Food Poll: Taste vs. Nutritional Value

[rucky]

What's your criteria for what you put in your piehole?

[get the red out]

1. What is the definition of taste?

Does it mean only the manufactured, ultra-salty, fast food grease taste that we are told is the only thing "real Americans" like? Or can "taste" mean natural flavors found in real food? Usually when people say taste they infer that the manufactured flavorings are the only good tastes that exist.

[rucky]

2. what tastes good to you.

[CTD]

3. Exactly.

If you eat healthy food often enough, the fake crap starts to take like, well, crap.

Naturally, your body is inclined to find natural, nutritious food as more pleasant and satisfying. The food industry, with copious amounts of fat, salt and sugar (or HFCS), has managed to trick many people's brains into associating that burst of fake flavor with "tasting good". When you eat healthy food regularly, a McDonald's hamburger does not taste good, it tastes really f-ing disgusting. Same goes for a Coca Cola.

It's amazing how quickly that crap fake food and sugary sodas lose their appeal when you don't consume them.

So my answer to this question is BOTH. They are far from mutually exclusive.

[LynzM]

8. Absolutely.

I cannot eat "fast food" or drink soda anymore... it all smells and tastes absolutely disgusting.

[get the red out]

14. Absolutely correct

And I have had people tell me that I have conditioned myself to believe that I don't want the fast food because I am very health conscious. It really all tastes alike to me now. I can even taste a weird over-tone in a lot of restaurant food that is exactly the same and must be some kind of additive.

I really love the taste of real seasonings and good basic food.

[CTD]

15. My wife calls that note the "tasty taste"

Obviously, it's not a compliment.

If we detect the "tasty taste" at an actual sit down restaurant, especially one charging real food prices, we will never go back.

Almost every chain restaurant has the "tasty taste".

The term "tasty taste" came from a Washington Post Magazine we read some years ago talking about nutrition in poor, inner city neighborhoods. I'll try to dig up a link.

EDIT- Found the story- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47735-2004Jul13.html

[get the red out]

17. Wow, "tasty taste"

Good term for it. And the poor man in the article is right, it is addictive. I see people that seem to have just about as much choice over their food as a drug addict has over his next fix.

[redqueen]

21. Damn, that's a great article.

Thanks very much for the link.

[rucky]

26. That's funny. I know exactly what that "tasty taste" is...

without being able to describe it very well. You just know it when you taste it.

[Sinti]

20. +1 chemical food tastes like poison. Natural food tastes like food

I wonder sometimes if some artificial colors and flavors aren't actually made of toxic waste, and they're getting people to eat it - laughing all the while.

edited for typo

[The River]

4. Most Foods Today

have no nutrient density. They can "fill" your stomach but
have practically no nutritional value.

[cali]

13. you should amend that to most of the foods Americans regularly consume

have little nutritional value. But it's easy enough to walk into any grocery store in this country and purchase nutritional food. I live in a rural area where the nearest large supermarket is over 20 miles away. I make a once a month trip and it blows my mind what's available. Organic veggies, condiments and cheeses from all over. I eat well and cheaply. It's just not that hard.

[frazzled]

5. Taste and nutrition are not mutually exclusive

I think a beautifully prepared bunch of Swiss chard or spinach is as tasty as it gets. And if you put a plate of vegetables and a plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of me, I'd definitely pick the former.

Now, an 8-year-old may not have come to that conclusion yet.

[rucky]

6. Understood. That's what the middle of the scale is for.

You look for foods with the best balance of taste and nutrition.

[frazzled]

7. No ... the middle of your scale suggests

that one might eat half "tasty" food, balanced by half "nutritional" food. It still presupposes a dichotomy.

Maybe you need a category: there is no difference between the two

[rucky]

9. From what you're saying,

you consider both taste and nutrition. I don't see the problem here.

[CTD]

11. Which suggests that nutrition and taste are mutually exclusive.

I'll take a carrot over a donut any day of the week. The carrot tastes better too.

[rucky]

16. Nope.

Not at all. Taste is left up to your own personal -er- taste. If what you like happens to be nutritious, then what's your motivation for eating it: flavor, nutrition, or a balance of the two?

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Where's "price"? n/t

[Vilis Veritas]

12. Once you have rid your body of the crap...

in processed food, i.e. the artificial and manufactured ingredients, REAL food tastes great and processed food tastes like crap.

Remember, if a food labels lists 'Natural Flavoring' as an ingredient, there is NOTHING natural about its flavor...

[Jennicut]

18. Well, I am on a special diabetic diet to begin with...but I sometimes slip up.

Sometimes, you just don't feel like counting calories or carbs that day. But slipping up for me is more then gaining weight. It means my blood sugar can go too high and over the long term, that can affect your major organs.
Tonight I am going out to the Outback for dinner for my anniversary. I am calculating menu options at this moment. Trying to stick with grilled items and veggies. No cheese fries for me! But my husband loves them.

[CTD]

19. Again, I can't fathom how "Outback" would be a treat.

At chain restaurants like Outback, even something that sounds healthy, like grilled chicken, is injected with salt and HFCS to give it "more flavor" (ick!).

Assuming I was willing to spend what a meal at Outback would cost, I'd much rather hit some non-chain restaurant and have food that actually tastes good and isn't loaded with salt and sugar.

But make sure to look out for mom and pops that use large foodservice distributors for their food. The big foodservice companies sell pre-made food that only needs to be heated (including grilled chicken breasts compelte with fake grill marks) and these foods are just as loaded with salt and sugars.

I find that one-off ethnic restaurants are a good bet for finding real food at reasonable prices.

But you couldn't pay me to eat a meal at Outback.

[Jennicut]

22. Well, this was my husband's choice.

He likes meat. Lots of steak...and cheese fries. I can barely stand chicken and maybe shrimp. I would eat pasta all day long if I was not a diabetic and did not have to worry about the carbs. I am convinced that one of the worst things in life is being a carb-lover and a diabetic! It took me a long time to get over my protein aversion but I had to do it. I hardly ever eat out because no matter where I go, it is all bad for me. The lowest calorie stuff on the menu at the Outback was the grilled chicken with veggies. That is about all I can have with the carbs too. I will have a small salad with it.
One major thing I learned about most restaurants is never have the huge salads. They are usually 1000 calories or more.

[rucky]

23. I know Outback's a DU no-no...

but their salads and veggies are the shiz-nit! Steak's okay, too, I guess. If I were on a restrictive diet, that would be one of my splurges.

Happy Anniversary!

[DainBramaged]

25. Everything is a DU no no except Walmart, Home Depot, and foreign cars

It's ok to not be progressive and shop there and also own foreign iron, remember that. :crazy:

[DainBramaged]

24. You left out not if it's from Olive Garden, moon rocks, and donated soda

:evilgrin:

[Tumbulu]

27. How it was grown and harvested

I primarily buy food that comes from farmers that I know who take excellent care of their land and animals. Or from my own farm. I buy a few items that are certified organic from reputable certifiers (US, Europe and Japan).

The most important thing is how it is grown and or treated. I get really quite sick when I eat conventional food (which happens if I go to someone's house for a meal or a big potluck, etc).

Food like this is never cheap as it is really hard and expensive to farm properly and humanely. It is not the most efficient way to produce empty calories, which is what modern agriculture and food science is about. It is an entire system of life that we become a part of, not an accountant of. The cheaper the food is to produce, the less the nutrition. It is that simple. Forget about pretending that it will ever be cheap to produce food with high nutrition.