Thoraiya DyerVegetables For Life
September 12th 2008 10:23
An overweight colleague once said to me, “I have a really sensitive nose. That’s why I’ve never liked vegetables. I don’t like the smell or the taste. That’s why I can’t lose weight.”
At the time, I nodded sympathetically, all the while thinking: You have a sensitive nose? Give me a break. If you could smell what was really in a McDonalds Soft Serve, you’d never eat ice cream ever again.
But why is it that some people hate vegetables while others can’t get enough? Is it something we’re born with, something formulated in childhood, or just a bad habit we’re perfectly capable of changing as adults?
For starters, what makes vegetables taste the way that they do?
Vegetables are low in sugar compared to fruit, although both of them contain phytochemicals.
Taken from Bioline.org.br, “Phytochemical simply means plant chemicals. They are naturally occurring components in fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains. They give plants its colour, flavour, smell and are part of a plant’s natural defence system (disease resistance).”
Some phytochemicals are good for us – carotenoids, which make corn yellow, carrots orange and tomatoes red, may used by the body to make Vitamin A, can lower cholesterol levels and prevent cancer through antioxidant action ( Really Long Link ). Flavonoids, found in citrus, berries, tea, legumes, asparagus, onions, artichokes, apples, pomegranates and red wine are also anti-oxidant and can be anti-inflammatory Really Long Link ). Phenolic acids, for example those in cranberries, protect the bladder and prevent bacterial infections in the mouth. Glucosinolates in broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower protect against various types of cancer, thiosulfanates in garlic and onions can lower blood pressure, and phytosterols block cholesterol absorption.
However, many other phytochemicals are bad for us. Deadly, in fact. Don’t eat plants that aren’t food, mmmmkay???
Unfortunately, even good phytochemicals seem to be the culprits when it comes to the bitter taste of vegetables.
Glucosolinates make horseradish and mustard taste hot. Tannins and naringin, which are flavonoids, lend bitterness to tea and grapefruits, respectively. Poor old phenolic acids have the worst reputation for taste. Says the Journal of Food Science, in an article by Huang and Zayas, Volume 56 Issue 5 Page 1308-1310, September 1991:
“Phenolic acids have been proposed to be responsible for sour, bitter, and astringent flavors found in vegetable proteins. Corn germ protein flour (CGPF) was subjected to three treatments, i.e., ethanol-washing, heat-treatment, and acid-washing, to remove phenolic compounds…Sensory descriptive analysis was used to evaluate differences in taste among CGPF products.…Taste thresholds for the acids were 20, 48, and 90 ppm, respectively.”
In other words, any more than 20 parts per MILLION of these compounds, and you start feeling like you want to chuck.
In an article on eggplant breeding (I know, it’s amazing what people do in the name of science), found here: Really Long Link , agriculturists admit, “phenolics in eggplants are good for people, but they may also impart a bitter taste… eggplants with the highest level of antioxidants also taste the most bitter…(we) want to help define eggplants with an optimal balance of phenolics to ensure both high nutritional value and consumer acceptance.”
“ ‘We don't want to develop something that is so bitter that people won't like it,’ says Stommel.”
No kidding! This guy could get a job at Woolworths. He is obviously made to be one of the Fresh Food People.
Phenolic acids are also the compounds that make beer taste like a bubbling swamp full of elephant faeces (well, they make it taste bitter, anyway, according to The 9th International Flavor Conference, held July 1-4, 1997, in Greece).
Maybe the kiddies that won’t eat their vegetables have a point?
Do they in fact have a superior sense of smell? Was my colleague telling me the truth, after all? Could her keen, chemical-detecting sinuses really be her downfall?
A parenting website soon set my mind at rest:
“Newborns and babies’ tiny noses can differentiate between different odours very well…Babies can identify mom’s smell right from birth and find more comfort when this smell is near …(after) a few months, babies … start using their senses of sight and hearing more and more. While babies may dislike some foul odours such as spoiled food, they may actually like to play with some other things that stink and think of it as fun …Older kids may even put their hands through debris to find something, when you may find it repulsive.”
Right.
Seems to me that when they turn down their vegetables, kids are doing the same thing that dogs do when their bowl is full of perfectly good kibble but they watch you eating pancakes anyway with that hopeful, mournful expression.
Sugar is always going to win over Less Sugar, or, in some practically criminal situations, NO Sugar At All.
In our evolutionary past, sugar was a rare treat that could only be found by vandalising bees nests or combining the efforts of the whole tribe’s week spent flower or pinhead-sized fruit picking. People and animals are geared to scoff as much of the energy-rich goo as they can find, when they can find it. It wasn’t until sugar cane left its home in Polynesia Really Long Link ) that the “reed that gives honey without bees” was grown commercially. Two thousand years later, in fourteenth century England, sugar remained a luxury. Only the very rich could afford to buy sugar at the equivalent of US$100/kg.
