Have your taste buds changed since you started improving your diet?

I don't "diet" per se, I just make changes in my diet to improve my health. The past few months I've simply tried to eat healthier, which includes cutting out junk. I have a huge sweet tooth, and yesterday I went to eat some semi-sweet chocolate morsels and was surprised to find that they tasted disgusting. I used to love them! Now they taste so sweet and plastic-like. It really took me by surprise, because I haven't been consciously trying to reduce the amount of sweets in my diet. But now that I think about it, I've shyed away from sweets. When I need chocolate, I go for the dove dark chocolate. When I need something sweet in my coffee, I use honey. When I want my oatmeal to be sweeter, I put raisins in it.

I dunno, I just think it's interesting how easy it is to change your taste buds!! You can learn to dislike certain foods and also how to like certain foods. Pretty neat! Anyone else have experience with changing taste buds?

For me, the change is that I've started to think about whether empty calories are really worth it. In doing this, I've expanded my tastes and now find things I would have had to force myself to eat before, treats. I'm looking less for a quick 'plastic' sugar hit, more for something I will savour and for which I will feel no guilt afterwards.

I definitely agree with the changing taste buds!  For me, I never really liked fruit...I think it was mostly the texture that got to me.  But now, I can't stay away from it!  Fruit tastes SO much sweeter to me than sweets and is so much more fulfilling.  I would now rather have a bowl of fruit salad than ice cream and that's saying A LOT. 

Also, when I first started eating whole grain I really hated it...but not white carbs taste weird and I love whole grain, especially whole grain pasta...it's just way more flavorful!

You, know, it's really weird but so true. I started the lifestyle change in January and have lost 54lbs. I have suprized myself with healthy choices even when I've had 'off' weeks. Just last night, I was having a super sweet tooth for Chocolate---specifically Symphony with toffee and almond chips. I went to the grocery....got healthy fruit, a can of almonds, and the chocolate. I thought, man when I get home I am going to totally tear up this chocolate! I deserve it.....been working so hard....etc. So, while driving home, I thought, I'm hungry so I'll have some of the almonds. I ate 24 as the serving states. When I got home my daughter wanted me to cut up strawberries....they smelled so good. I had 2. My other daughter wanted peaches so I cut up 2 for us all to share. Ended up eating the peaches with her and after I was so full. I had no room for the chocolate. SERIOUSLY! Geez. It's really funny to me how the fruit and nuts were good and totally got me off my impending chocolate binge!

Im on the other side of the fence, my taste buds NEVER change.  Its very unfortunate and makes it very very hard to stay on track, especially since I'm an emotional eater also. 

I can diet for months on end with no breaks but my tastes never change and I don't get the sick feeling when I eat badly either.

Im jealous of yall :(

it takes time to change your taste buds. It happens when you find healthy foods that you truly enjoy and eat regularly. If you work on this, in time you will find the same thing happening.

Perhaps you are not eating foods you really enjoy and only eating things that sound "dietetic". Even that word turns me off food as it makes it sound more like a pill to be swallowed instead of something to be savored.

Emotional eaters usually eat traditionally emotion feeding foods. That likely means you have not yet introduced enough healthy things you seriously enjoy into your way of eating.

If you give finding new favorites a good go, in time your taste buds will change too and you will astonish yourself when an old fatty/sugary fave only tastes so-so or not at all good!

Both sweet and salty, for me, are no longer the attractions they once were.  My wife made a pasta-in-a-box thing the other day (one that we've had prior to my "diet" days) and some regular ham, and they did not taste good at all.  Not that I told her that! :)  But I will suggest getting the low sodium ham next time.  I can't think of the last time I used a salt shaker, either.

For sweet, same thing.  I either eat fruit, where I prefer the more tart fruits, rather than sweet, or dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate ice cream or frozen yogurt is about as sweet as I go.  And I don't have any cravings for anything more.

