You weren't born with a taste for any particular food, not even your mother's milk.
However, you did develop hunger pangs shortly after birth.
Instinctively you groped for mother's breast, or a substitute bottle.
You learned to like milk from the day you were born.
Then, if you were weaned in modern scientific fashion, you gradually built up a taste for orange juice, strained beef, and vegetables, as well as bland cereals.
Every one of these tastes was acquired.
If mothers would start feeding their one-year-olds skim milk or half-and-half, the toddlers would soon cultivate a taste for it and prefer it to the rich taste of whole milk.
The important thing is that you'll never lose the faculty for acquiring new tastes as long as you live.
The trouble is that most of you never consciously set out to develop a taste for a new food, or a familiar food prepared in a different way, yet undoubtedly you did it often without thinking.
You cultivated a taste when you learned to smoke.
Rare is the individual who took his first puff of tobacco and liked it right off.
Most of you became dizzy, or tummy-sick at your first try, but, you attempted it again and again until you learned to like it.
The same story is true for beer and whiskey.
If you'll look into your past, you'll probably find that you had to deliberately cultivate a taste for many foods- olives, for example, or the pungent cheeses.
Men and women have learned to cultivate a taste for the strangest foods; ranging from snails to broiled locusts.
The gamut of foods that the peoples of the world can eat and enjoy is almost limitless in its extremes.
So don't say that you can't learn to enjoy a new way of eating.
You can-and you will! The same principle applies to cultivating a taste for a well liked food prepared in a different way.
Many of you who acquired a taste for coffee prepared with sugar and cream will vow that you couldn't possibly drink it black.
Don't be so sure.
Thousands of dieters, who once felt as you do, have learned to prefer black coffee.
Don't decide after the first time, that you don't like eggs fried in vegetable oil instead of butter.
Try them often, then make your decision.
Many of us have prejudices about certain foods, usually based on emotions.
You don't like tripe because it's made from a cow's stomach.
Yet, you adore pepper pot soup, which has tripe as its base.
Does this make sense? You will often find that a food you swear you can't stand is a food you've never tasted.
The mere mention of kidneys causes some people to shudder, but often the individual who has tried broiled lamb kidneys, tastefully seasoned, will swear that they are a delicacy indeed.
You have to be venturesome to learn to like a new way of eating.
There are no figures we know of, to indicate how long it may take an individual to acquire a taste for an untried or neglected food.
Yet, we have seen people, who swore they couldn't stand the stuff, cultivate a taste for Roquefort cheese after a third or fourth helping.
We watched one obdurate young woman become a devotee of snails after trying them only twice.
We're not trying to argue that you can force yourself to eat a food you have a revulsion to.
But we are trying to convince you that you might have a lot to gain by sampling, once or twice, some food you haven't eaten.
At least take the trouble to try different recipes for the same food.
You may find one that you like.
The more different and healthful foods you learn to like, the more enjoyable your life.