Now, anyone can have as much sugar as they like, and look how we have grown! (ha)
Babies get sugar in breast milk, toddlers continue to get sugars in commercial baby foods, and by the time Old Uncle Pete is stuffing Redskins and sherbet in their faces, it’s too late.
In an awesome report on commercially prepared baby foods, (found here: Really Long Link ) Stallone and Jacobson discovered that “Gerber and Heinz replace real food with water and thickening agents in many of their products for children over six months of age. Such adulterated products are nutritionally inferior to products made with more fruits and vegetables.”
Not only are they nutritionally inferior, but they taste bland. If you feed a baby a vegetable puree which is only 50% vegetables, and then try to give him or her a serve of real vegetables, what do you suppose is going to happen?
Similarly, if you introduce fruit into children’s diets before you introduce vegetables, which do you suppose they are going to prefer?
ABC Parenting gives some simple instructions on making your own baby food, here: Really Long Link
I know, I know, we all hate cleaning the Evil Blender, but would you rather pay $2.65 for 20c worth of carrot in a jar of water?
This article from the New York Times on 7th March 2008 (here: Really Long Link ) shows that with a bit of effort, eating vegetables can be an exciting adventure:
“The picky little eaters at the Nutritional Sciences Preschool are told to play with their food and are allowed, sometimes even encouraged, to leave a little on their plates.
While this eat-what-you-want approach might outrage the parental food patrol, it is a critical part of the curriculum here at this unusual laboratory school dedicated to developing toddlers’ healthy eating habits — and avoiding a lifelong hatred of broccoli… For instance, to get the children to try raw broccoli, teachers told them that they were eating “little trees,” just like the dinosaurs.”
Finally, a Feb 2008 article in the British Journal of Nutrition (99: S22-S25 Cambridge University Press) advises that,
“Food preferences develop from genetically determined predispositions to like sweet and salty flavours and to dislike bitter and sour tastes…However, from birth genetic predispositions are modified by experience… Parents play a pivotal role in the development of their child's food preferences and energy intake”.
In a related 2004 paper by Cooke, et al, in Public Health Nutrition, in their study of 2-6 year old children in London, it was found that, “parental consumption of fruits and vegetables was the strongest predictor of their children’s intake of these foods, even when other feeding practices and characteristics of the child were considered… parents influence their children’s eating habits and nutritional status by controlling the household food environment.
By setting rules on where and how meals are taken and making decisions on which foods are purchased, parents control the availability of nutritious foods in the home. By serving as models for eating behaviour, parents influence the acceptability and desirability of different foods for their children.”
There you go.
My friend shouldn’t blame her sense of smell.
Instead, she should sue her parents.
At the time, I nodded sympathetically, all the while thinking: You have a sensitive nose? Give me a break. If you could smell what was really in a McDonalds Soft Serve, you’d never eat ice cream ever again.
But why is it that some people hate vegetables while others can’t get enough? Is it something we’re born with, something formulated in childhood, or just a bad habit we’re perfectly capable of changing as adults?
For starters, what makes vegetables taste the way that they do?
Vegetables are low in sugar compared to fruit, although both of them contain phytochemicals.
Taken from Bioline.org.br, “Phytochemical simply means plant chemicals. They are naturally occurring components in fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains. They give plants its colour, flavour, smell and are part of a plant’s natural defence system (disease resistance).”
Some phytochemicals are good for us – carotenoids, which make corn yellow, carrots orange and tomatoes red, may used by the body to make Vitamin A, can lower cholesterol levels and prevent cancer through antioxidant action ( Really Long Link ). Flavonoids, found in citrus, berries, tea, legumes, asparagus, onions, artichokes, apples, pomegranates and red wine are also anti-oxidant and can be anti-inflammatory Really Long Link ). Phenolic acids, for example those in cranberries, protect the bladder and prevent bacterial infections in the mouth. Glucosinolates in broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower protect against various types of cancer, thiosulfanates in garlic and onions can lower blood pressure, and phytosterols block cholesterol absorption.
However, many other phytochemicals are bad for us. Deadly, in fact. Don’t eat plants that aren’t food, mmmmkay???
Unfortunately, even good phytochemicals seem to be the culprits when it comes to the bitter taste of vegetables.
Glucosolinates make horseradish and mustard taste hot. Tannins and naringin, which are flavonoids, lend bitterness to tea and grapefruits, respectively. Poor old phenolic acids have the worst reputation for taste. Says the Journal of Food Science, in an article by Huang and Zayas, Volume 56 Issue 5 Page 1308-1310, September 1991:
“Phenolic acids have been proposed to be responsible for sour, bitter, and astringent flavors found in vegetable proteins. Corn germ protein flour (CGPF) was subjected to three treatments, i.e., ethanol-washing, heat-treatment, and acid-washing, to remove phenolic compounds…Sensory descriptive analysis was used to evaluate differences in taste among CGPF products.…Taste thresholds for the acids were 20, 48, and 90 ppm, respectively.”
