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Not liking or not trying certain kinds of foods does not make someone a moron. I won't eat sushi either, and I've never had it.
It doesn't make a person a moron, but it does show a certain rigidity and lack of adventurousness. It's one thing to try a food, not like it and not want to eat it ever again, but to never try it? How do you know it wouldn't be your favorite thing?
I've known 3 different men who refused to eat fruit or vegetables. All three had HORRIBLE breath! I couldn't believe they had wives when their breath was so disgusting. And yes, they have all become rather chubby.
We do have issues with our 3 year olds not liking vegetables much. They tend to do ok with canned greenbeans, so we get them the sodium free variety. We don't make them eat every one on their plate, but at least most of them.
I find this thread interesting, because what I or anyone else chooses to eat are purely my or their decision.
I have eaten things all over the world, and the first thing I learned was, "if it tastes good, don't ask what it is".
I do a lot of living in the wilds and backcountry, and know what wild edibles are around, including tubers, barks, berries, plants, and especially animals.
For the way I usually live, protein and fats have food value, and whether it is from a fish or from a furry or feathered animal, it has far more value to keeping me going than plant matter.
Plants do well to fill the gut, but don't have any staying power. Taste is usually not something I worry about. Just because something won't kill you doesn't mean it has a pleasant flavor.
When I was a kid, I could eat what was on the table or go find my own, so often I did. I trapped small animals, made my fire, and had my own supper. (Anything is better than liver ).
I was trained as a chef and worked in the field for several years. I know how to cover the taste of most vegetables.
I do like potatos, green peppers, onions, cannot stand broccolli, cauliflower etc.
I am way past the age of majority, and will eat what I want or what makes me feel good, or what I have to when there is nothing else.
There is a lot of choice out there, make your own decisions, and if someone doesn't like it, too bad.
We've always been a super-busy household. And back when we were on the tough end of the Leveraging Fulcrum, there were times when we were rolling pennies to buy food, because our last Dollars had gone for the note on one of our buildings.
So, we've always had a big pot of soup on the stove. Sometimes, it's all we had. In would go Lentils, Beans, Brown Rice, Corn Meal, Rolled Oats, all manner of vegetables, Fig Leaves from our own trees, Garlic and herbs from the back yard (even when we were living in a unit in one of our apartment buildings, we kept a tiny fenced kitchen garden). People we knew would bring vegetables when they dropped off their kids for study groups....
So our kids and their friends got vegetables without really thinking about it. The soup smelled so good, there was zero resistance from anybody. Sure, I pureed some of the veggies beforehand (especially Collard Greens...and Food Processors sure did last longer than they do today). In more prosperous moments, our basic dinner menu broke down into Green Salad, Soup, Whole Grain Toast, and Fruit Salad. And we always used really pretty china, crystal, and stainless (pretty costs the same as ugly).
I can count on one hand, the times there was any resistance (aside from understandable allergies) to anything we were serving. Mostly, young and old alike were eager to try what we served. Finicky eaters generally got over their inhibitions within one visit to our house (positive peer pressure helps...). Too, I think the fact that the focus was on whatever was being studied helped. I mean, if you're pondering your next debating point or someone's conjugation of a German verb, you may be more open to grabbing a Zucchini Stick, a Strawberry on a bed of grated Carrot in a Pastry Shell, or a marinated Broccoli Floret.
At sit down dinners, kids can feel they're 'on trial'. That makes them resistant to new foods. We tried, instead, to treat the Dining Table as a conference table. The kids were 'VIPs' to whom we 'catered'. I think, too, that having the place professionally decorated (our Decorator's rise in the world paralleled our own...he did our first apartments for free...and we'd show up with our hammers and drills, and help, for free, with his fledgling projects) helped make kids want to fit into our milieu. And the fact that we were always dressed to the nines probably helped. When we got home, DH and I would switch from Armani and Chanel suits, to Luxe Italian sportswear (Oh, the golden eras of Steinmart and Ebay...today,we pay full price: back then, I paid pennies-on-the-Dollar).
You see what I'm saying, don't you? There is a symbolic component in people's choices of foods. If the context of the food or the occasion contains something with which the individual wishes to disassociate himself, then that can lead to a spurning of certain foods. But if the context is one which the individual finds advantageous and desirable, then old barriers may dissolve.
