Retrain Your Tastebuds

Did you know...

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that you can retrain your tastebuds? Human tastebuds have evolved in such a way as to cause us to favor three primary tastes - sweet, salty and fatty. There is a myriad of research out there as to how and why this happens to be the case (primarily survival) but what is important nowadays is that our foods have changed so much that often giving in to our desire to satisfy these particular tastes leads us to make poor dietary choices. And let's face it - we all know how much high fructose corn syrup is used in just about everything these days.

Obesity is a national problem in the U.S. Childhood obesity is especially alarming. What are we eating? What are we feeding our kids? Look forward to the coming article by feature writer Marty Davey RD. She is writing about the current dilemma with school lunches!

But back to our tastebuds. As we mentioned, scientists theorize that our tastebuds evolved to a preference for the three main flavors of sweet, salty and fatty. Throw bitter into that mix and you have the early course for survival. Sweet - so that we could detect plants that are naturally calorie- rich and tasty, bitter to detect possible detriment in plants that could harm us. Since salt is a critical nutrient and it was difficult to get a lot of it early on, our taste for it was heightened so we could detect it more readily. And finally, fatty because in a world where perhaps food was scarce all too often, fatty foods helped us to simply stay alive.

Today, for the fortunate majority of us, food isn't scarce - it is plentiful. That also begs the question if it is so plentiful why do we have to "invent" processed foods that are mainly engineered to satisfy our taste-buds and not to necessarily impart nutrition? But that is a subject for another time.

The crux of the issue here is, how do we become more attuned to eating things that are good for us. How can we retrian our tastebuds to not only appreciate the foods we eat but to also make us desire to eat good foods rather than what we have typically been accustomed to eating? The American Institute for Cancer Research put out this little primer on retraining your tastebuds. We think it's worth a reprint...

How to retrain your tastebuds

• Use pureed white beans instead of fat to create a creamy texture in soups and casseroles.
• Flavor foods with more herbs and spices, using twice or three times more herbs than salt. Look at a book on how to use herbs and spices and try some unfamiliar ones, such as cumin, coriander, turmeric or ginger.
• Try roasting vegetables like squash or peppers to enhance their sweetness. For dessert, try broiled peaches or a baked apple.
• In baked goods, replace half the fat with a moist low-fat ingredient like unsweetened applesauce.
• Top cakes or brownies with powdered sugar or sliced fruit instead of frosting.
• Fill your plate with minimally processed foods and cancerfighting vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans.
• Avoid processed meats and enjoy limited amounts of lowfat dairy products and lean meat, poultry and fish.

So try to make a habit out of eating less sweet, salty or fatty foods and retrain your tastebuds. You'll find you crave those things less and things that fit into a healthier category more!

Before we go...want a convenient little chart that lets you know what fruits and vegetables are at their optimum goodness in each season of the year? Click to get this downloadable Seasonal Chart.

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