In other words, any more than 20 parts per MILLION of these compounds, and you start feeling like you want to chuck.
In an article on eggplant breeding (I know, it’s amazing what people do in the name of science), found here: Really Long Link , agriculturists admit, “phenolics in eggplants are good for people, but they may also impart a bitter taste… eggplants with the highest level of antioxidants also taste the most bitter…(we) want to help define eggplants with an optimal balance of phenolics to ensure both high nutritional value and consumer acceptance.”
“ ‘We don't want to develop something that is so bitter that people won't like it,’ says Stommel.”
No kidding! This guy could get a job at Woolworths. He is obviously made to be one of the Fresh Food People.
Phenolic acids are also the compounds that make beer taste like a bubbling swamp full of elephant faeces (well, they make it taste bitter, anyway, according to The 9th International Flavor Conference, held July 1-4, 1997, in Greece).
Maybe the kiddies that won’t eat their vegetables have a point?
Do they in fact have a superior sense of smell? Was my colleague telling me the truth, after all? Could her keen, chemical-detecting sinuses really be her downfall?
A parenting website soon set my mind at rest:
“Newborns and babies’ tiny noses can differentiate between different odours very well…Babies can identify mom’s smell right from birth and find more comfort when this smell is near …(after) a few months, babies … start using their senses of sight and hearing more and more. While babies may dislike some foul odours such as spoiled food, they may actually like to play with some other things that stink and think of it as fun …Older kids may even put their hands through debris to find something, when you may find it repulsive.”
Right.
Seems to me that when they turn down their vegetables, kids are doing the same thing that dogs do when their bowl is full of perfectly good kibble but they watch you eating pancakes anyway with that hopeful, mournful expression.
Sugar is always going to win over Less Sugar, or, in some practically criminal situations, NO Sugar At All.
In our evolutionary past, sugar was a rare treat that could only be found by vandalising bees nests or combining the efforts of the whole tribe’s week spent flower or pinhead-sized fruit picking. People and animals are geared to scoff as much of the energy-rich goo as they can find, when they can find it. It wasn’t until sugar cane left its home in Polynesia Really Long Link ) that the “reed that gives honey without bees” was grown commercially. Two thousand years later, in fourteenth century England, sugar remained a luxury. Only the very rich could afford to buy sugar at the equivalent of US$100/kg.
Now, anyone can have as much sugar as they like, and look how we have grown! (ha)
Babies get sugar in breast milk, toddlers continue to get sugars in commercial baby foods, and by the time Old Uncle Pete is stuffing Redskins and sherbet in their faces, it’s too late.
In an awesome report on commercially prepared baby foods, (found here: Really Long Link ) Stallone and Jacobson discovered that “Gerber and Heinz replace real food with water and thickening agents in many of their products for children over six months of age. Such adulterated products are nutritionally inferior to products made with more fruits and vegetables.”
Not only are they nutritionally inferior, but they taste bland. If you feed a baby a vegetable puree which is only 50% vegetables, and then try to give him or her a serve of real vegetables, what do you suppose is going to happen?
Similarly, if you introduce fruit into children’s diets before you introduce vegetables, which do you suppose they are going to prefer?
ABC Parenting gives some simple instructions on making your own baby food, here: Really Long Link
I know, I know, we all hate cleaning the Evil Blender, but would you rather pay $2.65 for 20c worth of carrot in a jar of water?
This article from the New York Times on 7th March 2008 (here: Really Long Link ) shows that with a bit of effort, eating vegetables can be an exciting adventure:
“The picky little eaters at the Nutritional Sciences Preschool are told to play with their food and are allowed, sometimes even encouraged, to leave a little on their plates.
While this eat-what-you-want approach might outrage the parental food patrol, it is a critical part of the curriculum here at this unusual laboratory school dedicated to developing toddlers’ healthy eating habits — and avoiding a lifelong hatred of broccoli… For instance, to get the children to try raw broccoli, teachers told them that they were eating “little trees,” just like the dinosaurs.”
Finally, a Feb 2008 article in the British Journal of Nutrition (99: S22-S25 Cambridge University Press) advises that,
“Food preferences develop from genetically determined predispositions to like sweet and salty flavours and to dislike bitter and sour tastes…However, from birth genetic predispositions are modified by experience… Parents play a pivotal role in the development of their child's food preferences and energy intake”.
In a related 2004 paper by Cooke, et al, in Public Health Nutrition, in their study of 2-6 year old children in London, it was found that, “parental consumption of fruits and vegetables was the strongest predictor of their children’s intake of these foods, even when other feeding practices and characteristics of the child were considered… parents influence their children’s eating habits and nutritional status by controlling the household food environment.
By setting rules on where and how meals are taken and making decisions on which foods are purchased, parents control the availability of nutritious foods in the home. By serving as models for eating behaviour, parents influence the acceptability and desirability of different foods for their children.”
There you go.
My friend shouldn’t blame her sense of smell.
Instead, she should sue her parents.
| 48 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