Clint

I did south beach a few years back, and after a few weeks I took a bit of a doughnut and did not like it.  I had gotten so used to eating dense foods (meat, cheese, veggies, and whole grains) that even a piece of white bread tasted like cake to me, way too sweet and fluffy.

ooh yes. my taste buds have changed since i've been eatting healthier.

im not a big sweets kinda gal, but i AM a big taco bell / anything greesy kind of gal. and i went to taco bell the other night to treat myself for doing so well, and i came to the sad relization that it didnt taste the same, and not only that, but once i finished it, i felt nasty.... i guess since my body wasn't use to the greese and fat, it just made me feel gross....

definatly wont b doing that again any time soon haha

At the end of a hot, stressful day last week I found myself in the "gourmet" grocery store desperately trying to put together a dinner plan that would be quick and easy.  I was famished (it was 6:30), and put together a salad bar salad, no dressing, grabbed some chicken sausages to grill, and started to head home to eat with my husband.  But I knew I needed to eat something before I got home since I was feeling light headed.  Now, this is one of those groceries with self serve fried food, and in the old days (7 months ago) I would have grabbed some instant gratification that I could scarf down in the car.  But it didn't even sound good, I ended up with a pluot.  I started eating it before I even got to the car, and it tasted so fabulous, and got me through until dinner was on the table an hour later.  That was when I realized I have actually made some good habits.  You can teach an old dog new tricks!

Absolutely!!  I still crave sweets, but now I can't wait to dive into that cantaloupe....you can keep the snickers bar.

Oh my yes! I have noticed a change.  I never really salted or buttered my own food much, but now I've started eating processed packaged food and big meals at fast food joints.  Now when I eat a McDonald's meal (just a hamburger or cheese burger or honey mustard snack wrap) I REALLY taste the salt.  I've also come to enjoy potatoes in their skins and rice made without butter and salt.  Recently I had a KFC bowl and the salt content choked me...I only ate half where 2 years previously I had eaten it all.

I used to drink fruit juice (the 100% fruit kind) but stopped, replacing most of my fluid intake with water.  I had a Juicy Juice apple juice box...took one sip and the acid burned my mouth.  I also don't use sugar to sweeten anything anymore, I use fruit.  Iced tea with lemon is just as good as I remember it being with 2 spoons of sugar.  Same goes with hot tea.

Every time I have fast food I drink a .5 L of water with it to offset the sodium. lol

I am very sensitive to salt and sweet now. I eat a pretty whole foods diet and am amazed at some of the things I used to eat/sweeten.

Dark chocolate and really good homemade tpe ice cream are my favorite indulgences now.

A few things have changed for me.  I've really grown used to turkey in place of beef/pork.  I tried some actual bacon the other day instead of turkey bacon and it made my stomach turn.  THe same with regular hot dogs instead of turkey dogs.

Some changes haven't been good though.  I never used to like chocolate much and now I crave it sometimes.  I have a new found sweet tooth.  This probably has a lot more to do with running than lower calories.

 

u know what ,I used to eat meat in every meal even if it was a salad. Now I dont really care for meat, most the times, i pick it out without noticing. oh and fried stuff I used to love now, just the smell of it mouth grosses me out and like it leaves a bad taste r feeling at the back of my tounge r under my nose, that area. lol its weird.

I absolutely feel my taste buds have changed, or at least improved, thanks to healthier eating habits. Where I would not eat almonds without salt and roasting, raw almonds are now my favorite snack on the go. I haven't touched a soda in about 6 months, and have found a new appreciation of tea (would do my English grandmother proud! )

I wasn't expecting it, but the taste bud change is similar to what you get when you quit smoking...food doesn't just taste better, it actually TASTES! ;)

Mine definitely has. For some reason, all I seem to crave now are salads.

I see I'm in the minority....Nope.

Absolutely. I've discovered that a lot of the fatty and sugary prepared foods I used to love just aren't appetising anymore or don't live up to my memories of them. Now, if I want something scrumptious I really have to work at it and bake it myself. LOL.