Imperfect Omnivore

It's not easy to dislike bananas as much as I do, but I manage all the same. I'll admit to their charm; individually packaged, nutrient-rich, allegedly delicious crescents of fruit sure sound like something I'd want to eat. I'm a foodie and a bicyclist, for God's sake -- I should love bananas twice over.

There's only one problem: I cannot abide to eat bananas. The very prospect of eating a banana makes me a little uncomfortable.

I make no secret of idolizing Jeffrey Steingarten, who has come up with the following theory:

Humans, Steingarten says, are omnivores. What's more, if you survey human eating habits you discover no one "human diet." Unlike a horse (all grass, all the time) or a wolf (all horse, all the time), a human could eat the grass, the horse, or just about anything else he can get into his mouth and still wind up with healthy eating patterns. Thus, Steingarten concludes, there must be no possible reason at all, barring serious food allergy, why one shouldn't like just about every food that comes down the pike. If you don't like it, you've probably had a bad experience -- either the food was badly prepared or it made you sick for non-allergy-related reasons. (Nausea is the fastest way to hate a food, even if you were simply eating it while something else made you feel nauseated.)

And so, Steingarten concludes, we as the Perfect Omnivores should be able to teach ourselves to like any food, ever, simply by exposing ourselves to it enough times (Steingarten suggests 10 as a good number for this).

Thus I propose an experiment: I will force myself to eat bananas 10 times. The rules are as follows:

1. I can't wait too long between trials. I'll set a maximum of three days.
2. I am allowed to start with banana derivatives (-bread, -pudding, -foster), though must consume no fewer than six whole bananas over the course of the trials.
3. I'll let the Internet know how each trial goes. Help me out with this one, guys.

And with that, I'm off to buy some 'nanas.
 

Comments

[c-man]

Let it be known that I totally abide by this theory, and that I have cured myself of gagging at asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes through painful exposure; the latter two I even enjoy, now. Olives I still cannot stand. But I am young, yet.

[c-man]

ps, re: Steingarten, there are good scientific reasons why people taste things very differently than one another: perhaps with more variation than our other senses. Perhaps not, that's hard to compare. But anyway there are clear genetic differences that predispose being able to taste certain things other people cannot: brussel sprouts are a good example.Some hate them, some don't: the explanation is genetic and relates to an especially bitter but-not-always-tasteable ingredient.