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“Just try it.”
“No.”
“But you might like it!”
“NO!”
This is a typical conversation in my house most nights. That is, on those nights that I don’t cook one of the five or six dishes my son can reliably be counted on to eat: Chicken nuggets, pasta, hot dogs, grilled chicken, and a few other foods round out my six-year old son’s list of preferred foods. He does like a few other things: Cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, most fruits, and anything made of flour. But on most nights, he’s highly disappointed with the menu I create.
But this article isn’t about getting kids to eat healthier – because the scary thing is, my son’s diet is probably a lot more varied than most adults’. We’re creatures of habit; we tend to eat the same things, day in and day out, without giving much thought to all the other possibilities out there. After all, we each cook pretty much the same rotation of recipes, with the same ingredients, using the same methods, day after day after day.
But what happens when we do that? We lose the taste for the food we’re creating. There’s a moment in the movie “Tortilla Soup”, when a chef who has lost his sense of taste samples his daughter’s cooking for the first time. He liked to preach the virtues of staying true to the “traditional” Latino cooking methods and seasonings, but his daughter preferred to mix flavors, to create her own “fusion” style. When he tastes her food, he regains his sense of taste. This isn’t entirely fiction; when we do the same thing over and over, we sometimes develop a numbness to it – our senses become dulled with familiarity.
The best way to break out of this rut is to try new things. When you do your grocery shopping this week, pick up some vegetables you’ve never cooked before. Daikon, Swiss chard, bok choy, escarole, edamame, and kohlrabi are all vegetables that might be new to you. Or try tofu, seitan, Thai curry, fish sauce, or panko breadcrumbs in one of this week’s dinners. Even if you’ve never prepared (or even eaten!) those foods, it’s pretty easy to find recipes for any of them on the web.
Remember, cooking – and eating – should be fun. Exploring new foods is one way to help you rediscover that fun. Have you tried new foods lately? How did it go? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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6 Comments
In fact, studies done about five years ago with children 5 and younger prove that, left to their own devices, most children will eat a completely balanced and nutritious diet *over the course of a week*. So the three year old might ONLY eat cereal for a day, but then the next day might only eat carrots. Or apples and crackers. Or what have you.
The phenomena was more pronounced in younger children who had not yet had ‘food issues’ foisted upon them (children, again, left to their own devices, will not starve themselves, so if your three year old seems to not be eating anything at mealtime, chances are good she is getting exactly what her body needs throughout the day), and whose parents had not yet freaked out on them for their monogastronomic tendencies.
Opps I meant to put a thumbs up on cenobytes comment but I accidentally hit the thumbs down ….I totally agree with your comment. It is the same when you are trying to wean a child off breastfeeding, bottle, sippy cup, etc they will not starve, give them a few days and they will do what’s right.
I have started making curries for myself. I make them like I do my soups; whatever I have on hand and that seems like it will taste good together goes into the mix. They keep well, and can be utilized in other dishes too.
This best thing I’ve found, especially cause I know I’m a picky eater and rarely try new things. Try and just get ONE new thing you havent tried yet (if it comes in a box try and find low trans and saturated fats and low salt content.) and try it. ((I usually pick things that are on sale. that way if I -hate- it, I didn’t waste a lot of money on it))
You could end up with a new favorite food!
may 21 article – so how did u manage to do this 100 day thingy with also feeding a 6 yr old?
Um – as you can see by the author profile thingy, this article was written by Trish. I did the 100 days of starvation. Trish didn’t.