Skip to main content

New Food, New Me

Looking for a New Year’s resolution that can be good for you and fun? Challenge yourself to try new foods! Regardless of how old you are, it is possible to discover new foods or discover a new liking for a food you thought you didn’t enjoy.

Mix it up
Foods often take on very different flavors depending on how they were prepared. This is especially true for vegetables, which most of us should be resolving to eat more of. Raw spinach in a salad has a very different flavor than sautéed spinach. Texture can also change with preparation and can be a big factor in whether or not we like a food. Some people enjoy the crunch of a raw carrot, but do not enjoy the soft feel of a cooked carrot. Flavor combinations will also impact whether or not we like a given food. Give different herbs, spices and sauces a try on any food you are trying.

Try, try and try again
You have probably heard the idea of exposing children to food multiple times before deciding that they do or don’t like it. This same approach may work with adults as well. Don’t give up on a food the first time you try it. Simply becoming more familiar with a food may increase the chances that you will like it. It is also important to remember that factors beyond flavor can impact your reaction to a food. The setting, the way the food is presented and even who you are with when you try it could influence your preferences.

Make it social
Achieving a goal is often more fun and attainable if you do it with friends. Gather a group and start a tasting club. Challenge yourselves to try at least a certain number of new foods each month. Meet for lunch and share a new dish in addition to your regular meal. If it doesn’t become your new favorite, you haven’t wasted a full portion. Find something you like? Share your new discovery on social media with #NewFoodNewMe. Search the same hashtag to see what new foods other people are discovering.

January 2018

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Local Produce

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy local produce because of the sheer variety of fruits and vegetables that are available. I’ve waited all winter for ripe berries, juicy tomatoes and sweet stone fruit. We get a few months of this bounty and when the season is over, we wait patiently for summer to come again so we can enjoy our favorites. Connecting and eating with the seasons can be rewarding but also a tough challenge as many of us now rely on grocery stores to provide year-round produce. FUN FACT Did you know that the average food item has traveled 1,500 miles to get to your plate? Seeking out local food, understanding how it was grown and learning more about the people who grew it can be an empowering experience. Not everyone has the opportunity to shake hands with the person that grew their food but for those that do, it carries more weight than a certification. Download lagu WAIT, THERE’S MORE Did you also know that how we eat can have as big an impact on climate change as transp...

Plant Forward

A New Way of Eating There’s a relatively new term buzzing around the food world that you may or may not have heard of, plant forward. What does that mean you ask? Plant forward focuses on more vegetable centric dishes with meat playing more of a supporting role. Think blended burgers, stir-fry’s or grain bowls where meat is almost like a condiment. Flavors are bold and it’s all about the dish’s deliciousness whether it happens to be vegan or vegetarian, or not. Diners aren’t interested in completely removing meat from their diets so embracing a diet that is mostly plants with some meat here and there provides a comfortable middle ground. The Challenge with Red Meat Conventional animal agriculture is resource intense and less than stellar for the environment. Ruminant animals release methane gas into the atmosphere which is about twenty five times more intense than carbon dioxide. Let’s face it, our country’s enormous appetite for beef is not so great for our health and the heal...

Focus on Whole, Minimally Processed Foods

With assistance from Northeastern graduate student Crystal (Sopher) Richardson What’s the WHOLE story on Processed Foods? Nutritionists and dietitians are often asked why processed foods are bad.  It’s not an easy question to answer.  Many refer to the fact that the “Diseases of Civilization” – heart disease, hypertension, tooth decay, diabetes and some cancers did not exist before the increased popularity of processed foods. Whole and minimally processed foods are prepared without copious amounts of added fat, salt or sugar, therefore maximizing the consumption of cancer-fighting nutrients and phytochemicals, that protect your body’s cells from damage. A 2017 study of 249 adolescents showed that the consumption of minimally processed foods was inversely associated with excess weight. 1 Another study in 2016, published by Anthony Fardet showed a link between minimally processed foods and satiety versus ultra-processed foods. 2 While most people know that eating a whole a...