The reason why healthy things taste bad

Hobin

Quote by Monique

Except boterkoek

Shush, you.

It's natural since I made it myself from natural ingredients.

But, on a more serious note, I was talking mostly about the foods with HFCS and, well, stuff like that. As far as I'm aware, my boterkoek contains no such things.

Boterkoek is still unhealthy, of course.

D H

Quote by Monique

Except boterkoek

Do you Dutch have any food that "puts hair on your chest?" Fish buried in the backyard with soap, a head of cabbage left to rot and ferment, oysters (not the kind that live in the sea), eyes and other interesting bits and pieces, stuff you don't want to know about stuffed into a tube, ...?

Hobin

Quote by D H

Do you Dutch have any food that "puts hair on your chest?" Fish buried in the backyard with soap, a head of cabbage left to rot and ferment, oysters (not the kind that live in the sea), eyes and other interesting bits and pieces, stuff you don't want to know about stuffed into a tube, ...?

Well, you can drink a big bottle of jenever, or eat a big slice of liver sausage with your toast. And of course oil balls are delicious, too.

I can't think of anything too gross, though, but most likely I'm just used to the stuff I eat.

(Protip: don't combine these foods.)

D H

None of those are really gross. The closest I can see is bloedworst. But that's nothing compared to haggis. Or lutefisk (fish buried in the backyard, with soap (lye)), or kimchi (rotten, fermented cabbage), or rocky mountain oysters (which are harvested from male goats), or when your host at some banquet points the head of a whole fish at you, offering you (and expecting you to eat) the eyes.

Monique

How about raw herring eaten suspended from the tail, I always see the tourists cringe at the thought of eating it. I guess most also doesn't fancy a smoked eel or horse.

Then there are frikandellen (the folklore is that it's made of the side-products of meat industry): "what does a frikandel have what you don't: brains". My parents used to cook chicken livers for diner, which was delicious, I'm not sure how that's liked in other countries. Nothing too weird..

Indeed, bloedworst.. yuck.

Kimchee is not rotten but fermented, it's similar to zuurkool (or in german sauerkraut, of course with a different spice profile). Some French or Italian cheeses are really rotten..

Hobin

Quote by D H

None of those are really gross. The closest I can see is bloedworst. But that's nothing compared to haggis. Or lutefisk (fish buried in the backyard, with soap (lye)), or kimchi (rotten, fermented cabbage), or rocky mountain oysters (which are harvested from male goats), or when your host at some banquet points the head of a whole fish at you, offering you (and expecting you to eat) the eyes.

Wait, so those were real foods? Blergh.

turbo

Quote by Monique

My parents used to cook chicken livers for diner, which was delicious, I'm not sure how that's liked in other countries.

When my wife and I were just married, chasing jobs and living in cheap rents to save for (eventually) our own place, about the cheapest meat that we could get was chicken liver. The local slaughterhouse sold them in large plastic tubs. After Buffalo wings got popular, that place had great deals on chicken livers, gizzards, hearts, and even thighs. Fried chicken liver and onions with home-made macaroni and cheese was one of our favorite suppers.

Drakkith

Quote by turbo

When my wife and I were just married, chasing jobs and living in cheap rents to save for (eventually) our own place, about the cheapest meat that we could get was chicken liver. The local slaughterhouse sold them in large plastic tubs. After Buffalo wings got popular, that place had great deals on chicken livers, gizzards, hearts, and even thighs. Fried chicken liver and onions with home-made macaroni and cheese was one of our favorite suppers.

Omg I love liver...fried liver and gizzards was a favorite meal of mine growing up. I just can't stand to cook, so I rarely eat it nowadays.

anisotropic

Quote by D H

There's a simple explanation for why some people are attracted to foods that we now deem to be unhealthy. Such cravings for supposedly unhealthy foods were not always unhealthy. They were a local optimum that maximized the likelihood to bear children and have those children live long enough to have children of their own.

