Recovering My Taste Buds

This is the latest list of foods that I am not restocking:

• Sweet pickles
• Sausage
• Soy sauce
• Hot salsa
• Syrup
• Bacon
• Dried pineapple
• Roasted, salted nuts
• Caesar salad dressing

Can you tell what they all have in common? They are all extreme flavors. That is, very sweet or very salty or very spicy in some way.

I have noticed that when I eat extreme flavors, I am unable to taste subtle flavors. In fact, I am completely uninterested in subtle flavors, bored. People who eat fast food a lot are quite disoriented at a vegetarian restaurant because their taste buds are swollen and numbed by the extreme flavors of pizza, buffalo wings, ice cream sundaes, chili cheese dogs, and so on. Not that I eat much fast food, at least not at the moment. But I want to be able to keep some of the healthier foods in my maintenance diet, and I don't think that will happen if I don't genuinely like them. I fear I will revert back to those highly-flavored french fries and barbecued ribs. How can I learn to like tofu if I can't even taste it?

Mild, Delicate, Subtle
First step was to stop thinking of the non-extreme foods as boring. The following foods are gentle, mild, delicate, subtle:

• Fish
• Melon
• Mushrooms
• Eggs
• Turkey
• Raw nuts
• Artichokes, not marinated
• Carrots
• Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat
• Mozarella cheese
• Custard
• Broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts
• Pasta, without strong-flavored sauce
• Mild salsa
• Carob
• Baked potato, with not much on it
• Spinach, chard, bok choy
• Avocado
• Tofu
• Zucchini
• Papaya
• Pear

I already like many of these. Other foods that I like are not on this list, and not because they are unhealthy. I left off oranges and apples and kiwis and strawberries because they have strong flavors. Ham has a stronger flavor than turkey. Cheddar has a more extreme flavor (and smell) than Mozarella. Tomatoes, olives, chocolate, feta cheese all have strong flavors. Melons are gentler than berries. Tofu is more subtle than yogurt.

This experiment is about recovering my taste buds. It's a perfect time to try because I have been dutifully eating quite a few of these mild-flavored foods for the last eight weeks---maybe not really liking them but eating them anyway. At least I won't go into potato-chip withdrawal.

Chewing
I almost forgot about chewing. If I want to taste subtle flavors, I need to chew the food more. I especially have a tendency to rush through soft food, such as oatmeal, eggs, or fish. Before I notice the subtle flavors and textures, I've already swallowed. Most of us chew a mouthful of food 4 to 6 times, which should be more like 30 times. Plus, we slosh it down with liquids while we're chewing, thus diluting the tastes on our tongues in addition to diluting our digestive juices.

I secretly vow to chew my food more thoroughly, like 20 times a mouthful, and notice all these gentle flavors. No Tai food just yet...