Why doesn't healthy = palatable?

Because we have become addicted to fat, sugar and salt, which didn’t show up as much in our ancestral meals. So now when we eat food without added sugar, salt and fat, we don’t find it appealing. It’s kind of a hoax, because the big food producers rely on this fact to keep us buying their expensive crap, and we no longer enjoy the simpler, fresh, more nutritious, healthier food.

Candida.

It depends on how you are raised, I guess. My kids would rather eat fresh spinach out of a bag than greasy, salty potato chips. When my son was a teen, his favorite afternoon snack was a parboiled, fresh stick of brocoli topped with a slice of melted cheese.

I take great pleasure in sinking my teeth into a ripe, juicy melon or peach. Just thinking about it is driving me to the fruit basket over on the kitchen counter.

you have to hunt around for the healthy=palatable foods. Cheap food, loaded with fat, sugar, and salt is never going to be healthy, but it has a nice mouth feel. That’s why I like hot peppers, and have trained myself to eat them. If I eat something healthy, and I want it to have more of a striking flavor, I just add a jalapeno or two. The capsaicin is actually healthy for you, and a jalapeno isn’t something that will make you rip out your tongue and stomp on it to put the fire out.

I made an incredible pot of homemade potato soup tonight, you should stop over for a bowl.

Maybe people feel that they are persevering their life like a pickle by eating healthy, so healthy food ends up tasting good because it’s healthy.

Because God hates us. If he loved us, lettuce would taste like cheeseburgers.

@Sarcasm according to B. Franklin, Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Try to stay on the perimeter of the grocery store. That’s where you’ll find the healthy and palatable food. Avoid the aisles with the bright colored boxes. That is where all the junk made of salt, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup can be found, with the worst right at eye-level.

Besides, I love fresh spinach with a touch of lemon juice and I love just-picked corn on the cob. And cherries and clementines and busting-out ripe peaches and…

Now I’m hungry. Gotta go check out the fruit bowl.

Actually I think Alice Waters has long since proven that healthy can be palatable, but it may take some people some time to readjust to really delicious fresh, simply prepared vegetables and fruits, served with complex grains, and, if you are a carnivore, a little meat once in a while for flavoring. That’s how I cook, except when I need to have 6 pounds of pulled pork.

@Samurai thanks, you just sparked my interest in having a pickle. be right back.

Gee, @Darwin for a second there I thought you were going to say, “Eat real food, mostly plants.” You’ve got the rest of it down, though, about the perimeter of the store.

It’s all about what you’re accustomed to.

It was very hard to switch my diet to healthier food; it didn’t taste right and I craved the old food. But after some time, I got used to it. I don’t remember the moment it happened, but I realized that I was craving dinner or whatever meal was coming up, even when the food was healthy. And an added benefit is that I don’t crave the old foods anymore. On the rare occasions when they’re around, I don’t get as much pleasure from them as I used to; they seem heavy and too sweet.

I know it’s hard to comprehend this transition for some, but it happened to me. I think it just takes patience and dedication to allow the palette adjustment to take place.

Actually I was going to say ”“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Ah, you poach from him better than I do.

I hate to say it, but he’s right, and I am slowly getting better at emulating him. But there is still something about a juicy, rare, flame-broiled ribeye, as long as it didn’t come from any cow I know personally.

I think it’s better when you do know the names of the animals you eat, but I live in farm country.

I’ve tried it, but it doesn’t work for me. I could raise it and help slaughter it, but I could never eat it and so gave it all away.

I once raised a snapping turtle from a pup to a ten pound monster. I named him Dinner so that there was never any question of his future. Damn, he was tasty.

Many of the things that make food unhealthy (with the exception of food additives) are unhealthy only because they are present in excessive levels. Back when humans were nomads and had to hunt for food we were far more active. Fat and sugar content was advantageous, as they would help the hunters have the energy to run all day and into the next chasing a good kill. Now when we walk 10m to the car and drive to a supermarket, all that energy is not necessary – but it still tastes good.

Maybe we should just ban elevators and supermarket parking lots.

Tequila and vodka taste like absolute shite.. but llook at us .. we suck it down like it’s the healthiest thing ever.

@NaturalMineralWater not me, I won’t touch that shit. A nice bottle of Pinot Grigio, oh yeah, but not that hard shit.

i’m thinking about my daughter’s Pizza Pops in the freezer. I know i can make better but they’re so easy @ 1 am.

I had never heard of Pizza Pops before. I had to go look them up . I envisioned frozen tomato sauce on a stick.

lol, have not succumbed yet.

I had the same mental image as @Darwin, pizza popsicles, yukkkkkk – so they are sort of like pop tarts but with different stuff inside.

I actually love healthy foods, salads are one of my favorites and carrot or some veg with hommus (I tried spelling that every way I could think of and they are all wrong so I give up – I mean that stuff made out of chick peas).

My problem is I love sugar too, but I am trying to break the addiction, and I do think it is an addiction!

