can a person be conditioned to

[gmc2003]

Why can't we wear white after Labor day?

Because around here you may blend in with the snowbanks.

Chris

 

[fxsales1959]

just a fun thread to give us something to think and talk about ,
so here is the question : can a person be conditioned to like a food they otherwise wouldn't eat ? i have had some fun with the answers i have gotten from friends with this simple seeming question , its not as a benin question as it might seem to be

My wife is a mid-northern Yankee. She's learned to love all kinds or new southern thangs.

 

[fxsales1959]

Years ago I worked with some Inuit students from Alaska. I asked them as a people what they were most proud of. Quickly and unanimously they said, “We can eat anything.” I’ve never forgotten that. I often wonder if they can eat cilantro because I can’t stomach that stuff.

one tiny morsel and i know it's in there with eyes closed.

 

[Bearcarver]

Cilantro tastes like soap to me.

John

That reminds me:
I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks a store-bought Lemon Meringue Pie tastes like soap. The ones I've had that came from "Giant" Food Store taste like soap. Bear Jr thinks so too.

Bear

 

[thirdeye]

Five things immediately come to mind... calamari (especially the heads), avacado, frog legs, lamb and Rocky Mountain oysters.

 

[cal1956]

i think our taste is conditioned , in my opinion what influnces our taste is (1) our ears ( 2 ) our eyes ( 3) our noses and finally our mouth ....our taste is often influnced by what is said by others ( good or bad ), our sight has a huge influnce on what we perceive as tasteing good or bad
our noses tell us flat out if we want to taste something or not ,
and our mouths have the last word on the food in question not only by taste but also by texture

 

[bbqbrett]

i think our taste is conditioned , in my opinion what influnces our taste is (1) our ears ( 2 ) our eyes ( 3) our noses and finally our mouth ....our taste is often influnced by what is said by others ( good or bad ), our sight has a huge influnce on what we perceive as tasteing good or bad
our noses tell us flat out if we want to taste something or not ,
and our mouths have the last word on the food in question not only by taste but also by texture

That isn't conditioning though, that is just sensory appeal. Conditioning is behavior that is learned over time. Think like what parents do with a lot of kids when they don't like a certain food that is good for them...If you don't eat those brussels sprouts you won't get dessert or if you clean all the squash off your plate you can stay up a half hour later etc. Those types of things never got me to like certain foods growing up although sometimes I would suffer through eating them, or not.

 

[Bearcarver]

Five things immediately come to mind... calamari (especially the heads), avacado, frog legs, lamb and Rocky Mountain oysters.

Hmmm---Agree with some of that:
Calamari---The only Calamari I ever had was tough, like rubber bands.
Avocado----No flavor of any kind.
Frog Legs---I love them!!!
Lamb----I never had it & didn't go out of my way to try it, because Mrs Bear would not eat it.
Rocky Mountain Oysters---I never had them, but I heard they were great Cowboy food.

Bear

 

[cal1956]

BBQBRETT : aah but it can be a form of conditioning TV ads do it all the time , they tell you this is the best burger ever and hearing that over and over and over you start to believe it ,same with how they show you that beautiful burger , they go to great lenghts to show you the perfect tomatoes and pickles and such , your friend tell you how great thefood smells at the new place in town ,its not just sensory perception ...its conditioning !!

 

[DougE]

Any male over 30 and married knows dang well what conditioning is all about. Even if she is dead wrong and getting testy. You'll say yes dear! Prove me wrong!

Come visit sometime if you want to be proven wrong. DougE might just walk off and shut up (maybe), but there ain't no smoothing things over with a "Yes dear". I just ain't wired that way.

 

[noboundaries]

Decades ago, when I was in Japan on a foreign exchange assigment, I was served eel. It tasted and felt like a slimy okra-fish on my tongue. I choked it down to avoid offending my hosts, swearing to never eat it again.

Flash forward several decades to a hosted party at a pricy Japanese restaurant. What gets put on my plate? Yep. Eel sushi. Well, crap. Big improvement in taste and texture, but I never order it if I'm calling the shots.

 

[bbqbrett]

BBQBRETT : aah but it can be a form of conditioning TV ads do it all the time , they tell you this is the best burger ever and hearing that over and over and over you start to believe it ,same with how they show you that beautiful burger , they go to great lenghts to show you the perfect tomatoes and pickles and such , your friend tell you how great thefood smells at the new place in town ,its not just sensory perception ...its conditioning !!

Cal, still just sensory stimulation. While you might be coaxed to try it from how good the food looks in ad, if it doesn't taste good, it doesn't taste good and you still won't like it. Not the same as being conditioned to like the food. For example I could see a million more ads (than I already have) for a sushi restaurant but I still am not going to enjoy the food, or likely even try it.

 

[mneeley490]

Cilantro tastes like soap to me. I know, because I had plenty or that stuffed into my mouth growing up. With my mouth. . .My friends called me Ivory!

John

Cilantro tastes like soap to me. I know, because I had plenty or that stuffed into my mouth growing up. With my mouth. . .My friends called me Ivory!

John

That's actually a common theme. It's genetic. Remember tasting litmus paper in school? Some people could taste sour, and others couldn't taste anything? Same with cilantro. Some, like me, taste a spicy herb, others taste soap. Sorry for the soap crowd.

 

[Steve H]

Come visit sometime if you want to be proven wrong. DougE might just walk off and shut up (maybe), but there ain't no smoothing things over with a "Yes dear". I just ain't wired that way.

Good for you. After almost 40 years with my wife. I can say otherwise. Saying yes dear puts the napalm back in the fighter while you discuss options.

 

[Steve H]

And after all we've gone through. There is always a kiss. And I love you. After the skirmish. That proves things in volume. But. Whatever works for you is fine.

 

[bigfurmn]

Hmmm, I would say I could be conditioned to like something that I never had before.
However if it's something I already don't like, I could not be conditioned to like it---Ever.

Bear

Bear, this thread got me thinking. Any foods you (all military people here) military guys had that you hated but came around to look forward to?

 

[bauchjw]

Bear, this thread got me thinking. Any foods you (all military people here) military guys had that you hated but came around to look forward to?

Not really for me, most things I hated I still hate. Kind of with Lamb I suppose. I swore id never eat it again after having to eat it a lot on a few deployments. But I am ok with it now. I wouldn’t say I look forward to it though!

Tabasco, oh man. Because of a steady MRE diet and the required tabasco, if it touches anything I eat now I automatically taste MRE Beef Stew. Put it on a Wagyu brisket and I’ll taste MRE #9!

 

[Bearcarver]

Bear, this thread got me thinking. Any foods you (all military people here) military guys had that you hated but came around to look forward to?

The mess hall food at my Company was so bad that we looked forward to when we were in the field, and getting our almost daily C-rats.
My platoon also had a few pole climbers, so we could pull off an occasional midnight raid on the Engineers' storage dump, and stock up on our own cases of C-rats. Can't say I looked forward to them, but it was our best option. Cooking them over a little flaming ball of C-4 made some of the C-rats pretty decent. IMO

Bear

 

[OldSmoke]

I’ve been on a pretty gentle diet the last two weeks. Let me tell you, THAT has conditioned the hell out of me. I drool over everything!

Trust me, visiting you guys this morning is the worst mistake I have made during this ordeal. Too many pictures!

 

[O'Basque]

Things I did not like the first time I tried them but love now:
Beer, Whiskey, Wine, Gin, Coffee, Asparagus, Cumin, Parsley and Dill.
So I guess the answer is yes.