I was reading an article the other day and it made me think about something. You know how much we stress the importance of eating more fruits and vegetables. Sometimes, people will start eating a “newer, healthier” food but then quickly return to the former ways of eating. Why is that? If taste, flavor, texture don’t meet your expectations, or if you are not used to those things, you may not want to continue eating them. In the article, How to Make Someone Fall in Love with You, the author went through a list of occurrences that need to happen to help you fall in love. One was of great interest:
“‘Obviously, you have to meet, but there’s something else going on: repeated exposure. As marketers know very well (and anyone looking for love should learn about marketing), repeated exposure makes us like almost anything. Repeated exposure, it turns out, increases our liking for practically everything, from the routine features of our lives to decorating materials, exotic foods, music, or people.'”
So how do we “fall in love” with new foods, new vegetables, new fruits? We need repeated exposure to them! Allow yourself to not like the taste of a new food but assess how you could prepare it in a different way to make it work for you…… and no, I don’t mean bread it and drop it in a vat of hot oil! We often see this exposure rule in kids. When we continue to offer a new vegetable, ultimately, they not only try the food but begin to really enjoy eating it!
Go ahead, try new foods but remember the rule of repeated exposure. You may find yourself falling in love with broccoli!
It’s Your Heath. It’s Your Life. Make That Change!
~ John