How to Like the Taste of Food You Hate
How to Fall in Love With Foods You Hate
By the time you reach adulthood, you're pretty certain about the things you love and particularly sure about the things you hate (running, you're on the list!). But according to Simone Austin (friendly Swisse Wellness dietitian), it's possible to get stupidly obsessed with the foods you thought you disliked.
But why would anyone bother trying to love something they hate, you ask?
Simone's method works best with the foods you want to love but can't stand — just like my hate-hate relationship with salmon. Every Instagrammer and her dog loves salmon, they have a piece with their sautéed veggies and a glass of "full-bodied" white wine most nights. But I can't handle the smell, the taste or the texture, but I so badly want to be that "my man is cooking salmon for dinner" person that races home every night to eat it. Also, I'm not blind to the health benefits.
Salmon I just can't with you. Sorry.
I mentioned this to Simone and she told me to keep eating salmon, no matter how much I hated everything about it, because there's nothing psychological stopping me from liking it, besides it being fancy ol' salmon. "All it takes is 10 goes at eating it before you start to enjoy it enough to become a super-fan," says Simone.
"We've often made a decision about whether we like food or not when we've just looked at it or smelt it," says Simone. "The smell makes up a lot of our taste." The trick is to become accustom to the smell, then get used to the texture and look of it and once that is taken care of the taste won't seem so bad.
Make (or buy) yourself the meal every few days to a week and try a little bit each time. With each time, your senses will become more familiar with the smell and look. As time goes on, that familiarity will make it easier to eat, and even if the taste isn't desirable at that point keep pursuing it. Around the tenth try it should become more palatable.
"Some people taste sourness and sweetness more than others, so we've got to allow that some people won't be swayed, but usually after 10 times it's possible to love something that you don't like," says Simone.
