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Oh No! Broccoli! Take It Away!
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by Karen Hatter | August 25, 2007 at 02:08 pm
662 views | 17 Recommendations | 6 comments
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The survey interviewed the parents of almost 5,400 pairs of twins, identical and non identical, who completed questionnaires regarding how receptive their children were to trying new foods.
Jane Wardle, director of the study, says preferences for food appear to be "as inheritable a physical characteristic as height."
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 15:45 on August 25th, 2007
Karen Hatter, I had never heard of neophobia, reading this made me think of my father all his life he would not try anything new. He would not eat rice,spaghetti,curry or anything that was not the traditional British meat and two veg. I feel he missed out on so much as I love to try new foods.
at 16:23 on August 25th, 2007
Me? I'm not too unyielding on new foods! My mother was pretty much the same way as your father but, as she grew older, she came to be a little more flexible. But, I swear my daughters have Mom's old ways, Vinny1!
There used to be an old commercial for LIFE cereal, featuring a little kid named Mikey, where the other kids push the new cereal on him saying, "Give it to Mikey! He hates everything!" Sadly, unlike Mikey, MY girls won't even try anything they've decided LOOKS like something they won't like!
at 05:59 on August 26th, 2007
As a small child, I was the opposite: the less familiar I was with the object, the more likely it would end up in my mouth. This culminated with a piece of Lego (flat square piece with four holes in the bottom and a falt top: an end-cap), after which I limited myself to known edibles.
I always thought that aversion to new foods was a survival trait, to prevent people from eating poisonous mushrooms or whatever, but I never thought about the inner workings that drive our food preferences...
It's also funny how tastes change, too: if my ten-year-old self could see me now, with my love of broccoli and carrots and my dislike of soft drinks, he'd call me a sell-out...
I can only hope that, should I have kids of my own, they are blessed with an adoration of very spicy things. Then I wouldn't have to cook two separate meals each night.
at 07:51 on August 26th, 2007
Nowadays, Jordan, I think my ten year old self would disown me as well!
at 07:48 on August 26th, 2007
Then I don't suppose any of you archeophiles are up some durian fruit? Niall Dunne (Brooklyn Botanical Garden) on the "Durian—The Real Forbidden Fruit" web page, makes this description:
"Individual fruits are divided into five compartments, each containing a large brown seed covered by a sac of thick, creamy, yellow pulp with an aroma that's legendary. You could publish a small book full of analogies that have been used to try to pin down this odor. Some of the more common comparisons include overripe cheese, fermented onions, rotten fish, and unwashed socks. (The bad smell, of course, performs a very important function: It attracts jungle animals to the fruit to facilitate seed dispersal.)
"Combine the unpleasant odor with the fruit's rich, almond-sweet flavor and puddinglike texture, and you have a culinary experience that's been described in one respected book on tropical crops—written, wouldn't you know, by a Westerner—as "French custard passed through a sewer." But it's an experience that many people in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia appreciate and crave."
at 07:55 on August 26th, 2007
As usual, Denseatoms, thank you for your unique contribution! I guess delicious is mainly in the tastebuds of the feaster!