Food Preferences

Most people have strong food preferences which are almost entirely learned. The book First Bite by Bee Wilson offers an excellent review of the study of eating habits and food preferences. Wilson references hundreds of experiments and studies of eating. Her observations and conclusions should be very helpful for those trying to eat a healthier diet or lose weight.

The French designed Sapere Project introduces children to a variety of unfamiliar foods. Pre-school children are divided into small groups and given a variety of foods which they are encouraged to handle, taste and discuss. Each food is offered several times over a period of a few months. Parents report that children request and eat a much wider variety of foods at home; their palates expand without coercion. Finnish educators modified this technique to emphasize fruits and vegetables, using it in a large number of kindergartens countrywide. Several years later control groups of children were compared to those who had been exposed to the Sapere technique. The Sapere group had much less overweight and obese children. This technique has been tried in teenagers and residents of retirement homes with similar results, but changes are greater when it is applied to children up to six years old. All groups on whom this has been used enjoyed the process and the results.

In parts of the world where spicy foods are common and preferred, children usually start to try these foods around age five and they don't like them. Since the older people eat and enjoy the spicy foods children keep trying them and eventually prefer them. Everyone who eliminates all added salt for a month comes to prefer less salt on food. Avoiding all sweets for two weeks allows less craving for them. These sorts of trial periods allow children and adults to come to prefer something besides the high sugar, fat and salt of the standard American diet which is captured so well in fast and prepared foods. "Eating is a skill that each of us learns, and we retain the capacity for learning it, no matter how old we are."

Happy childhood memories of unhealthy foods like candy bars, ice cream and extra rich holiday meals are strongly imprinted. We eat these foods to regain that time and place with terrible results for our waistline and health.

Wilson also examines other approaches to health through better eating habits. She concludes that exercise is healthy but not a major source of weight loss unless done to potentially dangerous extremes. Taking small tastes of healthy foods over and over often allows an expansion of good dietary options. Smaller plates and wineglasses cut down on consumption. Soup before or during the meal has the same effect mainly because it's hard to eat soup quickly and slower eating by any technique cuts calorie consumption. Foods grown and/or prepared yourself are more enjoyed and appreciated.