- Eating
Can Be An Adventure - Keep It Interesting, Simple, Healthy, and
Fun
- by Alan Detwiler
I have been preparing my own
meals for many years. Like most people, I suppose, I would fix
only familiar dishes.
That has changed. For health
benefits, I began eating more fruits and vegetables, including
some that were unfamiliar. I tried many foods that were new to
me, for example, whole grains, and various types of beans, seeds
and nuts. Many of those became favorites.
I began to use unfamiliar ways
to prepare food. A few of my favorites are pesto (pureed greens
and oil), raw foods that are normally eaten cooked, and unusual
combinations such as bread with peanut butter, covered with pizza
sauce. Eating became more interesting, more enjoyable, and more
of an adventure.
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The circumstances of my life
encouraged more changes. Making do with a small amount of money
gave me a liking for oatmeal, beans, and other very low-cost
foods. Growing up on a farm and having a garden each year provided
new fruits and vegetables to try and enjoy. Having been raised
to 'waste not, want not', helped me not to pass up unusual foods:
gifts such as my sister's 'beans 'n' greens', the landlord's
perogies, and my son's homemade deer jerky. The point is: The
changes in my diet gave me more foods to enjoy. I now know that
I can like a great many unfamiliar foods. At first some of those
foods may not be enjoyed because they are so different and are
unrecognized as a 'goody'. For me, that recognition is typically
made gradually by many small trials. Once that recognition is
made, the food 'hits the spot' and can be nutritious, healthy
and convenient. Then I have yet another food to enjoy.
The process of trying new foods
and having them become enjoyed fare, makes eating an adventure.
Eating becomes more interesting and more enjoyed. Meals become
more than a time to enjoy what I have enjoyed before. Awareness
is heightened by experiencing the unfamiliar. There is anticipation
of discovery of a new enjoyment. Meals become pay-off times of
previous experimentation efforts. The food is more appreciated
for having creative effort invested in it. Perhaps I have gained
a health benefit, saved some prep time, saved money that can
be used for some other purpose, and have added to my repertoire
of pleasure.
A cookbook will give you ideas
about what new foods to try. A recipe book about a particular
ethnic food or some other unfamiliar category of food would be
particularly helpful. Buy one or get one from the library. Some
ethnic categories are Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, African,
soul food, Southern, and Mexican. Other categories are health
food, quick and easy recipes, weight loss diets, vegetarian recipes,
and using food from the garden. You might even enjoy some obscure
categories such as pioneer/early American food, Native American
food, wild food, early European food, food from storage, and
low cost food. I particularly like quick and easy recipe books. |
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If you need help becoming comfortable
with trying new foods, try small changes:
- Eat breakfast foods at lunch
or supper. Or try a vegetable at breakfast. If you normally have
a sandwich at bedtime, have a salad instead.
- Try different brands from the
ones you normally use.
- Leave out one or more ingredients
from your standard recipes. Or change the proportions - a little
more of this or a little less of that.
- Substitute a similar ingredient
for a usual ingredient, for instance, orange juice concentrate
or lemon juice instead of vinegar on a salad.
- It may help to eat smaller
portions but include a greater number of foods at each meal.
That may help you develop a liking for variety.
- Try unusual combinations such
as cooked chicken and raw fruit cut in small pieces and mixed
together...or pizza sauce on a peanut butter open-face sandwich...or
a teaspoon of honey or pancake syrup on a dark green, leafy salad.
Salads are great to experiment
with. Many vegetables can be enjoyed in a salad. Try various
amounts and combinations of carrot, cabbage, broccoli, bell pepper,
cucumber, or other vegetables you enjoy. Use other types of greens:
romaine lettuce, Bibb lettuce, collards, mache, mustard spinach,
kale, and basil. Dressing can be just oil, pesto, tahini, pasta
sauce, peanut butter softened with oil, and even jam or jelly.
The subtle flavors of many vegetables
are easily hidden with anything more than tiny amounts of vinegar
or lemon juice. Try a salad without any dressing to enjoy the
full flavor of the vegetables. The vegetables can be proportioned
to subdue or enhance particular flavors - use less basil to lessen
its pungent flavor, use more carrot to boost its flavor and texture.
