Can you force your tastebuds to like a taste?!


Question: Can you force your tastebuds to like a taste?
If i hated something quite a lot (eg: coffee) and then drunk lots of it, would I then start to like it? Through getting used to it? How long would it take to start 'liking' it?

Answers:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

I read in my psych textbook that if you eat something more then twenty times within two years you "don't dislike" something, and if you have it over 40x then you will like it.
Obviously, I don't think that it would count if you have it everyday.

My psychology textbook.



You can educate your palate to certain tastes through gradual increased exposure.
You used coffee as an example and I think that's perfect because I used to loathe coffee, it would physically make me sick whenever I tried to drink it and I would end up having to wash my mouth out.
When I began attending college I would have to commute a lot of miles very early in the morning and I wouldn't be back until very late at night so I began to force myself to drink coffee for the caffeine.
One day I was just like "Ugh! I need something to wake me up or I'm going to collapse" so I bought a caramel latte which was quite weak and quite sweet so it largely masked the coffee. Over the weeks I began to drink more and more of it and switched to just latte with sugar then without sugar then just ordinary coffee with milk then Americano.
It took me about three weeks of daily drinking to really like it and not just drink it out of necessity.

So yes, you can train your palate to accept a new taste, often it becomes easier when you get older. Other things I've leaned to like are Peppers, Olives, Salmon, Pilchards, Onion, Coleslaw even though I could not stand them before.
The only food I have never been able to train myself to eat would be raw tomatoes, for some reason no matter how determined I am I just cannot even bring myself to chew one let alone stomach it. My palate will not let me enjoy it and my throat does not seem to let me swallow it, its weird.
Most foods you can grow accustomed to though and there's no specific set point where you suddenly start 'liking' it, you sort of have to convince yourself that you are going to like it and keep trying until you find a likeable quality in the taste or texture of the food/drink.
Right now I'm trying to train myself to like hummus.



sure, moms do that all the time with little kids when they introduce them to new foods.
You keep offering a taste of it and the baby gets used to it eventually.
The thing with disliking some foods is if you happen to eat a particular food that has been prepared one way and hated it, you really need to taste it prepared a different way.
Think if you only tasted bread when it is mushed up in stuffing. Totally different than bread straight out of the oven with a little butter on it but both are bread.
I don't decide to 'hate' a food until I have sampled it make in as many ways possible.



I'm sure you can "get used" to a taste of something but as for "forcing your taste buds to like it" lol i'm not entirely sure that's possible.



You must be able to because people actually drink coffee and beer. UGH!!




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