How to Retrain Your Taste Buds and take a Spring Break
How to Retrain Your Taste Buds and take a Spring Break
My son was a phenomenal eater as a baby. He’d slurp up his sweet potatoes and pound his peas. Apples were his favorite, and he’d down the pureed pears and plums like a champ. I’d mix veggies with bananas, wheat cereal and even a little in his milk. But when he turned two, the little tyrant started throwing it down every meal. It was gruesome, and many peas paid the price.
At two years old, Neophobia or a fear of trying new foods sets in. Children have the ability to express their displeasure for foods at a very early age, and they show it by spitting it out, throwing it onto the floor, across the room or painting the walls and the ceiling with it. That was my son. Anything green flew from his mouth in a projectile explosion that left us both ugly-sobbing. When our little ones start making the transition from the wondrous, complete nutrition that is breast milk to solid food, they soon shifted to fruit and veggies—peas, carrots, spinach, green beans, squash—you name it.
Yet somewhere between veggie-full plates and the age of ordering off a children’s menu, the color fades from the plate like a person about to faint. From a palette of red, orange, green, purple and blue, we introduce processed snacks, hot dogs, French fries and potato chips – the array of white to brown ‘kid’s food’ - and somehow ditch all the gorgeous colors we once thrived on.
By this point, kids and parents almost get conditioned to accept that as the norm because, quite frankly, it’s easier to give in and avoid a tantrum. If you’re over the age of 18 and still consider a bowl of sugary cereal with a root beer float chaser a solid meal, there’s hope. It’s never too late to get your taste buds back on track. They just need some reconditioning and discipline, like at the gym.
Give Your Taste Buds a Workout
Taste buds are highly complex structures. Thousands of them respond to temperature and the physical sensations from food or drink coupled with smell send signals to the brain and ignite a perception—savory, sweet, acidic, acrid, bland, salty, balanced and the range in between. Those taste
buds - being one of the strongest group of muscles in your body - need to be conditioned, tested and strengthened so that they can take on a broad spectrum of all those flavors.
When you retrain your taste buds, you also rewire your brain to crave different foods, and before you know it, you’ll see your plate from a different perspective. The same person who grew up eating sea vegetables, raw fish and rice can get SAD (standard American diet) in a heartbeat, because sugar is addictive. Going the opposite way takes seeing food in a new way – one that gives you a new lease on life.
Imagine picking broccoli and Brussels sprouts over brownies? Through this eating plan, you’ll begin to actually crave—and even lust after—greens, fermented foods and umami-rich foods - that fifth taste profile which is often described as ‘meaty’ or ‘savory’ and found in all animal proteins and
some plant-based ingredients – into your daily routine. Yes, I said lust!
The enlightenment of knowing what your body needs and feeding it properly is a next-level game changer. It will shift your mood, your energy level, how you handle stress, how you deal with your relationships, your ability to sleep, and every other aspect of your consciousness. You will crave good things. You’ll become stronger than you’ve ever felt and you’ll develop a deeper appreciation for that incredible temple of yours.
This doesn’t mean you have to quit what you love cold turkey. It simply means you’re diversifying and developing a taste for more nutrient-dense sustenance. Flexing one of the most important muscles in your body, your tongue, means retraining it with the same focus and energy that you would use if you were muscle training at a gym. By developing the sour, bitter and umami——you’ll learn to love foods such as spinach and other nutritious greens, celery, seaweed, citrus, fish, mushrooms and tomatoes, which will forever change how you eat and will help you naturally fight disease.
We’ll transform how you build your meals, reset your taste buds and your waistline, starting with the minute you open your eyes in the morning.
Now, you wouldn’t expect a person trying to get fit after sitting on the couch for years start benching 200 pounds or showing a six-pack in a few workouts. It takes to time to change a habit, but in 8 days, you’ll kick start the process and you may even start to see a significant difference in how you feel.
During the eight days of taste bud reconditioning, you will be cutting out certain foods and eating at least five bites each of specific foods. Numerous studies, including one done by the University of Illinois, suggests that we should try a food at least 10 times before determining if they like it or not. Forming a new habit can take as little as a week, so this focused reset window allows
you to get accustomed to flavor-specific foods in an accelerated timeframe.
Since we’re cutting out ‘trigger foods’ that tend to sabotage our tastebuds, you’ll make conscious decisions of what to eat to recondition your brain and get rid of unhealthy cravings. If you’d like, you can dive into the eight-day meal plan that wraps many of these delish flavors together into a well-orchestrated package.
For eight days, eat at least five bites/sips of each of these ingredients daily:
•Tomatoes
•Mushrooms (other than white button)
•Dark leafy greens (spinach, arugula, chard, kale, broccoli, collard greens, etc.)
•Celery
•Avocado
•Seaweed/sea vegetables
•Non-Vegetarians:
Pick at least two: natural lean pork, chicken, beef, turkey, bison, wild game, eggs
•Seafood eaters:
Pick at least two: wild-caught fish, shrimp, mackerel, tuna, anchovies, sardines
•For all non-meat eaters:
Pick at least one: quinoa, seaweed, pickled foods, tempeh, edamame, miso
What to cut:
- All caloric sugar items (including maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, etc.)
- All breads and bread products (bread, tortillas, pasta)
- Cow dairy products
- Processed foods (snack crackers, chips, bars, etc.)
- Artificial sweeteners and colors
- Alcohol
- Soda and juice
My cookbook is a great place to find recipes that compliment these changes and give you great ideas for how to cook these new food you're trying in an appetizing way! https://eatcleaner.com/products/book
My Cleaner Plate Club program is also a fantastic place to start if you want a more in-depth guided program to help you start your journey! https://www.chefmareya.com/the-cleaner-plate-club
8 MORE TIPS TO RETRAIN YOUR TASTE BUDS FOR GOOD:
1. Build your plate starting with non-starchy veggies. Any of the veggies from the ‘all you can eat
buffet’ in Eat Like You Give a Fork: The Real Dish on Eating to Thrive are suggested, which
includes specific meal options and recipes for your all meals and snacks.
2. Start with protein and fat in the morning and avoid sugary foods to stabilize your blood sugar. This
can include egg dishes, chia seed pudding (yes, you can have pudding for breakfast) or smoothies
made with mostly green veggies and a handful of low-glycemic fruit like berries and apples.
3. Combine protein, fat and complex carbs in every meal, focusing on bitter, sour and umami flavors.
4. Eat smaller reconditioning meals every 3-4 hours to keep your energy high, rev your metabolism
and sustain your blood sugar so you never feel hungry.
5. Enjoy at least one raw or mostly raw meal a day to get the maximum benefit out of your nutrients,
enzymes and probiotics without cooking them.
6. Drink the Real Vitality Tonic once a day for eight days after Meal 1.
7. Drink the Low Sodium Umami Bone Broth mid-afternoon.
8. Give your full focus to the food. Sit, put the technology down, and taste every bite, slowly. This is your time to fall in love with flavor again
If you are looking for more guided help in re-training your taste buds, my Eat To Thrive Program is perfect for you! Check it out here to learn more in-depth strategies for changing your taste buds naturally! https://www.chefmareya.com/eattothrive
