“I don’t eat these foods to lose weight or with any other aesthetic purpose in mind. I eat them because I truly love them now.”
It’s absolutely true that your tastebuds change as you get older. Perhaps you also become more mature and decide to give certain unappealing foods a good, honest try. But there are a number of foods I simply couldn’t stand as a kid that I now LOVE! And I don’t credit all of this to aging.
As I became more and more interested in nutrition, I began to seek out more information. We’re no longer limited to textbooks and sad all-print cookbooks. The places I got my inspiration for cooking and eating healthy were resources like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and colorful magazines like Cooking Light and Eating Clean. Not only are these options in themselves awesome, when you get tired of flipping through magazines (can you ever though?) you can switch to watching “What I Eat in a Day” videos on YouTube and vice versa.
This swarm of healthy eating social media is actually extremely beneficial. Not long ago a huge societal concern was the massive amount of fast food advertising we were exposed to. As older generations began seeing the negative effects of obesity, they worried that a big cause was the unhealthy food media “brainwashing” us all into eating high-fat, supersized meals 24/7.
I remember watching a video in middle school about a guy who only ate supersized meals from McDonald’s to see what would happen. He certainly had plenty of problems develop. (Did anyone else watch a similar video when younger??)
There definitely has been a change to social media. Rather than only getting inundated with cheese-covered, triple-patty hamburger images, we also see meals portioned out based on macros, banana “nice-cream”, green juices, and vegan Buddha bowls. These changes make me incredibly hopeful that this clean eating movement will continue.
My Background
I’ve always eaten relatively healthy. I was raised eating a salad with every dinner – in addition to other veggies – and limited sugary snacks. My parents taught me to try new things. I’m very lucky in this regard: not everyone gets that privilege.
But I’m human, and of course my palate found some foods just absolutely unappealing. For me that included food items such as mushrooms, tomatoes, and tofu. No matter how they were prepared, I didn’t want to eat them and would only do so grudgingly.
I’m happy to say that I now LOVE all three of those foods (and many others I used to despise)! Not only that, I CRAVE these healthy foods. I purchase them weekly. What caused this miraculous change?
I know exactly the reason behind it.
The Secret Behind My Craving Change
Pictures and videos. In short: various social media outlets.
One day a couple years ago I was watching a “What I Eat in a Day” YouTube video. (I generally only watch ones that have “healthy” somewhere in the title). I can picture it so clearly – the woman made a dish that had these big king oyster mushrooms in it. She sautéed them, simply sprinkling on a little salt and pepper. Then she mixed them with greens and had them on the side of a meal…and I think I maybe drooled a little.
This same sort of thing happened with tomatoes. I follow an Instagram influencer named Caroline Diesler, a 20-something vegan living in Germany. She pretty much exclusively eats whole fruits and veggies. On the majority of days, she makes a HUGE salad for dinner, simply with lettuce, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and an avocado mixed in with the lettuce rather than a dressing. Her pictures are amazing. And for some odd reason, I started to crave cherry tomatoes. I now not only purchase them to eat on my salads, I snack on them plain. See my post on how to sneak more fruits and veggies into your diet, where I give many more examples of healthy snacks.
The same phenomenon occurred with tofu as I watched videos of it being prepared and saw tasty-looking pictures on Pinterest. By the way, I have a Get Fit With Cedar Pinterest account! (Click here to follow me and experience this healthy craving phenomenon yourself!)
And I should add – this “crave healthy foods” change has nothing to do with aspiring to be like or look like the people in the pictures or videos. I don’t eat these foods to lose weight or with any other aesthetic purpose in mind. I eat them because I truly love them now.
New in Town
When you think about it, this healthy craving change makes sense. In the same way an image of a Dairy Queen sundae with gobs of cookie dough, swirled whipped cream, and delicately drizzled chocolate sauce elicits a desire, a healthy meal laid out with restaurant-style finesse and pristine lighting will as well. Essentially it’s the same way that advertising has been executed for many years, only now we’re being exposed to a healthier type.
Now of course, not everyone views the same amount of healthy food pictures and videos as I do. Nutrition is one of my passions, so of course I do a lot of digging into food trends and am exposed to a lot of health-related social media.
Everyone is different and has different techniques that work for them. But I know that for me, this worked! I now crave healthy foods I used to despise. And I think it’s worth a try.
Implement it Yourself
So my challenge to you: think about a food you don’t really like. Whether it’s eggplant, or kale, or apples, or brussel sprouts – find a few videos about how to prepare that type of food. Look up recipes and pictures on Pinterest (shameless plug for my Pinterest again) or Instagram (shameless plug for my Instagram too!), and keep at it. The video on mushrooms was not the very first one I had seen – or the fourth! It takes a little while. But I highly suggest you try this out and stick with it.
Well that’s my secret for how to crave healthy foods, even if you used to detest them! Let me know if you’ve ever noticed this phenomenon in the comments below! I’d love to hear 🙂
Happy healthy eating!
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