posted
What is it about certain foods or drinks that have an "acquired taste"?
What does that mean? Why is it that you can really not like the taste of something initially but eventually come to like or appeciate it?
Is it just that your mind finally is able to accept the food without bias, and that the only thing stopping you from liking it in the past was expectations and assumptions that you wouldn't like it? Meaning, it's not really acquired...just accepted. Like eating something that squicks you out. Or is there something more physical going on? That the taste really does not appeal to you initially, but your body gets used to it and likes it which makes it taste good to you? Or is it a mix of both?
posted
I think the reason this thread came about is because Strider is absolutely THE PICKIEST EATER i have ever happened across. The term "acquired taste" or that you could actually LEARN to like something is entirely alien to him.
Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I have grown fonder of vegetables as I have grown older. Always liked broccoli, but now even brussels sprouts have their appeal to me. Not really through any effort, but somewhere along the way bitter, salty and sour gained more appeal to me than sweet does.
My waistline is grateful.
Posts: 38 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
To me, acquired taste means something that you do not initially like the taste of, but upon eating it later (maybe the 2nd time or the 5th time, over days or weeks or years), you like it. One example of this for me is green/spanish olives. As a child and young teenager, I did not like these. However, in my late teens I started to like them. I don't know what it was that changed - my appreciation of their flavor, a change in my perception of the flavor, or both.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
My example is beer. Didn't like it as a kid (the old "Can I have some???", "Just a sip." thing). Tolerated and thought it was okay as an adult, but they tasted all the same. Now though, I can tell differences, just by smell, of different beers that my wife, a complete non-drinker, says, "It just smells by beer." Similarly, I taste more differences between different brews.
I acquired taste, appreciation, and even discernment for a particular food.
posted
Your taste buds get duller as you get older. So, food that was too sharp and disgusting when you are younger are a delightful antidote to the encroaching blandness when you are older.
I think that "older" here means in your twenties.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I wonder if that's why I like spicier food the older I get, katharina... (goes off to bite a jalapeño).
Posts: 5663 | Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Ser Bronn Stone: I have grown fonder of vegetables as I have grown older. Always liked broccoli, but now even brussels sprouts have their appeal to me. Not really through any effort, but somewhere along the way bitter, salty and sour gained more appeal to me than sweet does.
My waistline is grateful.
Tastes do tend to change -- physically -- with age. Certain flavors are perceived more acutely at different stages of development.
I know that I spice my food a lot more now than I did as a kid. What I put on a slice of pizza today would probably have made it completely inedible to me 30 years ago.
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posted
I would have never even considered smoking in any way, shape, or form..... and now I find myself enjoying a very fine cigar maybe once a week after a good meal...
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
When I went to college, I went the first week to some parties and tried some beer. I'd tried it a couple of times in high school, and found it pretty disgusting. I figured college would be a good time to develop the taste.
I still think it's disgusting, and I've never managed to develop any kind of taste for alcohol of any sort.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Leonide's right about me for the most part though. Most foods I eat now that I never used to I just decided I would start eating after years of refusing to. Growing up I had a very good sense of what foods I would like or dislike based on their look and smell. I was mostly right, and I don't think it could have all been a mental prejudice blocking me from enjoying these foods.
But recently I've been trying more foods and am suprised at liking many of them.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
The answer to this question really comes down to the physiology of sensation and perception. I know a little about it, but not enough to stand up to a cross examination on the matter. Evolutionarily, our bodies are made to be skeptical of new foods and tastes, because they might be poisonous. For example, the first time mice come across a new food source, they will only nimble on it and then wait a while to see if it makes them sick. If it does, they won't eat anymore; if it doesn't, they will go back to the food and devour it.
After repeated exposure to the same new food, we habituate to the experience of eating the food. What once was repulsive becomes bearable if not down right enjoyable.
Habituation works in other aspects of life as well. I love this quote from Alexander Pope's poem, "Essay on Man": Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I remember being 8 and watching my father adding pickled jalapeno peppers to roast beef and thinking they were deathly spicy.
Nowadays (at 41), I can eat them all day long and never get tired. I think it is a combination of diminished taste receptors AND my body becoming more accustomed to the chemicals that perform 'the burn'.
Posts: 38 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
There are physical changes that help you appreciate more spicy foods. My mother-in-law is in her 60s, and she can't stand as much as a dash of black pepper, so it's not just age. It's the fact that, as you consistently eat more spicy foods, your body will down-regulate certain types of pain receptors and you'll be able to deal with the spice more comfortably. In fact, capsaicin, which is the most effective topical arthritis remedy, works by the same principle. It uses the active ingredient in many spicy foods so that, if applied regularly, your body will down-regulate the pain receptors and you will not suffer from the pain of the arthritis as severely.
As far as other tastes, good question.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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quote: The term "acquired taste" or that you could actually LEARN to like something is entirely alien to him.
For some reason I detest the term "learn to like". It almost implies that not liking a certain food is a character flaw. Or ignorance.
