How to have fun changing your palate
Every two weeks, we recycle our old taste buds and generate a new set. This means that every two weeks- some researchers argue as little as three days- we have the chance to re-train our palate and alter the way we perceive foods.
If this is true, why do so many people struggle for an entire lifetime with food cravings and diets that they can never give up? In part, it’s because our entire diet philosophy is at odds with our biological design.
Introduction
The most common dieting techniques do nothing to rewire us for sustainable change and some are even detrimental in the long-term. “The Biggest Loser” study, which followed show contestants for six years after their successful on-air weight loss, highlighted the downside of calorie restriction. As shared by nutritionist Julia Ross, “…the show’s contestants had suffered a permanent reduction in their ability to burn calories. These celebrity dieters were burning 500 fewer calories a day, six years later, than they had been before the contest started. They were also suffering much stronger and more constant food cravings…most contestants had regained much of, all of, or more than the weight they had worked so hard to lose.” In addition to the failure of calorie restriction, most dieters either incorporate small amounts of “cheating” into their diets (e.g. ice cream only on Sunday!) or will eat low-fat or “healthier” alternatives of the same foods they love. These strategies fail because they go against the basic design of the body: intense calorie restriction re-wires the body for starvation mode so it craves food (and stores fat) more aggressively and cheating or eating alternative versions of the same foods prevent the palate from changing.
But there is a sustainable, pain-free way to change your diet, which I discovered accidentally when I found out I had sensitivities to dairy, soy, corn, alcohol, and processed sugar. Within three months, I went from starting my workweek with mocha and almond croissant to only snacking occasionally on roasted sweet potatoes or dark chocolate (100%). What happened in between was a series of small, creative steps that led to massive changes.
Understanding cravings
Evolutionarily, cravings evolved so our bodies would seek out particular nutrients and energy sources it needed. Unfortunately, over the past fifty years or so, this same system has been hijacked by the massive amounts of sugar, artificial sweeteners, and food-like compounds in the Western diet. In her book “The Craving Cure,” nutritionist Julia Ross describes how studying early patients with eating disorders led her to treat food cravings as full-blown addictions. Over the course of her career, she developed a sophisticated method of classifying cravings by type- such as emotional or fatigue driven- and designing an amino acid protocol for each craving profile that satisfies a nutritional deficiency, immediately silences the craving, and begins to re-wire the brain. Ross’ program has been highly successful because it removes the biggest obstacle that most people find when trying to change their diets: uncontrollable urges.
Once destructive cravings have been silenced, we can begin to understand what our bodies actually need. I learned this personally in the past month when I was hit by a sudden peanut butter craving. After returning from the gym, I would throw peanut butter dollops on banana slices, scoop it into protein shakes, and practically eat it from the jar. After a few weeks of this, I realized the peanut butter craving was a single that my plant-based diet was not supplying my body with enough protein and fat. After adding more protein to my breakfasts, the craving disappeared naturally.
Keep the flavors you love
While changing my diet, I was determined not to give up on certain flavors that I had loved for my whole life. Though I couldn’t have dairy, I wanted the creaminess of milk and the kick that cheese gave to recipes; I wanted the comfort of bread; I wanted the happiness I used to associate with sugar. And with a little exploration, I managed to find those same qualities elsewhere. I replaced the bread in eggs benedict with roasted sweet potatoes stacked with eggs, spinach, and seasoning. I found the creaminess of milk in Oatley’s oat milk and I created the effect of cheese in my soup recipes using Dijon mustard.
My favorite discovery has been the way that herbs and spices can substitute for almost any desire. When I’m craving sugar, my three favorite substitutes are cinnamon, cardamom, and licorice. As your palate weans off sugar, it begins to appreciate the nuance of these warm spices that simulate sweetness in different ways. Try baked apples or squash powdered with cinnamon and nutmeg, put cinnamon on blueberries, brew coffee with dissolved licorice crystals or a cardamom pod.
Adding new flavors you may not love
While integrating new, healthy foods into my diet, I came across a fantastic article in Bon Appetit by Carla Lalli Music titled, “I spent an entire week trying to make spirulina taste good.” Despite its incredible heavy metal detox properties and superfood status, anyone who has tried to put even a spoonful of spirulina into a shake knows that not only does it taste like the bottom of the sea, it colors food a mucky green. Music herself spent days trying to disguise the taste of spirulina with honey and fruit, only to eventually conclude “instead of masking the oceanic vibes, I’d play them up.” From there, she hits a homerun by pairing spirulina with cucumbers and smoked salmon on crackers and mixing it into a rice dish with salt, red pepper flakes, and black sesame seeds.
The insight I got from Music is that a new flavor you’re integrating into your diet shouldn’t be hidden, it should be elevated in the proper flavor context. As anyone who has grown up hating brussel sprouts finds, they suddenly become gourmet if roasted with rosemary or bacon. This insight also applies when pairing new flavors with old favorites. Tahini, which is known for its nutty, sesame base, pairs beautifully with chocolate and gives it a richness and exotic quality that makes Nutella seem boring by comparison.
Make it an (easy) habit
Even when people know how to change their palates, one of the biggest obstacles is fitting the changes into their daily routine. As James Clear writes in his bestselling book “Atomic Habits,” the four steps to setting a new habit are: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. Part of making it obvious is create what Clear calls “implementation intentions,” which are details steps of not just what you will do, but how you will do it. For example, if you decide at the start of your day that on your way home from work, you will stop at the Whole Foods two blocks from your home and pick up two heads of broccoli and a cauliflower to roast in sea salt and olive oil, you’re much more likely to follow through than if you write “vegetables” on your grocery list. In this way, when the moment of action comes, there is no thinking required.
Clear’s third law, “Make it Easy,” is also relatively painless to implement. Most recipes I make take under 10 minutes to cook and involves four or fewer ingredients. The ingredients I do use most- olive oil, mustard, vinegar, and shallots- can be used on almost all vegetables, salads, and red meats. From these building blocks, almost any recipe can be dressed up with herbs and spices. The flavors I love come mostly from the Mediterranean and French diets; as you examine your favorite cuisines and flavors, you assemble culinary building blocks that make your recipes fast and simple.
Set a Goal
Though I have cut a large number of foods out of my diet, I never frame the situation in terms of lack. Instead, I have a long-term goal for myself: to try every single vegetable in the vegetable aisle and to include it in a recipe I enjoy. Working towards this has not only been fun, but I’ve also learned many things along the way: aloe vera contains latex, which must be removed prior to eating; kale chips shrink in the oven and come out disappointingly small, and there are thousands of ways to make great vegan pesto. I’ve also discovered that the cashiers at Whole Foods will hate you when you hold up the line with an item that no one can identify. But that’s part of the fun of it too.
