Food myth – you were born to love fat

I was reading an article by Dr. Dean Ornish (the author of the seminal book: Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery ). In it he writes about different food myths.

One myth which I believed is that we are genetically programmed to love fatty foods. Dr. Ornish writes that the preference for fat is culturally aquired since it is not one of the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter). This makes some sense. However, the tastes are not all that there is in how we subjectively taste.

The consistency of the food is a great important aspect of the food’s taste and so are the odor and the color of the food. Imagine a violet food. For most people it would not taste good but violet ice cream would.

Dr. Ornish continues to write that we eat fatty foods because they are available, not because there’s a physiological or metabolic mechanism which makes us desire fatty foods.

He mentions that if you follow low fat diet for longer than three months you end up preferring low fat foods. I know that no matter whether any food preference is genetic or culturally acquired you can control it. For example I used to have a little sugar with my coffee and later I weened myself off the sugar.

Since then (about forty years ago) if I inadvertently drink someone else’s coffee with even the slightest amount of sugar it tastes so bad I have to spit it out.

So Dr. Ornish recommends you switch from high fat to low fat versions of the same food. For example go from whole milk to skim milk and eat less meat and switch to leaner cuts of meat.

Other books by Dr. Dean Ornish:

• Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish: 150 Easy, Low-Fat, High-Flavor Recipes
• Eat More, Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish’s Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly

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