will hardly notice. All you need to do is build a few simple habits that work some extra movement into your daily routine. Avoid elevators and escalators like the plague, walk to lunch or between floors in your building, do chores more enthusiastically at home, and park farther away in the lot. Just standing up more to get a glass of water or use the restroom* can make a difference. Little activities like these add minuscule amounts of time to your tasks, but contribute significantly to your health.

  Unlike structured, high-intensity exercise, walking and other low-intensity movements don’t make you hungrier. There’s good evidence that increasing your daily activity can burn hundreds of extra calories each day and may be one of the most effective ways to impact your energy balance (i.e., burn more without eating more).2 Importantly, NEAT correlates with body weight in obese as well as normal-weight individuals, so everyone can benefit from extra movement.

  NEAT Ideas

  A few ways to squeeze in the extra mile:

  • Take the stairs

  • Park farther away

  • Get off the train one stop earlier