Other salad ingredients can be nuts, peanuts, coconut, cereal,
raisins, whole wheat flour, baked beans, sugar, and fruit.
Use small quantities of an untested
food to begin with until you know how well your body deals with
it. The body will adapt to some foods over a period of weeks
or months but results vary from food to food and, I suppose,
from individual to individual. A couple of years ago eating one
spear of raw asparagus was more than I could tolerate. Now I
can cut up two ounces of raw asparagus and add it to a salad
without any problem. Any food has limits; it's just that raw
foods tend to have more immediate penalties for exceeding the
limits.
To develop a liking for a new
food, eat it at the beginning of a meal when you are most hungry.
Being hungry greatly improves ones ability to appreciate the
taste of a food. Eat only a small amount of the new food at each
sitting. For some foods, a tiny bite, just enough to sense its
flavor, is enough to handle at first. Don't give up easily on
a food that at first seems too strange to be enjoyed. Some foods
will require dozens of 'get acquainted' trials.
Other strategies for liking
new foods:
- Read about nutrition and health
to know the benefits of a changed diet.
- Make a decision to increase
the pleasure in your life. Your success in enjoying new foods
will encourage you to try other kinds of new pleasures.
Have reasons in mind to try unusual
foods:
- to be able to enjoy healthy
foods.
- to enjoy low-prep-time foods.
- to use what you can grow in
your garden.
- for the satisfaction of acquiring
new pleasures.
- to increase your enjoyment
of eating.
Know why liking new foods is
difficult. This is the know-your-enemy principle. It seems to
help me. People have an instinctive protection against eating
toxic foods. Nature has provided you with mistrust for new, unfamiliar
food. If the food is enough different from what you are used
to, it will not be immediately liked. This is a necessary instinct
that keeps you from poisoning yourself by eating the wrong mushroom,
for example. Evolution along with chemistry eliminated the gulp-down-anything
individuals from our gene pool. The little-by-little taste-developers
survived.
If it's the sugar, salt and spices
you depend upon to enjoy food, other flavors will go unappreciated.
To help your fondness for new foods come easier, ease up on spices,
salt, and sugar. That encourages your taste to appreciate a greater
variety of flavors. You then can more appreciate the sweetness
of cherry tomatoes, the sweetness of raw pumpkin, and the sweetness
of sweet potatoes, for example. You can enjoy the mild flavor
of raw chestnuts, the richness of nuts, and the subtle starchiness
of cereal grains. Your palate will be more adept at experiencing
the pleasures of subtle flavors. A great many foods that previously
seemed mostly tasteless, can then be enjoyed for their unique
flavors.
Your enjoyment of strong tasting
food will also be helped by reducing sugar and salt use. You
will be switching from depending on saltiness and sweetness to
getting pleasure from a greater variety of flavors.
Finding new foods:
- Browse at a health food store,
a farmers market or an ethnic food festival.
- Take the time to look at all
the items at a local supermarket.
- Browse at local ethnic food
markets: Middle Eastern or Greek, for example.
- Try raw foods, whole grains
and other unprocessed foods. Typically, they have more texture
and flavor. These foods are higher in fiber and so produce more
intestinal gas. Limit portion size to reduce gas production.
Load up when gas will not be a problem. I allow myself to pig-out
at a before bedtime meal. If the meal is low in calories, that
large meal doesn't keep me from having a good night's sleep.
- Use native plants foraged from
lawns, fence lines, and woodlands; and growing as weeds in gardens.
Know what you are doing, there are poisonous plants that resemble
edible ones. A few plants are toxic even when eaten in small
quantities.
- Do your own cooking. Restaurants
have menus that appeal to a majority of people, not to people
wanting something different. Even the person who cooks for their
own family may be unlikely to prepare other than familiar and
popular food.
- Have a garden, if you have
the time and space. Every year I can try out new recipes and
a new vegetable or two. Otherwise, take advantage of the variety
the large supermarkets offer. |