Like pop tarts? No. Like hot pockets.

@Sarcasm – ahhhhh, gotcha. I think there is something like that here in oz but I do try to stay away from that sort of stuff, because if it is in the house I will eat it!

That is one good thing about only having one grocery store in town and it closes at 5 on weekdays and 1 on Saturday. I would have to drive 250k to get one!

well, i had ichaban soup instead- nice salt load here. i do usually do whole foods, lots of veggies, salads but i do love my bread

Well, the good news is that adding (some) olive oil to your veggies makes them both taste better and are better for you (easier to absorb nutrients).

However, there is really nothing better than a bag of Kettle Chips (Yogurt and Green Onion). And they are very unhealthy.

I remember reading somewhere (and echoed here, on Fluther), that craving bad-for-you foods (chips, sweets, chocolate, etc) is a sign that your body is deprived of one or more essential nutrients (fatty acids, protein, salt, etc) and craves “quick delivery systems” rather than “slow delivery systems”.

So the idea is that if you eat a well-balanced diet, you crave the bad-for-you foods less, because you’re already getting the nutrients you need.

I would rather have spinach than corn.

maybe its because if healthy food were as tasty, we’d just eat more of that too and get fat…

There are so many herbs, spices and sauces that can make the blandest veggies and meats tasty it’s unbelievable. You could eat pasta everyday and taste something different each time. I grew up on skittles and nuts/mars/milky way bars because my mother couldn’t cook to save her own life. It all changed when I got with my wife who’s a natural-born cook and likes to use all sorts of seasonings. These days, nothing makes me salivate like the kind of food my grandmother was cooking: a big juicy steak, sweet potatoes, carrots or green beans or broccoli or cauliflower, and just a sprinkling of parsley and chives. Great taste, and no chemical return in the back of your mouth after a while.

I used to eat total and complete crap all day long until I read the book Skinny Bitch and was frightened out of over processed food, dairy, and red meat.

Now if I eat sugar or dairy I become very ill. My pallet has been cleansed and don’t understand how junk food tastes good. Fruit is nature’s candy ;)

Healthy does equal palatable…if you eat the good stuff (locally grown produce, fresh-baked breads, dayboat fish, etc.)

The problem is most people don’t have easy access to these things or, if they do, they’re insanely expensive.

You could find a farmer’s market, grow your own garden or hunt down a good local baker or fish monger – but these things take time that not everyone can spare. Meanwhile McSuperMarket and the Dollar Store are cheap and right around the corner.

I’m lucky enough to work at a large family farm and foodie paradise – and get a 25% discount. Not so much for everyone.

Ok, I apparently didn’t write this question well. I’m not talking about the current issue of being used to refined sugars and fats.

Yes, I understand healthy food can be palatable and I understand everything is liked by someone. I am speaking in generalizations about the majority of people. If you compare two foods in their natural state, say spinach and corn, most people would consider spinach to be the less tasty of the two even though it is far more nutritious.

This is not something new. My grandmother tells how she used to force down the foods she didn’t like during the depression – being addicted to salt, sugar and fat was clearly not an issue.

Where do you get your data? Is there a study showing that “most people” prefer corn to spinach? I think you have an anecdote or two, and that you are making gross generalizations from them.

Everyone’s taste is different.

@pdworkin Potatoes are actually the most popular vegetable in the US. Perhaps I should have used that instead of corn, maybe brussel sprouts instead of spinach, although I think the general idea is easily grasped either way.

I don’t think I need data to make an educated guess that potatoes are more popular than brussel sprouts. If they were, I would imagine most restaurants would do well to have them as sides more often. Instead, baked, mashed or fried potatoes are the typical offerings.

i think my problem is the butter on the veggies and bread, and the salad drsg.

Where I live, most restaurants have fresh, local, seasonal produce on the menu. If they didn’t, they would lose business.

@pdworkin We have the same thing here. Many of the fast food places are now offering relatively fresh salads and have put in salad bars to handle the influx of people who do not want the old fashioned, salty, greasy burgers and fries.

I don’t actually agree with your premise. It totally depends upon your taste preferences and how you were raised and with what type of cuisine you were raised. I’m a vegetarian and I love all sorts of healthy things. You might enjoy some of the recipes at Vegetarian Times if you give them a try. You can check out some recipes here

If you are too timid to start there, you might prefer some of the recipes at Cooking Light. You can check them out here

Also, if you go in thinking that you won’t like something, you will probably NOT like it. You will sabatoge any chance of enjoying something new. You have to go into it with a positive attitude and give things a try and sometimes several tries. You may also like a certain type of food if it’s prepared in a different way. There are endless ways to prepare the same type of food: boiling, steaming, baking, brazing, stir frying, raw, slow cooking, put into pasta, put into soup, made into a sandwich, made into enchiladas or burritos or lasagne.

If you learn to cook, you can open up a whole new world of healthy delicous meals. You can check out a bunch of healthy cookbooks at Amazon here Good luck and Bon Apetite!