Thursday, August 04, 2011

The Seven Year Switch

I had always heard that your taste buds change very seven years, but had not given it too much thought. Until this week. I've become a spinach freak. I think about spinach a lot. When I was thinking about spinach and wondering why I want it all the time, it was pretty amazing because I never ate spinach at all until about twenty years ago, and that was only when it was part of something else like quiche florentine. I worked my way up (or down maybe with fewer ingredients) to creamed spinach and finally to just spinach. I love it.
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I've also become a big fan of cooked carrots. Now they do have to be part of something else, like a soup or stew and they have to be really really cooked down, but I love them. Cooked carrots used to be my least favorite cooked vegetable. For 49 years. I really detested them. I used to forfeit my dessert at daycare rather than eat cooked carrots. I always picked them out of canned soups and ate around them in stews.
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I can also eat raw celery now. I used to think raw celery tasted like poison. So I was thinking about all these taste changes and because I am so terrible at math, I thought, Well I'm not anywhere near a seven year thing. Then I remembered that 49 is 7 x 7. And I was 49 until April.
So I guess that old saw is true.
Mmmmm, spinach.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never managed to like raw celery. If it's cooked I'll eat it, but otherwise, no thanks.

Anonymous said...

If this is true, I should also expect some dietary changes next year. But I have always loved cooked carrots and celery. I'd hate to think I'd develop a taste for liver and tripe.

Lori Stewart Weidert said...

Oooo. I love spinach too. I went to a restaurant in Baltimore years ago that served spinach as a side if you wanted it. Check out Spinach a la Ralph:

http://www.sabatinos.com/menu/vegetables.asp

Cooked carrots I love too, just plain. Sometimes I cook them with jalapeno's and hot 'em up. Sweet n hot!

As for changing tastes, I find I'm eliminating more food, I think because I'm coming to grips that I really don't LIKE this in the first place. Raw broccoli, for instance...chew, chew, chew, and it tastes so...cabbagey and planty, unless you put 200 calories of ranch dip on it.

If I ever get to the point that I'm eating beets, that will be a miracle.

Anonymous said...

my taste buds changed too. Didn't mind cooked spinach as a kid, but now I can't stand it. I like raw spinach as an adult. I used to hate onions cooked or raw. Now I love them cooked (still hate them raw). I used to hate mushrooms, but now either cooked or raw I'll eat them.

and yuck to celery. I can sort of do celery if it's in a stew or something.

Pearl said...

"I think about spinach a lot."

Not sure why, but that made me smile.

My latest addition, food-wise? Goat cheese and arugula. Together or apart, OMG but those things make me happy!

:-)

Pearl

Anonymous said...

Interesting that I too have acquired a recent taste for cooked carrots. I always like spinach, even when I was a kid, but I still detest broccoli.

VioletSky said...

I've been trying to think of what I like to eat that is different from 7 years ago... mostly, I am noticing that i can't spicy foods the way I used to which saddens me greatly.
oh yes, apparently I loved squash as a baby but I didn't care for it as I got older. now I love it again. my mother would be irritated by that, I'm sure.

geewits said...

Jazz,
~~I didn't really like celery cooked either.

LGS,
~~I used to date a guy that ate menudo on Saturday for lunch as a hangover cure. I couldn't even look at it.

Lori,
~~Can't quite imagine carrots and jalapenos, but I am with you on the raw broccoli.

Em,
~~I was the same with onions: hated all. Now I love cooked and still hate raw. And I will never eat mushrooms.

Pearl,
~~Goat cheese and arugula. Sounds like the name of a rock band.

Ian,
~~I can't imagine not eating cooked broccoli.

V,
~~I have never liked yellow squash unless it is in a casserole with a pound of cheese. And that really is a shame about spicy foods. I really love my spicy!

Anonymous said...

By the way, thanks for the Adele clip. I'd forgotten about her completely. Yes, she's extremely good.

Anonymous said...

How do you kiss a guy whose lips have touched menudo? Yech.

Lo said...

Bleah, cooked carrots.
Love raw or cooked celery.
Spinach is always good.
You are silly.