You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Viliam_Bur comments on Getting myself to eat vegetables - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: jkaufman 07 March 2013 01:48AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (23)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 07 March 2013 10:28:58AM *  8 points [-]

Sometimes, if you keep eating something regularly for a long time, it starts tasting better. I don't know if it is just a power of habit (familiarity feels pleasant) or whether your brain gradually redefines "food" to mean the things you eat most often (so your desire to eat becomes a desire to eat a set of specific things).

As an experiment, start adding one fresh tomato (cut to pieces) to every meal you eat. (OK, not literally every meal; I wouldn't eat a tomato with a sweet pancake. But if something contains meat, it can contain a tomato, too.) Do it for three months and observe what happens.

If tomato does not work for you, experiment with other vegetables, find one (or a small set) which works for you, and then use it consistently. And always have enough of them at home. Remember that every successful diet starts in a shop. (If you don't buy them, you cannot eat them.)

As shminux recommends, spices and dressings are your friends. The goal is to make yourself eat vegetables, not torture yourself with something you don't like. But if it works, you may gradually need less of these ingredients.

Comment author: Error 07 March 2013 03:05:02PM 2 points [-]

Data point: This one worked for me, some time back.

Comment author: Sarokrae 07 March 2013 06:35:05PM *  0 points [-]

I agree with this. I've read somewhere (source needed) that it takes babies about 10-15 tastings to get to grips with a new, unfamiliar flavour, and I'd imagine the same principle applies for adults.

More anecdotally, both my father and my OH started off really strongly disliking the flavour of coriander in their teens, then grew to really like it after they've tasted it in a variety of contexts. My father also had this with yoghurt, and I myself with goats' cheese.

In fact, I'd suggest you start with more variety than just one vegetable, since if you attack on all bases simultaneously, statistically speaking you're going to start liking one of them faster!#

Edit: only source for my claim that I could find which cites a study is here. The study also suggests that babies learn to like a food faster if it comes paired with something they already like, which gives evidence to some the other suggestions mentioned.

Comment author: atucker 13 March 2013 08:16:44PM -1 points [-]

I think that the nutritional value of the food, or at least the perceived nutritional value of the food, also plays a role in how quickly you start liking it. I've started liking raw beef liver and fish oil after waaaay fewer tries than say, ceviche.

Comment author: [deleted] 13 March 2013 08:44:48PM 0 points [-]

Is the rawness of the liver motivated by nutritional or gustative reasons? How do you prepare it?