Mostly because of the symbolism contained in foods, enlightened/ambitious Southerners have traditionally refused to touch foods associated with poor/backward Southerners ("..that ignorant holy-rolling scum.."). The other side of the coin is the Southerners from poor/backward backgrounds, who refuse to touch the foods of "those sissified rich people, who don't know the Real Jesus". So, you have this great divide, with the Lexus-driving, Cybex-pumped, salad gobbling gourmet Southerners cooking from Junior League, Vegan, and Cordon Bleu cookbooks...and, on the other side, the lumpen Paula-Deen-fan-base masses, with their deadly Sweet Tea, cooked-until-brown-mush 'Greens', deep-fried-everything, and smoked meats. And I think that peer group symbolic value attached to food is a huge factor in the persistence of that divide.
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Now, as for whether Potatoes and Corn and Ketchup are 'vetetables'...
I'd say yes for Potatoes! WHFoods: Potatoes
As for Ketchup...well...kinda... It somehow has quite a lot of Lycopene, and a moderate amount of Vitamin C. The cooking actually makes the Lycopene more bioavailable. The presence of Sugar, however, makes this a very iffy health food. I know plenty of people who snap up the luxe Tomato products like Marinara sauce, when they are marked down and out of stock at the grocery. They're a great thing for stocking your panic/famine/doomsday/sudden bankruptcy Emergency Pantry (when we were struggling, I'd fill an entire section of kitchen cabinet with glass jars of Tomato Products I'd get from the markdown bins. Another section was filled with my personal talisman: Matzoh Ball Soup. A couple of hard years, those cabinets almost were emptied.) As for Fresh Tomatoes, a resounding yes, YES, YES! : WHFoods: Tomatoes
The site I link to is my favorite for nutritional facts. It's fun to read about the health benefits of something while you're consuming it. Great positive reinforcement.
I often find people who cut out entire swaths of food/food groups due to pickiness and pickiness alone to be be fairly rigid and unadventurous in their tastes overall...also typically more controlled/controlling than people with a more liberal range of foods in which they partake.
Were you one of those cheering during the Republican debate when it was suggested that the government shouldn't help out someone with a terminal illness even if he would die?
If that is the best you can do, using a red herring as opposed to debating on MERIT, your case is very weak.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Yuk
I know how hard it is to get kids to eat their vegetables. My kids will pretty much only eat carrots, so they get carrots with just about every meal.
Have you tried the aeroplane? lol
My sister has two daughters, 4 and 2, and she trained them from a young age to eat vegetables. I was considered a 'picky' kid myself yet I still ate some vegetables as a kid. I was pretty picky until late teens, actually. It's a matter of how you train them. For instance I wouldn't eat any seafood except fish, I didn't really like 'weird' meats lime lamb, didn't like Chinese food or raw fish. But now I'm opening my tastebuds to the cuisines of the world. I've even tried a few organs (albeit tiny pieces) but yep, still gross me out to ever enjoy them, even if the taste was agreeable. I will eat most vegetables, even ones I find gross. Let me say veggies aren't my favourite food either, generally speaking, but I understand their importance. I probably don't get enough, even if I try to eat a portion at least twice a day and mix it up. I suppose it was the thread on the chicken nugget girl that prompted this. A few years ago I saw that TV show where Jamie Oliver went to the schools in Britain to change their eating habits. Many of the kids, believe it or not, had never eaten fresh fruits in their lives. Their staple diet was frozen, processed 'foods' like 'chicken twizzlers' or chicken nuggets.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYMD67
My neighbor's husband eats no vegetables except for potatoes and corn....
We were invited for dinner one night ( very casual) and I made a large salad with spinach,iceberg
,craisins, carrots,tomatoes,feta cheese and almonds....
No one except for my neighbors mother, ate the salad. They said they weren't big on salads or any vegetables....
That's a bit rude of them. I mean how bad can salad be? I guess that's how they are, though, you can't make people eat what they won't.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fleetiebelle
It doesn't make a person a moron, but it does show a certain rigidity and lack of adventurousness. It's one thing to try a food, not like it and not want to eat it ever again, but to never try it? How do you know it wouldn't be your favorite thing?
I think of my friend. Loves Japanese, but won't eat fish and, so I found out, has never eaten fish in his life! He says he doesn't like the fact they are 'scaly.' I have tried to get him to try it to see if he likes it but he refuses. He's kind of set in his ways. No he's not religious or anything, it's just an 'ick' factor. I'm like, but dude like more than half of Japanese food is fish/sea-food, you're missing out!
I probably started eating sashimi a few years ago. I wouldn't say I've acquired a liking for it - I mean it's okay, just tasteless, the texture isn't my favourite - but I'll eat it if offered. Not something I'd go after, though.
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