I think that it’s pretty normal for kids not to like certain foods, but perhaps it is because American parents are allowing the kids to be picky eaters. I think it takes everyone a certain number of times to eat a food they hate before they recognize it as palatable.

My mom was almost too militant about making me eat everything, and the number of parents I’ve met who say “Tommy won’t eat this and this” really strikes me as odd. Sometimes I get the impression US kids are being placated with food, and that it is taught to be a reward and a recreation, rather than fuel for them to grow with.

But I should point out that Jones diet black cherry contains sodium benzoate, as do virtually all mainstream soda brands. Hansen’s is one of the few that don’t. If you believe the recent claim that this chemical could result in DNA damage, that might be an issue.

It may be that you’d have to drink 80 gallons of soda a day to cause any real harm, but I figure why take the chance?

I think you’re right about slowly learning a flavor-calorie association with your juice — in fact that might be a good way to study that learning.

yeah, we probably like the flavor of butter partly because it is paired with calories. There is also an unlearned preference for the texture of fat; and fat also intensifies other flavors because it dissolves fat-soluble flavor molecules, making them more mobile and detectable.

We’re familiar with the generalization that French kids have a more varied palate than, say, American kids: “French kids like to eat vegetables. American kids hate to eat vegetables.” Could this be explained by flavor-calorie association?

If a vegetable is characteristically cooked with a significant amount of butter (I am generalizing about French cooking that no French cook would serve a plain steamed or blanched vegetable like I do), then the particular taste of that vegetable should quickly become pleasing due to the calorie association. (Curiously, the flavor of butter itself is pleasing WITH foods, though nobody eats it by the spoonful. Maybe butter flavor just signals ‘this is calorie-laden food’.)

After gaining a certain amount of experience eating super-high-calorie broccoli, won’t the specific flavor of plain broccoli become pleasing in a way that no amount of plain-broccoli-eating would ever produce on its own?

This question affects me personally: I’ve been trying to take daily doses of flaxseed oil for the omega-3 benefit. From the start, I have found the taste of pure flaxseed oil to be nauseatingly vile. Theoretically, though, if I persist, the caloric punch of the oil will eventually force me to like its taste. As an intermediary step, I have taken to drinking it mixed with a very flavorful liquid like lemonade or blueberry juice, sometimes holding my nose, sometimes not. Recently I have actually noticed the thought, “This juice has a pleasant, warm, nutty taste to it.” I think this is the first stirring of liking a flavor that was initially revolting.

Another question: Can flavor-calorie association explain why salt makes food more toothsome?

Actually, I went crazy about it on my first can. (I’ve
gotten a bit less enthusiastic as the newness has worn off.)
I remember a similar flavor button being pushed by raspberry
(or maybe strawberry) gum of a particular brand when I was a
teenager, but again that happened on my first taste.

I am, by the way, a successful SLD user. (Thanks for it!)
An idea I’ve played with but never gotten around to trying
is drinking ELOO with a food that I don’t like so that I can
develop a taste for that food.