Dear Dad,
We have been exploring common excuses raised to eating a healthier diet. Let’s look at one more.
“I want to eat healthier…but healthy food doesn’t taste good.”
While this excuse is almost laughable it is quite common. I must admit when I hear this argument I tend to think of a whiney child who refuses to eat vegetables. But, this sentiment comes from adults too, who have not put their childish ways behind them at least when it comes to food. However, there are a confluence of factors that can trick our brains to believing that junk food tastes better than healthier alternatives so let’s talk about three: biology, preparation, and taste-buds.
Biology: Chemicals in our brains reward the consumption of sugary and fatty foods which is a completely outdated survival mechanism. When food was scarce, finding and eating enough calories was the main week’s objective. Not the daily objective, because some days there just would not be enough food and that was ok. During this time in history, foods rich in calories, for both immediate energy use (sugar) and storage (fat), were a premium. The brains that could find foods containing these sacred commodities were rewarded with rushes of the “feel-good-hormone” dopamine. Dopamine is associated with pleasure, learning, and memory. Therefore, when early humans found sugary fruits or fatty nuts and meat, they felt pleasure and learned and remembered to eat more of those foods whenever possible.
To this day, even though food scarcity is (thankfully) long in the past for most of us in the developed world, foods containing sugar and fat still cause most brains to react primitively. When you bite into that brownie or fatty steak the bells, whistles, and lights erupting in your brain put the most magnificent laser shows to shame. For this reason, food companies add sugar and use fats in most their products so that you feel pleasure and learn and remember to eat more of their foods whenever possible. Just remember that brownie doesn’t need to hold you over until next week anymore, it only needs to keep you occupied until the ice-cream unthaws.
Preparation: Poorly prepared healthy foods gives them a bad rap for taste. Just like a burnt steak, soggy fries, or dry dinner rolls tastes bad so do ill-prepared salads, grains, vegetables, or unripe fruits. For this reason, learning to buy ripe foods, cook them, and experiment in the kitchen is so important. If your entire experience with vegetables includes steaming a frozen bag in the microwave no wonder you continue to turn your nose at a helping of green beans. But, if you’re not willing to grow up and try them again, prepared with some TLC1 then you’re missing out.
Finding the joy in eating delicious vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, rice, and legumes may take a mindset shift but studies show that is quite natural. In fact, any preconceived perception you have of a food drastically impacts your decision to eat it. In a study at Stanford University, a dining hall measured the amount of vegetables eaten based on their labels along the buffet line:
[P]revious research has shown that people tend to think that healthy foods are less tasty and less enjoyable than standard foods. Healthy foods are also perceived as less filling and less satisfying… [However] would you be more likely to eat vegetables if they were described as “dynamite,” “caramelized” and “sweet sizzlin’”? According to new research from Stanford scholars, the answer is a hearty yes…more vegetables were consumed when they were labeled with indulgent descriptions that are usually reserved for more decadent foods [no changes to how the food was prepared or presented throughout the study] .”2
Picture the last buffet you attended, maybe at a conference, hotel, or wedding. I was at one a few weeks ago with watery steamed broccoli and soggy potatoes right next to creamy mac & cheese, and bacon wrapped scallops. In this scenario, of course the broccoli annd potatoes are not the most desirable options. But, don’t let poor preparation trick you into thinking that healthy food cannot be unapologetically delicious, because caramelized broccoli with garlic and roasted potatoes can compete with mac & cheese and scallops any day.
Taste-buds: Taste-buds change over time. Right now it may be true that healthier foods are not as appetizing to you, but once you get in the habit of eating these foods you will crave them. To many people this is unbelievable. I was one of those people.
People who know me now find it hard to believe that I used to nag you every time we passed a McDonalds to pull through the drive-thru and pick up chocolate shakes. Or that if I was left unmonitored I could easily drink 6 cans of soda a day, eat multiple donuts for breakfast, or a party sized bag of Doritos in one sitting. My favorite meal from a local pizza shop to share with my two older cousins at a sleepover was called the Gut Buster. (1 large Pizza, 50 wings, cinnamon dough balls, breadsticks, & a 2-liter soda—if we paced it correctly we could each have a few buffalo chicken wings for breakfast the next morning).
My food preferences didn’t change over night. It started with replacing soda for water. Then limiting the donuts and banishing myself from McDonalds. Only a couple slices of pizza with a few wings and a salad on the side. Momentum gathered and I felt the difference which made it easier to add in more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Until all of the sudden…over many years, my taste preferences are unrecognizable. Tonight for dinner I had a chopped spinach and kale salad, mixed with garbanzo beans, roasted carrots, peppers, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes. I ate it with as much joy as I used to eat the gut buster and wasn’t left with a busting gut.
Start with small changes. Find a few vegetables that you actually enjoy and eat them often. Fresh fruit is easy and delicious. Substitute sweet potato fries for regular, drink water when you’re thirsty, and don’t be afraid to make up your own food rules— my favorite salad dressing is salsa. It’s hard to believe but your taste buds will change. Today, I can walk by a fresh box of donuts and barely notice them, it’s not remarkable discipline, I’m just not that interested because I know I have a delicious bowl of steel cut oats, with cinnamon, blueberries, banana, and walnuts waiting for me.
Truth is healthy food tastes awesome. Makes you feel awesome. And is awesome.
With Love,
JSR