Evolving Tastebuds

[East]

They say that your tastebuds change/evolve every seven years...

Truth? ...or old wives tale?

I notice now I love spicy food and years ago I couldn't stand any heat at all on anything....

I also used to love mayonnaise and now it makes me gag...same with sour cream....

The only flavor of ice cream I like now is pure vanilla or something with caramel and vanilla...hate chocolate now....used to like it a lot...

I like Thai food now...didn't used to....

I adore mushrooms and buy a lot on the internet...they used to make me gag...

Hamburgers ...UGH (except now that I have tasted FIVE GUYS I did change my mind a bit...but only for their burger)

Fettuccine Alfredo...used to love it but now the white sauce is repulsive to me...I like pesto or light tomato based pasta sauce...or just olive oil.

Probably a lot more that will come to me...

Have any of your tastes changed over the years?

[Elijoan]

As a young child, I went through phases of disliking certain foods, but for the rest of my life (I'm over 50) I've been neutral or positive about most foods, not much change. I avoid spicy food and things I consider unhealthy, but I can't think of much I dislike on the basis of taste or texture. I even like the flavor of many spicy foods but can only eat small amounts at one time.

The only notable change is that I disliked cucumbers for the early half of my life. They're not my favorite, but I no longer avoid them.

[meridannight]

my tastes haven't changed much throughout my life. i have discovered new things, foods that i hadn't tasted before, but a change from disliking something to liking it or the other way around hasn't happened. i love pasta, blue cheese, liquorice, meat, mushrooms, parmesan, bell pepper, garlic, etc, and i loved them already when i was a kid.

i hate red beet, fried onions (yuck), onions except red onion, and fish. these were very strong dislikes already when i was 5 years old. and there is a number of foods that feel tasteless to me, like rice.

so no, in my experience, the taste does not vary much. at least not within 31 years.

[LJay]

The only way my taste seems to have changed is that I want to eat more and more food! We were raised on a broad palate of foods and it is nearly impossible for me to find things that I don't like. I wish I had your taste buds, East. It might just keep me from the table a bit.

[Dreams of Thai curry with pumpkin and shrimp...]

[spilovn]

Used to hate cauliflower and swede and cabbage now i like them

Also used to like chicken tikka masala, now i positively hate it.

Never liked cheesecake, this year I discovered I love cheesecake, I can't get enough of it.

As a kid I hated cheese & onion crisps, now they are my favourite flavour.

Hated coffee, hated the smell of coffee now I don't mind an occasional coffee, when I get bored of tea.

Loved prawns now I loath them.

[Beaux]

When I was little, my mother often served her favorite vegetable, brussel sprouts, which I absolutely HATED. Somewhere around thirty though, my tastes apparently changed because I LOVE them now....
~Beaux

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I never noticed a change in like/dislike of foods. But I'm one out of the half dozen people on earth who actually likes Haggis.

I eat less sweets now, in general. That is not a change in flavor/taste sort of thing, its just a lack of interest.

I liked Brussels sprouts, spinach, liver and all of those other foods kids are supposed to hate back when I was a kid. I still like them. Never been a fanatic for chocolate, I never actually liked American cheese, nor grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and all of the other stuff kids like. Velveeta cheese - I gagged back when I was a kid, and still gag as an adult.

I'm not a fanatic when it comes to food either. I like food in general, but I'm hard pressed to say I love this or love that when it comes to food. Which may partially explain my 141#'s of ungodly mass. :biggrin:

I rarely get cravings for any specific foods. I do get cravings for salt. I don't get it when someone says they would kill for a pizza, or some specific food. my killer instincts never kick in for foods....

So this may be part of the whole taste changing thing over life... I don't know.

[spilovn]

I never actually liked American cheese, nor grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and all of the other stuff kids like. Velveeta cheese - I gagged back when I was a kid, and still gag as an adult .

I was exactly the same with cheese, it made me gag just the smell, I had to leave the room, even now I can't touch macaroni cheese or any cheesey sauce type but then I like lasagna and cheese on a burger but I can't have cheese with fish or chicken, ugh.

[East]

I like white cheeses but yellow...NO! Velveeta...BARF...WTF is it made of?

Spilovn...I used to think cauliflower tasted like cardboard but I like it a lot now and think it is very flavorful.

[CuriousPhoenix]

I hated all vegetables while growing up. I hated tomatoes and tomato sauce. I hated onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, cabbage. You name the veggie I hated it except for potatoes and corn.

Now I love most of those things and it happened around the age of 21. First I started to like salad, then broccoli, then carrots. Soon I ate most vegetables. I still hate raw tomatoes, onions, and celery, but sautéed or cooked I'll eat them. I think this was because my taste buds changed and I started to cook a lot more and when cooking with these ingredients, you learn to like them and enjoy them.

Brussel Sprouts I love and adore. I don't eat them very often but growing up I just knew I would hate them. (The muppet babies hated them, so I hated them) I was wrong. Cook them and mix them with some basalmic glaze, yummy. They are so good.