Taste is Just in Your Head

Lots of clients tell us about how they have such a difficult time with new eating behaviors because of taste. These other foods "don't taste good," they protest. Nutritionists, dietitians, trainers and experts in the field have long tried to convince people that taste changes over time; thus it's a non-concern. But now scientists at Columbia University have proven that even the interpretation of "bitter" can be altered to "sweet" simply by shuffling around clusters of cells.


They argue the case that this level of taste is "hard wired" and unable to be altered through experience. That's actually an overstepping and erroneous takeaway from their findings, since we've known that we can reroute neurological pathways through learning and experience. Obviously, people change opinions, thoughts and tastes throughout their whole lives. We are firing action potentials across the brain and connecting different cells in different ways all the time.


In large part, the familiar only tastes good out of familiarity. Familiarity has untrained your intuition, so now your taste isn't even geared toward your needs. You can change this by changing the food you eat, plying through the initially difficult road of unfamiliar food, and eventually coming to love it. People who are more stubborn will take longer. As the Columbia Researchers proved, simple cell alteration can turn "bitter" into "sweet." Though that big a shift may be at long reach for us (or out of our reach, as they argue), it does provide hope that moaning about the food you should be eating is simply an issue of interpretation. That can be changed. Change your interpretation. After all, it's just in your head.


Learn more about this and how to begin your change. Start Here.