I’ve pondered this question a lot. My kids suggest that “they” should make broccoli taste good if they want people to eat it. And while I’m sure there is at least one scientist out there trying to make broccoli taste like cotton candy, I think that understanding how our taste buds work and what we can do to manipulate our tastes will go much farther to getting good foods on our plates than any genetically altered broccoli.

There are two reasons why foods that are good for you don’t also taste good. Let’s take a look.

Your Taste Buds Have Been Altered

The first reason why everything that is good for you tastes like cardboard is because your taste buds have been altered. The question you have to ask yourself is who changed your taste buds? The quick answer to that question is : The food you eat. If you are like most people, the food you eat is all high in fat, sugar, and salt and when you eat foods that are all high in sugar, fat and salt your taste buds change.

The easiest way to understand this is to imaging that everything you drink is either vodka or whisky. Imagine if you had been drinking vodka or whisky ever since you were a child. How do you think water would taste to you? When you are drinking a high-octane drink like hard alcohol for your whole life, your taste buds get used to it and everything else is going to taste bland and boring.

Your Addictions Run Your Life

The second reason why everything that is good for us doesn’t taste good is that many of the foods you eat you are addicted to. Foods like sugar, milk and milk products, coffee and even meat all have addictive qualities to them. When you eat a food that you are addicted to it changes your brain in some way; it usually makes you feel better. Broccoli will not do this.

We are attracted to sugary-salty-fatty foods in ways that we aren’t attracted to carrots, apples and Brussels sprouts.

Read more about sugar addiction here: Are you addicted to sugar?

Double Whammy

When all the foods you are eating are super strong tasting (like whisky) then of course you are going to think that real and fresh foods taste like junk. But just as if you were drinking alcohol every day, your body is ruined by these foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt. If you add the mood-altering aspect of your food addictions and you are guaranteed to never put something fresh in your mouth.

What Can You Do?

While you probably don’t believe me, your tastes can change. The only way they are going to change, though is to stop eating foods high in sugar, fat and salt. All you need is a few weeks away from the super strong tasting foods before your taste buds come back and you start enjoying the sweetness of foods like carrots or avocados (yes, these are sweet foods).

While it is difficult, you can do it (see my 30 Sugar Free Days Program for help) and once you make the transition from processed foods to real foods your taste buds will change back and you will find yourself enjoying foods like broccoli once again.

Take the plunge and try the 30 sugar free days challenge:

Related Posts

• How to Break a Sweet Tooth Addiction (0)
• Sugar Detox (0)
• Best way to lose weight fast (3)
• Is Everything That Tastes Good Bad For Me? (3)
• Diet Success Stories (2)

• What food is high in calcium?
• What food is high in vitamin C?
• What food is high in potassium?
• What food should you eat to make sure you have strong bones?
• What nutrient should you eat to make strong muscles?
• What food is good for women going through menopause? Hint: it is also good for breast cancer.

Here are the answers:

• The food high in calcium: Dairy foods (milk, cheese, yogurt)
• The food high in vitamin C: Orange Juice
• The food high in potassium: Bananas
• To make strong bones: Dairy foods
• To make strong muscles: Meat (beef, chicken, fish)
• The food good for menopause: Soy

How Did You Do on the Quiz?

How did you do on our little nutritional quiz? You probably got the right answers, but are those answers the correct answers?

While most people, when asked, have a hard time answering common knowledge questions (like who the vice president is, or pointing out Iraq on a world map) they surprisingly get most of the answers to this nutritional quiz right. The question you should now ask yourself is: how is it most people know the answers to these questions and not others? You might reply that you learned a lot of your nutritional knowledge in school, and that is true. What you might not realize is that even though you might very well have learned the answers to these questions in school, the reason why you learned these nutritional tidbits is because of a concerted effort of the marketing arm of certain special interest groups.

Let’s quickly look at vitamin C and potassium.

Vitamin C

While orange juice certainly contains vitamin C, here are some other foods that have even more vitamin C per weight than oranges:

• Papaya, guava, red bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kiwi, parsley

These foods have about the same amount as oranges:

• Green bell pepper, strawberries, elderberry, lemons, cauliflower

Potassium

Yes, bananas do contain potassium, but here are foods that contain more per weight:

• Cantaloupe, prune juice, papaya, beans (pinto, lima…), lentils, potatoes, prunes, spinach, winter squash, tomato sauce

These foods have about the same amount of potassium as bananas:

• Raisons, mango, orange, melons, peanuts

Why?

The reason why you associate different foods with different nutrients is that these foods have been branded in your mind by advertising. Some of this branding is relatively harmless, such as vitamin C and potassium. The associations you have in your mind about calcium, muscle mass, bones and soy, however are a different story. In the following posts, we will investigate the myths that surround calcium, dairy foods, meat, and soy and see how following the so-called common food knowledge will only get you into trouble.

