[RoseRodent]

Is anyone else on a journey of completely new and different foods that they've never touched before? I've never been a meal eater, I've always been more likely to have a piece of chicken on its own then maybe a slice of toast later. There is a whole bunch of food I have simply never, ever eaten. I had a serious bowel disorder as a child and I was tube fed for simply ages, so there were a lot of foods I just never got to trying, and my palate was quite set in its ways. I have lost weight a number of times with calorie counting but I've always just gone hungry rather than change anything, so I'd eat 300 cals of a burger or bar of chocolate instead of padding it out to as much food as you can get for 300 cals.

It freaks me right out to eat certain types of food, they literally terrify me, but I need to branch out otherwise there is nothing for me to eat and no real chance of long-term success, I will get bored and hungry. I'm starting with foods that don't deviate too horribly from my "safe" list and today I ate some wholegrain rice, which I think it pretty incredible.

Would be interested in any food buddies who are also working through this kind of issue, it's the toughest nut to crack for me.

[Nola Celeste]

I wish I could remember where I'd read it, but recently I read that it takes about a hundred exposures to a food to become truly familiar with it. It seems like a lot, but I'm guessing that "exposure" means each bite or taste.

My husband's worked as a chef and has a much more adventurous palate than mine. My mouth is easily turned off by an unfamiliar texture or completely foreign taste, but I now eat almost all the things he does because he's found ways to acclimate my simpler palate to his.

For example, when he made soup, he'd add diced vegetables that were less familiar to me instead of the usual potatoes and carrots. Squash, turnips, and rutabegas made their way into the stew-pot, and because these unfamiliar foods were in a familiar context, I got used to and began to enjoy them quickly. If you already like a hamburger, try one with avocado, tomato, spinach leaves, or some other potentially burger-friendly food you'd like to appreciate more. You'll get acclimated and will eventually find your familiar food repertoire expanding.

You might also enjoy unfamiliar foods more if you pair them with something you like that's super-flavorful. Foods that I used to dislike got a liberal dose of cheese, garlic, and/or onions because those flavors overwhelmed the "oogy" stuff. Sometimes that kind of camouflage added to the calorie count, yes, but over time I could reduce the proportion of cheese or sauce to "oogy" food and it was no longer gross, but tasty.

Preparation may have a lot to do with how much you like a particular food. My taste buds are completely spoiled; I live in Food City, USA and I can't eat food that isn't prepared, cooked, and seasoned well. I cannot choke down a plain steamed vegetable to save my life; to me, they have the same taste and texture as the dirt they grew in. But oven-roast them, add them to stewed chicken and garlic, throw them into gumbo or curry, saute them with a dab of browned butter and finish cooking in a few tablespoons of chicken stock and they are glorious.

Not all cooking techniques need to be time-consuming or sophisticated. Roasting does take some time, but it's as simple as tossing bite-sized pieces of vegetables with oil, salt, and pepper before scattering them on a baking sheet and putting them in the oven until cooked.

A lot of this is about vegetables, because so far I haven't found out how to like some of the other stuff I wish I could like (shrimp, venison, salmon). Maybe some foods we just can't cozy up to no matter how much we try; I will forever detest tuna even though I've tasted it more than enough to get "acclimated" to it. But I've found that even broadening my taste buds by a few foods hugely expands my dietary options and keeps me from getting bored or from missing out nutritionally.

Hope it helps, and if you'd like any specific recommendations, I'd be happy to get Mr. Nola to spill the (tasty) beans on some of his techniques.

[RoseRodent]

Thanks for the info and it's useful to know it can be done. I am a real food phobic, but the one thing I hate the most is also the one thing that would open out my options the most and that's tomatoes. I want to vomit when I see one, I generally DO vomit if I see someone else eating one, I think they smell like sick when they are heated. I could try to set a figure for how much it would take for me to eat one: Let's say £1,000 if I get to cut up a small piece and swill it down with water, £10,000 to chew one up and swallow it, £20,000 to eat a canned tomato in juice. I've home cooked a curry where I've used passata (sieved and blended tomatoes) and drowned it so thoroughly in spices you'd never know it was tomatoes, but I was scared to eat it right away and put it in the freezer for 2 weeks before I was prepared to try it because I was scared it would taste of tomatoes!

One of the biggest problmes I find is shopping for the food, it's tricky to get hold of 1 lettuce leaf so I can try it!

[Nola Celeste]

The way you feel about tomatoes is pretty close to how I feel about mushrooms. There's no getting acclimated to them, no slowly easing myself into eating them...they're just utterly vile to me. I would rather eat crickets or something than common mushrooms. Shrimp is another food I loathe despite having tried it often to attempt to like it--especially since it's in everything here in New Orleans--but it is just euugh.

Is there a market near you that has a salad bar? That's a great way to try small amounts of foods you want to sample, but without spending much money or wasting food. The one near my house has a few different types of lettuce, cabbage, spinach, onions, broccoli, grapes, strawberries, lots of things in manageable sizes that you can take home and try raw or prepare according to your tastes.

You can also see what friends or family might have in their fridges. I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't be willing to part with a few peas or lettuce leaves. It could even be a fun tasting party.

I had a good friend in high school who was allergic to tomatoes. He was entirely happy and healthy without them, so I don't think it's a big deal if you never embrace them.

[RoseRodent]

Wow, salad bar is a great idea, our supermarket has a salad bar. You pay for a whole box even if you don't fill it, but at least I can get some variety. My daughter will eat anything I don't manage I'm sure.