Embrace New Flavors: Tips for Adjusting Your Taste Buds to Improve Your Diet

We renew our taste buds every 7 - 14 days. Some people like bitter foods more and others prefer more sweet tasting foods and this can also have a genetic background. However, when we consume industrialized products that are very palatable rich in sugars, fats and sodium, the palate adapts to these intense flavors. 

It is very common to hear phrases such as “I hate salad and vegetables!” “I hate eating fruit”. But the fact is that if healthy foods don’t please your palate, it may be harmful to the body and the mind resulting in obesity and illnesses. This is where re-educating your taste buds comes into play: you can become the person who loves salads and swaps a high-calorie dessert for fruit. 

Keep in mind it is not that vegetables and salads are tasteless, probably your taste buds are addicted to intense flavors so you don't taste them properly.

Let’s start from the beginning. How do your taste buds get formed?

You were still in your mother's belly, but your sense of taste was already working: studies show that this sense begins to form from the 12th to the 14th week. But

not everything happens only in the mother's belly: a child's taste is formed until the age of three, on average. That's why it's so important for parents to offer varied and healthy foods to their children and avoid processed foods. The better their diet is, the less they'll frown on fruits, vegetables and salads and the likes in the future will lead to balanced food choices preventing them from being addicted to very high palatable tastes often rich in fat, sodium and sugar in their adult life.  Research indicates that you have to try eight to 10 times for a food to become natural in children's routine. However, even if this food falls to a person's taste and habit, the palate ends up changing and we renew our taste buds every 7 to 14 days and this you will understand below.

What factors make your taste buds change over time?

Stop liking or starting to like a food goes beyond a matter of taste. The relationship has to do with habit, age, culture, memories and even education. In addition to the fact that taste buds are vulnerable, you can kill them by biting your tongue or drinking a very hot drink. But do not despair: they are born again. These eating habits of industrialized foods with excess sodium, fat and sugar are addictive and can alter brain chemistry, causing compulsion for this type of food. The more you eat fat and sugar, the more you want to eat.

Here are some tips:

-Avoid processed foods in general.

-Avoid excess salt.

-Avoid sugar. A good starting point is not to drink coffee or tea with sugar.

-Avoid ready-made seasonings. Use natural seasonings like garlic, onion, basil, oregano, rosemary... They give the preparations a great flavor as well as being a great antioxidant!

- Preparing the same food you said you don't like but in different ways.

- Consume citrus fruits. Lemon is great for modulating taste buds especially when you crave sweets.