15 Jul Healthy Food Tastes Great!
Here’s a fun fact provided by Kidshealth.org:
The average person has about 10,000 taste buds and they’re replaced every 2 weeks or so. But as a person ages, some of those taste cells don’t get replaced. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds.
Together, taste buds and your olfactory receptors in your nose determine the true flavor of foods. Since your taste buds change over your life span, trying and re-trying foods can be a pleasantly surprising habit.
The taste of food can change based on the preparation method, not to mention your mindset at different ages and stages of your life. Although it’s not a great idea to force feed yourself foods that you absolutely can’t stand, taking a bite here and there of a questionable food that your 8-year old self didn’t like, can be worth it. Why? Because it is possible for healthy food to taste ok and even delicious. In a day and age where recipes abound on the internet and people are health conscious, you can find ingredients and combinations that are simply delicious. Healthy doesn’t mean bland and boring anymore.
There’s no time like the present. Aim to try a new food or recipe at least once per week and let us know how it goes. But before we wrap up, one last thing. Here’s an additional tip from ACE, “reduce your exposure to oversweetened, oversalted, and overprocessed foods that train your tastebuds to think healthy food is boring.” Habits can be strong and this truth applies to your taste buds too.
Have fun exploring new tastes!
By Victoria Emmitt RD
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