'Yucky' foods worth a second taste

 By Julie Deardorff | Chicago Tribune

Dec 27, 2000

Sardines are packed with nutrition and can be very tasty,
depending on how they are served. (Bill Hogan/Chicago
Tribune/MCT)

As a child, Kristine Hinrichs of Milwaukee routinely

choked down boiled cabbage so she would be allowed to
leave the dinner table. It wasn't until Hinrichs grew up and
left home that she made a startling discovery: Cabbage was
nutritious - and could also be delicious.
It's not easy giving certain foods a second chance. But if
you're looking to add some nutritional powerhouses to
your diet, as Hinrichs was, food experts say it might be
worth revisiting dishes you've despised. ``Our taste
sensations, interpretation and appreciation can change
over time,'' said Dr. Donald Hensrud, a Mayo Clinic weight
management specialist. ``There's also some conditioning
that goes on; we learn to like certain foods, and we get
used to them over time.''
Take milk. Years ago, we typically drank it whole and
complained that skim milk tasted like water. But skim
grew on us. ``Now when you go back to whole milk, it
tastes like cream,'' Hensrud said.
You may also have an aversion to foods that weren't
prepared right or, like cabbage, have a sulfurous odor. But
it's possible that ``if you don't get that smell, you find
something like broccoli more pleasant,'' said Marci Pelchat
of the Monell Center, a Philadelphia-based taste and smell
research institute.
Hensrud doesn't recommend forcing anything down. But
he does think most of us underestimate our ability to
change. Unless you're a supertaster - someone born with a
heightened sense of taste - consider experimenting with
the following polarizing foods.
Sardines:
Turnoffs: Strong, fishy taste. Tiny bones. Can be packed in
tomato sauce. Reputation as a frugality food.
Turn-ons: High in vitamin D and loaded with omega-3
fatty acids, which protect your heart and brain. Lots of
protein, calcium and selenium. Low on the marine food
chain so toxins such as mercury don't accumulate.
Inexpensive. Portable when canned.
How to eat them: Avoid sardines packed in vegetable oil,
which is high in pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.
Try ``a squeeze of lemon, toasted red chile, extra virgin
olive oil and mixed green herbs over garlicky al dente
whole wheat fettuccine,'' LaPuma said. Or buy the kind
dressed up with mustard or pesto.
Cabbage:
Turnoffs: When overcooked, produces the smell of rotten
eggs. Too much cabbage may make you gassy.
Turn-ons: One cup of shredded, boiled cabbage has just 33
calories but has 4 filling grams of fiber. Loaded with
phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. May reduce your
risk of cancer and has a protective effect on the brain.
Fermented cabbage (sauerkraut and kimchi) is a non-dairy
source of probiotics, or bacteria that have a health benefit.
The lactic acid in sauerkraut may help you absorb iron.
How to eat it: Can be steamed, fried, boiled, braised or
baked. Use it in corned beef and cabbage, soups and stews,
and cold dishes such as coleslaw, said registered dietitian
Dave Grotto, a spokesman for the American Dietetic
Association. Cut fresh cabbage and sprinkle with lemon.
Tomatoes:
Turnoffs: Contain a slimy, jellylike substance around the
seeds; thin skin, grainy pulp and seeds. Sweetness and
acidity can vary, depending on the variety and how early
they were picked. (The longer a tomato matures on the
vine, the higher the sugar content is.)
Turn-ons: Lycopene-rich (red) tomatoes can help reduce
your risk for heart disease and certain cancers, including
pancreatic and prostate, said LaPuma. Cooked tomatoes -
including canned tomatoes and paste, juice, tomato soup
and ketchup - contain up to eight times more available
lycopene than raw tomatoes. Excellent source of vitamins
A, C and K, and a good source of potassium, fiber and
other phytonutrients.
How to eat them: Eating tomatoes with fat helps the body
absorb their lycopene. The whole tomato has the greatest
health benefits, so get the tomato paste products with
peels, said LaPuma. Organic ketchup contains three times
more lycopene than non-organic ketchup, said LaPuma.
Use ketchup with burgers to help offset the carcinogenic
compounds created when meat is charred.
Broccoli:
Turnoffs: Sulfureous smell. Famously disliked by
President George H.W. Bush.
Turn-ons: An abundance of antioxidants makes broccoli
one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. Aside from its
anti-cancer properties such as sulforaphane, broccoli is a
nutritional powerhouse that contains vitamins A, C and K,
as well as folate and fiber. Has antibacterial properties that
kill Helicobacter pylori, bacteria that cause ulcers and play
a role in stomach cancer.
How to eat it: Use it in dips, casseroles, soups, lasagna, stir
fry and salads, suggested chef Dana Jacobi, author of 10
best-selling cookbooks. Or try it on a crudite platter, on
pizza, tossed with pasta, pureed as a side dish, added to
frittatas and quiche. ``Chop up leftover cooked broccoli
and add it to chili, sloppy joes, soups and other dishes
when you reheat them,'' she wrote in ``The 12 Best
Foods.''
Beets:
Turnoffs: Earthy flavor, slippery texture, can turn urine a
startling pink color (a phenomenon called beeturia).
Dissed by President Barack Obama and excluded from the
White House garden.
Turn-ons: An excellent liver tonic and blood purifier. Beets
have both betaine and folate, which work to reduce
homocystein, a naturally occurring amino acid that can be
harmful to blood vessels, said nutrition expert Jonny
Bowden in his book ``The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.''
High in potassium, which is also important for heart
health. Contains the most sugar of any vegetable, yet is low
in calories.
How to eat them: Baked, broiled, steamed or shredded raw
and added to salads. Borscht is a traditional Russian beet
soup. The leaves have even more nutritional value than the
roots.
Brussels sprouts:
Turnoffs: Resemble tiny cabbages. Parents or
grandparents cooked them into oblivion. Sulfur content
gives them an unappetizing odor.
Turn-ons: Has a higher concentration of glucosinolates, a
type of compound believed to have cancer-fighting
properties, than any other plants in the cruciferous
vegetable family. An excellent source of vitamins C and K
and a very good source of folate, vitamin A, fiber,
potassium, and vitamin B6 and B1, said Dr. John LaPuma,
a chef and the medical director for the Santa Barbara
Institute for Medical Nutrition and Healthy Weight.
How to eat them: Trim the sprouts, then toss with olive oil,
salt and crushed garlic. Roast in a 400 degree oven for
about 30 minutes until tender. Use as little water as
possible when boiling.
Licorice:
Turnoffs: Strong, tart taste and smell.
Turn-ons: Licorice root - the herb, not the candy - is
known for having a soothing effect on mucous membranes
in the throat, lungs and bronchial tubes. It can also be
used to treat everything from athlete's foot to ulcers,
according to James Duke, the former chief of the
Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
How to eat it: Buy it as an herb and add it as a sweetener
to aromatic teas, suggested Duke, the author of ``The
Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods.'' But long-term
use has side effects; don't use it regularly for longer than
six weeks, and don't take it if you're pregnant or under
medical care.