That said, over the last several years I have aquired a taste for mushrooms, olives, many vegetables, wine, and most recently beer. Even certain vegetables like tomatoes and raw bell peppers that I used to hate I can now tolerate in small quantities.
That's interesting about the mice and new food sources.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
I don't get that at all. If I decide to learn how to rollerblade or speak Spanish it doesn't mean I was a moron before, it means I have gained something I didn't have before.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Certain foods contain chemicals which are considerably less than optimal during stages of rapid growth. Recognition&rejection of foods containing those chemicals is why children and pregnant women are viewed as picky eaters. Also why morning sickness occurs earlier in pregnancies: higher sensitivity to chemicals which might interfere with proper formation&growth of the fetus during its most vulnerable stage.
However, some of those same chemicals have beneficial effects for men and non-pregnant women.
eg Chemicals which bind with certain growth/regulatory hormones also slows tumor growth. By a LARGE amount when the tumor is small, when the average tumor cell is in closer contact with the rest of the body. Less so as the tumor enlarges. As the tumerous exterior* provides greater isolation from the rest of the body, the interior* tumor cells create&exchange greater amounts of growth signalling&triggering proteins amongst themselves, some of which encourage formation and growth of new blood vessels to feed the tumor. The higher concentration of growth signalling&triggering proteins within larger tumors simply overwhelms the amount of anti-growth chemicals obtained through eating.
eg Iron ions are highly reactive. And an excess can mess up various metabolic pathways; ie an excess can poison ya. A chemical which binds with iron inactivates those excess iron ions, allowing the liver to filter them from the system without damaging itself. (Jaundice can be a symptom of the liver damaging itself trying to remove excess iron. Fortunately, the liver is excellent at self-repair) Nearly all meat-eating men have a diet containing an excess of iron. The case is different for meat-eating women because of menstruation and pregnancy, both causing a need for a greater amount of replacement iron. But beware taking in an excess of iron through use of supplements. Whether a meat-eating non-pregnant woman needs iron supplements often depends on her choice of pots&pans and other cooking utensils.
* My use of interior and exterior here is likely to mislead. Can't think of better words at the moment, nor of a clear&concise explanation of what I'm trying to describe.
posted
I think that foods that have simple, mild flavors are unlikely to be an acquired taste. Foods that are more complicated, with sharper, layered flavors can be overwhelming at first, so the reaction to being overwhelmed is "I didn't like that". But there are attractions to things that are complicated. The tastes they present can be analyzed, compared and contrasted to similar ones, and, as the palate becomes more attuned and educated, deeply appreciated.
So, perhaps the first time you tasted, say, red wine, you were overwhelmed my the very complicated flavors. But as you were able to sample it again, that complexity became the thing that you appreciated the most.
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posted
As a child, I ate olives ..... yuk At 12 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 19 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 13 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 14 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 15 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 16 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 17 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 18 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 19 I ate an olives ..... yuk At 20 I discovered I was alergic to countless food (onions, tomatoes and wheat included) and discoverd I wasn't alergic to olives At 21 I ate an olives in Greece, fresh fresh olives ..... yum Now every time that I eat them, including ones that don't taste so great, I remember the amazing taste of fresh olives. Perhaps it is the remeberance / expectation as much as the taste.
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Yerba Mate, that is an aquired taste. I never tried it until well into adulthood. My first compare would have been the bottom of a monkey cage at the zoo. But, now its great stuff. I prefer it cold as Terere. Its well worth the trouble to hunt for a supplier. (Sorry, I don't know how to put accent marks in. You need one in Mate and Terere.)
Posts: 1167 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I didn't care for the ginger dressing and minced ginger sauses that they served at a very small Japanese restaurant near where we lived in the Chicago area. After the first few time I tasted them, I sort of choked them down. Eventually I was buying their ginger dressing in large take-out cups, to use at home. Mmmmmm.
Maybe it was that the proprietors were so cool (and kind of reminded us of our college buddy Tadashi). They saw me struggling with the chopsticks (even though they provided forks) and took the time to teach me (Ron knew how to eat with them quite well, but was not a great teacher ).
Now, I get miffed if I go to a Japanese restaurant in hillbilly country where they don't give you ginger sauces unless you beg for them, because most of their customers like Japanese food best when it tastes like a Big Mac. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Another physiological basis of acquired taste is association. Some foods like alcohol, coffee, tea, etc taste terrible to people who have never had them before. Caffeine is naturally bitter, and bitterness is associated with chemicals that are potentially poisonous, but also potentially beneficial. For example most medicines are bitter, but poisonous at high doses. As you consistently consume the substance (caffiene, alcohol, nicotine) the brain becomes increasingly dependent on the substance, and the brain then creates a pleasure response when you take in a substance the brain associates with that chemical.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:I don't get that at all. If I decide to learn how to rollerblade or speak Spanish it doesn't mean I was a moron before, it means I have gained something I didn't have before.