Read More

• Calcium Myths

Most Commented Posts

• 30 Sugar Free Days (15689)
• Ask Dr. Scott (330)
• I’m Allergic to Everything! (131)
• Think You Can Go 30 Days Without Any Sugar? (81)
• What? Foods That Act Like Sugar? (70)

All foods are not created equal. Some foods are simply not good for you and I talk enough about them: principally sugar, foods that act like sugar and processed foods (see my book Sugarettes), but let’s talk about those foods that are not just good for you, but are the foods have the ability to change the course of your life and pack outstanding health benefits. You want to include as many of these disease busting power foods into your diet as possible.

What to Look For

Finding these power foods is not that hard, you probably have many of these in your kitchen right now. They all seem to have some similar characteristics that scream to you: eat me, I’m good for you!

First, they are often very colorful: the phytochemicals that add color to foods are the same chemicals that enhance your health. These foods usually have a long history of being sought out and prized; there are stories of pirates boarding ships and leaving gold, but taking spices because the spices were much more valuable. Likewise, garlic and mushrooms have long been used as medicines.

Disease Busting Power Foods

Here is a list of the most powerful foods that act like medicine that you should add to your diet:

• Cruciferous Vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage can all pack a huge amount of not only essential vitamins and minerals by also phytonutrients that are powerful moderators of disease. Broccoli alone has been the subject of a multitude of research studies and scientists have found it contains components including antioxidants, Indole-3-Carbinol (which has been shown to be anti-cancer), Isothiocyanates, sulforaphane, diindolylmethane (DIM) and many other disease preventing nutrients.
• Mushrooms: I am not talking about those white medium mushrooms that you get on your salad, but more medicinal mushrooms like Shitake, Maitake, Reishi and others. These mushrooms have been extensively studied for their immune-boosting polysaccharides. Include these in many of your meals, they can be added to salads, soups, ground up and put in meat to give it some added flavor.
• Green tea: Not quite a food, but green tea belongs on our list because it too has been the subject of many research studies that show it is anticancer and other health benefits. Green tea contains epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), isoflavones, catechins and other great nutrients.
• Garlic: Garlic has long been considered a super-food, prized for its healing, food preserving and, yes, vampire-avoiding properties. Modern science has uncovered a wealth of nutrients inside garlic that not only boost the immune system, lowers cholesterol, is liver and brain protective, but can also be cancer preventative. Allicin, S-allylcysteine, S-allyl mercaptocysteine, saponins, Nalpha-fructosyl arginine and a long list of other active constituents makes garlic something to include in every meal.
• Tomatoes: Packed full of nutrients, tomatoes get more nutritious when you cook them, so munch down on pasta sauce, chili, tomato soup, and even ketchup. Lycopene is probably the best known acitive ingredient in tomatoes, and especially helpful for preventing prostate cancer, but all cancers in general can benefit from tomatoes goodness.
• Berries: Probably the best tasting super food in the list, eat berries whenever you can. Packed full of bright colors, berries of all kind are great for your health. Eat as many raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries as you can stuff in your face, but don’t forget other berries such as Gogi berries.
• Greens: There has been a revolution in the salad business the last few years. Gone is Iceberg lettuce as your only choice at the dinner table. New mixed salad greens containing: spinach, arugula, endive, dandelion greens, escarole, radicchio, red mustard and various lettuces: red leaf, green leaf, romaine… and more are not only a delight to eat, but great for your health.
• Spices: People have used spices for centuries to help preserve foods and add flavor. Luckily for us, they also have incredible health benefits:
  • Cinnamon: Cinnamon not only tastes good, but also has been shown to help with high cholesterol and blood sugar control.
  • Turmeric: The amount of research on the active constituent in turmeric (curcumin) is astounding and keeps on coming. Tumeric can help prevent cancers and lower the risk of heart disease.
  • Ginger: Ginger is a great additive to many foods and has also been shown to contain antioxidants and other powerful healthy nutrients, but is also great for nausea and upset stomach.
  • Rosemary: This herb contains a huge amount of antioxidants, and has been shown to be helpful for cataracts and memory problems.
  • Oregano: The humble oregano plant packs a power punch of nutrients that have been shown to be helpful in cancers, especially ovarian and breast.
• Fish Oils: I put fish oil and not fish as the last power food on my list because it is the essential oils that are almost completely lacking in our diets. Fish oils have been shown to reduce blood pressure, help with cholesterol levels, are great for the heart, mind and even nervous system.

As you can see, you don’t have to travel too far outside you kitchen to get healthy. Yes, you probably do need to supplement from time to time, but these foods contain many of the essential nutrients you need to not only make it through your day, but to thrive throughout your life.

Related Posts

• Guest Post: Rebound Headaches–Does Today’s Headache Medication Cause Tomorrow’s Misery? (1)
• What Sugar Does to Your Brain (24)
• 30 Sugar Free Days (15689)
• Weird Things Humans Do (36)
• What? Foods That Act Like Sugar? (70)