The ability to eat an optimal diet is very, very recent. An optimal diet is a luxury. We have not had enough time to evolve tastes that are aligned with this luxury. Our forbears instead had to live in a world where the diet was highly suboptimal, marked with occasional spates of severe shortages of food. The best way to live through those shortages was to put on weight before they hit. The best way to do that: carbs. We crave sugar because they helped our forbears survive. This was particularly so with hunter-gatherers living in marginal areas, and still is. Peoples from such backgrounds who are suddenly thrust into the modern world have significant problems with obesity.

This is what I immediately thought of upon reading the thread's title.

Arguably, humans' liking of foods rich in fats is a form of an anachronistic maladaptation. It served us well before, but can be detrimental in the modern day world.

Kholdstare

Quote by Drakkith

Omg I love liver...fried liver and gizzards was a favorite meal of mine growing up. I just can't stand to cook, so I rarely eat it nowadays.

I love chicken liver too. Tastes good in a funny way.

OmCheeto

Sorry to do a semi-necro post, but Moonbear just mentioned, on a not to be mentioned competitive website, that lobsters eat each other.

I thought about it for about 2.137 seconds, and responded:

Quote by NomNomNom-Om

It's now wonder they have exoskeletons. If humans tasted like lobster, there would be nuclear bomb type radial zone maps around my house. =8)

But really:

Why is lobster so tasty?

Evo

Lobster is pretty bland when you compare it to delicacies like Alaskan King crab.

Drakkith

I'm like lobster then. Bland and boring and I scream when you tickle me. Lobsters do that, right? OH GOD I'M HEALTHY FOOD...

Pythagorean

mmm, King Crab.

OmCheeto

Quote by Evo

Lobster is pretty bland when you compare it to delicacies like Alaskan King crab.

hmmm.... It's been at least 30 years since I've had King crab. Though only 3 since I've had Dungeness. And I can't remember the last time I had lobster.

---------------------------
ps. can someone please tell Greg that I want a grey haired scratching, senility now, bewildered looking smiley. I'm tired of being simply grumpy.....

Pythagorean

It's completely unfair, when I went out King Crab fishing, we weren't allowed to touch our crab. We sold them to the cannery for about $5/lb and had to buy them back for 10/lb. Our hulls were inspected before we could go catch them, too.

Salmon/hering/cod are way different, you can grab a salmon from your fish hold and eat it for dinner if you like and no inspections required. My assumption was always that crab is more prone to bacterial disease or something.

Bacle2

At any rate, I may be wrong, but non of the counters seemed convincing. I cannot say anything rigorously, since I have no data, but there seem to be way more places selling fatty , sugary foods, candy bars, than there are places selling salads--and those I've seen buying salads are mostly rich yuppies, not your average person. And I'm talking about NYC, which is as diverse as it gets. I have the impression that most of those who buy salads do it for health reasons, not for the taste of it. So I'm not claiming to be right, only that my impression has not been changed, and I'm sticking with it until I see evidence to the contrary. If you give me some hard data, I will look at it.

Moreover, something similar seems to be the case for exercising, which is good for one's health , yet so few do it.

I also believe that evolution is often overused as an explanation :http://compassofpleasure.org/

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D H Mentor	None of those are really gross. The closest I can see is bloedworst. But that's nothing compared to haggis. Or lutefisk (fish buried in the backyard, with soap (lye)), or kimchi (rotten, fermented cabbage), or rocky mountain oysters (which are harvested from male goats), or when your host at some banquet points the head of a whole fish at you, offering you (and expecting you to eat) the eyes.

Evo Mentor Blog Entries: 4	Lobster is pretty bland when you compare it to delicacies like Alaskan King crab.

Drakkith Recognitions: Gold Member	I'm like lobster then. Bland and boring and I scream when you tickle me. Lobsters do that, right? OH GOD I'M HEALTHY FOOD...