Have you ever gotten over an aversion to a food? How?

I now eat, without much pleasure, both mushrooms and avocados.

Alright! One more food question today and I’m gonna go get take-away…

Brussels sprouts.
I still eat them (apparently they are healthy).
But when I was a boy they made me gag, especially when they were cold due to not eating them fast enough.

@rebbel Me too.

I still hate bacon and I am not even a terrorist.

Oh yes, most foods, in fact. When I was young, I was an extremely picky eater, mac and cheese, peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and plain hotdogs were my staples, but when I got into my early 20’s I made a conscious decision to change that fact.

So I just kept trying things over and over again. I’ve read some studies that say that sometimes you have to try a food 5 to 12 times before you develop a taste for it. For me, it only took 1 or 2 tries (with my adult tastebuds) to start liking things like mayonnaise, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, coffee, and anything spicy.

A few years later, I became a vegetarian, so therefore my diet was going to be limited in an obvious way, but lo and behold, I actually eat more items, many more in fact, than I did when I was still eating meat. Part of it had to do with the fact that I had simply not tried things such as tofu or tempeh or seitan, or a whole range of vegetables.

It also helps to try certain items that you don’t care for, made in different ways. For instance, I’m still not particularly fond of eggplant, but I found out that I love them in an Indian dish called Bharta and I found some Middle Eastern pickled eggplants with walnuts inside that are wonderful. I think it’s called Makdous.

Anyway, you have to be willing to try things multiple times and not give up after one or two tries. Then you have to find alternate preparations: boiled, braised, baked, fried, poached, dried, pickled, roasted, stir-fried, put in a stew, curry or a soup, made into sandwich or a turnover or a pie, put onto a pizza, incorporated into a salad, or eaten completely raw.

It helps if you learn how to cook, or live with someone who is a good cook. Trying new exotic restaurants is useful too. Sometimes the cuisine of other cultures is tastier than your own familar food.

For me, eating and cooking is an adventure : )

I once ate some chocolate-covered cherries, and then got car sick. For years afterward, even the smell of chocolate covered cherries made me sick.

I used to hate Sriracha hot sauce until a drunk 7th grade English teacher told me to close my eyes and open my mouth at a party. I obliged and she squirted a huge amount of Sriracha into my mouth. I’ve loved it ever since and I eat it on everything.

are you sure that was – never mind

My mom absentmindedly presented me with a very, very soft-boiled egg when I was 12. Like, super runny. I vividly remember the sensory overload of sitting in front of it, smelling it, looking at it, trying to taste it. Ugh. It took me a while to eat eggs again.

I didn’t like celery, but then I went to college and naturally a freshman dorm activity was ordering chicken wings, which came with ranch dressing and celery. I grew to like celery drenched in bbq sauce and ranch, then eventually grew to like it on its own!

Yes, I did get over an aversion to a certain food by just eating it and then throwing up!

I had a bad experience once with a bagel, cream cheese, tomato, sprouts, and a boatload of other crap. Somehow my brain decided the sprouts caused my gastro-intestinal distress and it took me a while to re-introduce them into my diet (try 20 years), but eventually I tried them solo to rule out any allergy and found that I enjoyed them!

Yeah beetroot, I used to loathe the stuff. I got over this by swallowing then moved onto tiny nibbles & eventually chewed down only to find that I enjoyed it immensely…........hang on, that sounds pretty familiar.

Raw tomatoes. I spent years trying to cultivate an appreciation for them. Biting into a big chunk of raw tomato still creeps me out. But I have learned to appreciate it mixed in with other things (e.g., on a sandwich, in salsa) and genuinely enjoy cherry tomatoes on their own.

I think it was really just a matter of exposure. I ate them for a long time without enjoying them. There is also 1 guy at my farmer’s market who sells these tomatoes that are definitely the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. I am really reluctant to ever buy from anywhere else.

I didn’t care for gin or scotch, but I kept trying and learned to enjoy both. (not mixed together) Now, for medical reasons, I can’t drink more than 2 tablespoons without having a reaction. Occasionally, I get out the tablespoon, but mostly I don’t bother.

I had a bad episode with Hennessey VSOP. Now I can’t drink cognac and even the smell makes me dry heave a little bit. So… I’m definitely not over it yet.

No. The foods I did not like as a child I still do not like. I’m very consistent on this.

When I was young, I ate a massive amount of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream in one day and, to no surprise, got pretty sick. From that point on for a long time, I wouldn’t go near the stuff. I didn’t eat it for about 10 years. Then one day, I decided to try a spoonful and I was OK. I gradually increased the amount I ate each time until I realized I wasn’t going to harf it all back up! Now I can have a regular bowl of it, but no more than that.

@Ponderer983 I do love that myself.

Like @Kardamom, I was an extremely picky eater as a child. I think I lived a whole year on nothing but cereal, hot dogs (with no mustard or ketchup), and applesauce. As an adult, I expanded my food horizons a lot, just by being willing to try things again. I’m in my mid forties, and only recently had brussels sprouts that I enjoyed (the secret is to brown those puppies!), and just this year started to like raw tomato (on a hamburger). One that I don’t think I’ll ever get over is peach schnapps. Had a very bad experience playing a drinking game with fuzzy navels instead of the usual beer. Blech!