Wyz_sub10

Man, I am so hungry right now.

I must confess, my diet includes these items probably more often than it should (but not as often as it used to). Still, I cannot in good conscience claim that warm pickles are helping me meet my fruit and veggie requirements.

My father used to rationalize that he was getting all the water he needed through his 14 cups of coffee per day. Most people don't know, or care to know, what they should eat vis-a-vis what they do eat.

Godot

heh.
That reminds me of a funny little story about McDonalds. Apparently, the only reason that they have pickles on their burgers is to avoid being classified as confectionary. Gotta love those pickles!

MattofVA

The more nutritious vegetables(broccoli, other green stuff) taste like pure 100% natural ASS. That's why people don't eat them-who actually stuffs 3-5 fist sized servings of them down their throat without vomiting. The fact that the taste buds of most of us don't respond well to such things is one of the most potent arguments against intelligent design theory I can think of.

EspressoSnail

Where are you buying your vegetables?!?! Sheesh... hmm are you only eating the canned stuff? try some frozen or fresh. Or maybe you're not cooking them right...
I love a good deal of veggies and fruits. I actually like more veggies than fruits, gee am I a freak for that or what... don't most people like the sweet fruits more... lol
I would hate it if all I had to eat for the day was in a pill or something. I love eating. Give me meat and veggies and bread and lots of other stuff!

Wyz_sub10

I agree with MattofVA on this.

But he's an interesting bit - I heard of a study (sorry, cannot cite) that suggested men are more sensitive to bitter tastes than women, and that up to 25% of men have a further heightened sensitivity to bitterness.

It was suggested that this is why such a large number of boys dislike vegetables like broccoli.

I don't know why gilrs are assumed to have less problem.

Has anybody heard of this study? Am I screwing up the numbers?

In any case, my problem with the veggies I dislikes has much to do with bitterness of bad aftertaste (like turnips and lima beans - love asparagus, though).

Undercurrent

The number of elete athletes is far exceeded by the number of fat-asses who could use their stomachs being full of not-very-caloric stuff once and a while. Nutritional guidelines are aimed towards the majority.

One of the things that I've heard repeated subtly in verious contexts is that nutritional and health guidlines aren't taken from studies aimed at finding out exactly what a human body needs, but from more socialogical studies indicating how people eat wrong. "Fat is bad for you" really means "we've found that people eat too much fat". "Veggies are good for you" means "people in general eat too few veggies."

Answerer

I think that the topic should change to "Why eat vegetables only?".

Godot

I don't know of the study you are referring to, but the whole bitterness bit is actually a good thing. Bitter foods stimulate the gag reflex to prevent you from consuming them or to "assist" you in getting them out of your mouth. Of course, this reflex is susceptible to conscious override such as with beer (mmmm....beer ).
It all boils back to the idea that many of the substances that exhibit as bitter are detrimental to the human organism, hence consuming them would not be a good thing.

Godot

But then we'd be discussing the relative merits of vegetarianism and/or veganism and all shades in between. And that discussion sure as hell wouldn't limit itself to the nutritional merits but would stem into the ethical implications that some attach to such a lifestyle decision.
I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I want to stir up that particular hornets nest.

The Lone Ranger

Lots of plants deposit alkaloids into their tissues. These chemicals' effects on animals range from intoxicating to deadly poisonous. In humans (and probably most vertebrates), alkaloid chemicals strongly stimulate the "bitter" class of taste buds, and so taste bitter.

From the plant's perspective, the alkaloids are clearly protective. If a deer munches on a plant, gets intoxicated, and wanders into the paws of a cougar, the deer won't come back to bother the plant again. If a caterpillar munches on a leaf and promptly drops dead of alkaloid poisoning, it won't bother the plant any more.

Tannins are particularly insidious, because they bind to digestive enzymes, reducing the herbivore's digestive efficiency. The more tannin it ingests, the harder it becomes for it to digest its food. Insects that dine on plant tissues that are high in tannins can literally reach a point where they can't eat fast enough to keep themselves alive. (Tannins also taste bitter.)

If a plant tastes bitter, there's a good chance that it's poisonous. Accordingly, it's hardly surprising that few people like things that have a distinctly bitter taste.

On a related note, acids generally taste sour. Unripe fruits often have fairly high concentrations of acids and/or alkaloids, which have the effect of discouraging animals from eating them until the seeds inside are ripe. In many fruits, these acids/alkaloids are broken down when the fruit ripens.

As foods are digested by bacterial action (that is, as they rot), acids are often released. In addition to the acids, many bacteria produce toxic compounds as they digest their food. It's often thought that this is a defense mechanism by the bacteria, to prevent animals from eating the food they're feeding on (and in the process, the bacteria themselves).

So, again, most people dislike foods with a distinctly sour taste, and this is a good thing, since sour foods are often poisonous.

Cheers,

Michael