Yes, well, I acknowledge that it's something of an irrational reaction on my part. But still, there's a definite sense that you are improving yourself when you learn Spanish or rollerblading. Let's get into specifics so it makes a little more sense: I have an admittedly irrational aversion to cheese. All types, though some are more offensive than others. I don't feel that I would be a better person in any way if I started liking cheese, but the implication is there. So if someone suggests that I'll "learn to like" the stuff it rubs me the wrong way. I'm kinda weird that way — what can I say? Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
I have a question. Does forcing yourself to eat/like something end up resulting in an eventual acquired taste for it or will it end up making you hate that food forever?
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Now, I get miffed if I go to a Japanese restaurant in hillbilly country where they don't give you ginger sauces unless you beg for them, because most of their customers like Japanese food best when it tastes like a Big Mac.
Are you saying that without ginger, Japanese food tastes like a Big Mac, or that Japanese restaurants in Georgia actually serve Special Sauce with their sushimi?
I went out for sushi with a Japanese girl a few hours ago, and was appalled by the amount of soy sauce she used.
I'm strictly a wasabi and ginger man.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Up till a year ago, I didn't much care for tea.
When I got to college, I discovered that tea is a very social thing here - all my friends would sit around talking and drinking tea. So I drank it too, just to be social, even though I didn't really like it.
posted
I think it seems like acquired taste is 1/2 physical (dulling of tastes buds means being more receptive to stronger, strange flavors) and 1/2 mental (getting used to a certain thing (tea), or associating it with a pleasant experience (fresh olives)
What about the opposite of those? I have this weird thing about this certain kind of sweet Italian bread my dad got as a present from a friend one Christmas. I ate the bread, i liked it. It was sweet, with raisins in it, something i enjoy. And yet, now, every single time i think of this bread, it makes me so sick to my stomach i'm literally on the threshold of throwing up. I don't recall any particular nasty, unhappy incident happening while i was eating the bread -- why should something i had once and enjoyed suddenly turn to, for lack of a better phrase, ashes in my mouth? (that actually is a good phrase, though. i love reading that in books. although, i guess the fact that i've read it multiple times makes it less original, but still. what a great description!)
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Artemisia Tridentata, have you ever tasted Materva? I can find it in the "Latin Food" section of the grocery store up and down the east coast, but I don't know if it's available where you live. It's originally a Cuban soda--obviously made elsewhere now, Miami or Puerto Rico maybe--that tastes like yerba mate.
I've been drinking it since I was a little kid, but as a kid, I preferred other sodas when they were available, and drank Materva when nothing else was. Specifically, among Cuban sodas, I preferred Ironbeer, which I thought was the most awesomest drink evau! Now it's been years since I've had an Ironbeer--I find it much too sweet to drink--but I love and crave the slightly bitter taste of Materva.
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posted
Leonide, have you found you are more sensitive to sugary things in general? Or is it just this one thing?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'd doubt you'd like them if you knew what went into making them. (According to a friend of mine, that is.)
I think that sometimes we may have memories associated to a certain food, like with myself and the oatmeal. There was trauma associated with the food, and so there is a dislike because of the association.
Posts: 113 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Artemisia Tridentata: Yerba Mate, that is an aquired taste. I never tried it until well into adulthood. My first compare would have been the bottom of a monkey cage at the zoo. But, now its great stuff. I prefer it cold as Terere. Its well worth the trouble to hunt for a supplier. (Sorry, I don't know how to put accent marks in. You need one in Mate and Terere.)
Maté and Tereré do take some getting used to. It took me a few months of drinking it everyday in Paraguay to get used to it. Now I'd drink it everyday, given the chance. It just seems to be difficult to find a good supplier with quality yerba.
Posts: 433 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
rivka, no, not in the sense that i think you mean (eating them makes me sick, etc.)
I don't crave sweet things in general, but every now and then i just have to have my strawberry fig newtons, or a great looking chocolate cake at a fancy restaurant. And given that, it makes this whole thing just *that* much more puzzling --because raisin bread, in general, has a very mild sweetness. And raisin bread, in general, does not make me ill to think about. But THIS BREAD!
i have the same thing with hot wings. i used to eat them like there was no tomorrow. and then one night, just one night, i had them -- just had them, nothing was wrong with them -- and i haven't really had the stomach for them since!
i don't know. i just don't think i'll ever understand it. maybe it has something to do with my thyroid problem?
Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I want to know what a "fresh olive" is. The freshest tomato comes right off the vine. If you eat an olive fresh off the tree you'll probably gag. Olives have to be processed or they are completely inedible. Sitting in a jar of brine on a Greecian shelf or sitting in a jar of brine on a ship coming to America are pretty much the same thing (if you take basic climate control into account).
I'm guessing what you had were just higher quality olives (which are fairly expensive in the US). What the average American probably thinks of when someone says "olive" are the black rubbery California olives you buy in cans, or the green cocktail olives with a pimento piece stuffed in the hole. Having eaten olives in Provence (where you can hardly spin around with your arms out without hitting an olive tree), and from a nice deli or gourmet store in the US, (or even good Kalamata Olives from the local supermarket), I feel fairly confident what you ate was a good quality olive and not a "fresh" one.
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