Yes, broccoli and cabbage taste especially bitter to me. Even if I drown cheese on them, I instantly taste that inherent bitterness that all veggies have, especially broccoli and cabbage.

The only veggies I can think of that doesn't taste bitter are onions and tomatoes (I don't care if some consider it a fruit since I lump all foods from the dirt into a single category--plant foods).

Yup, you're probably a super taster then. Well, blame your veggie hatred on your genes! Presumably the part of the population that really hate them, 10,000 years ago, didn't entirely die out! However, they're something like 25% of the population, so maybe it isn't the best trait to have? Hard to say.

I have to confess, too, that I’m a veggie lover though not so much for the taste but more for the consistency/”eating experience”, I guess. My favorite snack, for example, is a raw carrot with some almonds eaten together. It’s hard to explain but I really enjoy chewing those two things at the same time.

For me every chunk of meat has to be accompanied by some veggies, I think it makes a perfect match (particularly regarding consistency and color)

However, I should add that my grandparents were vegetable (mainly asparagus) farmers and my job has partly to do with veggies, so I’m not really unbiased here.

Here's a test to see if you're a super-taster: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanb...es/supertaster/

I might be a non-taster. I didn't have a magnifying glass but it looked like I had about 9 taste buds inside my paper punch hole.

Yep, rated as a supertaster.

However, I like all sorts of meats though? So, how picky can I be, right?

I don't know how anyone could not like asparagus. The first time that I tasted it, I was in heaven. It goes great with a nice rare steak.

My oldest son hates it though.

Amazing!

I'm with your son, on this one. Asparagus is one of the most bitter foods that I've ever tasted.

Frederick, just out of curiosity, do you taste fruits more/very sour? Black coffee more/very bitter?

Hmm... I'm guessing you don't like dark chocolate? It is pretty bitter. I just had some 85% chocolate and enjoyed the bitterness of it. I might actually be a non-taster.

I love this! This is how I eat most of the time! This is reassuring to me that the way I eat is not as bad as some would like me to think. I feel best on this plan and I am going to do my best to maintain this.......

I do love veggies though BUT when I add them back I start to feel bad again.

I eat butter, of course. Mayo is normally made with unsat veg oils and is high in salt. If you like the stuff, which I do, you should make your own from egg yolks, macadamia oil and lemon juice.

I love garlic.

I buy my meat like most people- at a good quality market. Due to where I live, in Australia, I am able to buy meat which is paddock fed (on grass) and not feedlot 'fattened' on grain, which only adds cost. Grain is not a natural food for bovines, and it requires the animal be fed a special mix of bacteria to digest it, also I do not particularly like the taste of feedlot beef.

Cows are NOT generally 'injected with hormones' nowadays due to stringent restrictions on residues in beef exports (usual is to feed a growth supplement for a period and withdraw it weel before slaughter), and even those who were, do not have any residues by the time of slaughter, the hormones, which are bovine, do not effect humans anyway- and the amount which is active in the animal is so slight in the relatively portion you would eat as to be measured in nanograms. hormones are not like LSD (effective in micrograms), and it requires a significant amount to have any effect at- that is- if the hormone is a human one, which is not the case with the bovine ones.

All meat is 'organic'- you cannot feed cattle (or other foodd animals like chickens ('organic' chickens suck- they are tough due to growing slower on a all grain based diet, lack plumpness and are tasteless) on chemicals like you can plants.

Paying the premium (often twice the usual amount) for so-called organic meat is like piling up your hard earned and setting fire to it- it is just plain dumb. Actually most organic meat is tough, lack a proper marbling of fat and has nothing to recommend it over normal beef in the nutrition department- save your money so you can buy more food with it.

I taste fruits very vividly, whether they be sour or sweet. However, with fruits, I find the sour or sweet taste enjoyable to my palate. For example, if I have a very sweet orange, the extreme sweet taste sensation is enjoyable; or, even a sour sensation in lemon is equally enjoyable. When it comes to coffee, I do find it bitter and can taste it vividly. I don't dislike it intensely, and have come to appreciate it in certain blends.

I seem to like very sweet things, even if I taste them more vividly.



Actually, I do like very dark chocolates. I like chocolates of every kind, maybe except for the 99% pure ones. Some of my favorite chocolates are the 85% pure ones. There are certain foods where I seem not to mind the strong taste sensation--chocolate is certainly one of them. Also, I don't mind the bitter bite of casis that exists in a strong cabernet.

Of course, some of these are acquired tastes. However, for whatever reason, I can't seem to acquire the same taste for veggies.

What about a gender connection? I've had a tough year. From last April to September, I gained 20 pounds eating the same amount or less, and exercising the same amount or more. For much of the time, I ran back to "home" and ate only meat and fat. I was feeling worse and worse.

Long story short, a nurse practitioner recommended that I up my carbs to 90 grams a day. She said that being so low in carbs and calories for so long contributed to my adrenal burnout.

I have to say, I'm starting to feel a little better, and I'm definitely sleeping through the night now, something I haven't done in months and months.

I'm 51 next month. My tests say I'm not menopausal.

Can gender have something to do with it? With whether an all meat and fat "diet" is the best?

Really curious. My head agrees with everyting that's being said here about all protein and fat. My experience, however, is starting to cast doubt on that.

Chocolate, 100% unsweetened, is ~50% carbs. The xanthines are what give it a bitter taste (theobromine, caffeine and theophylline). The true (best) human diet is NOT about what 'tastes good'- actually most vegetables taste perfectly awful plain and virtually 100% of babies reject them on first exposure, while all accept meats (human milk and pulped meat are the only foods a newborn can digest- but be careful with the fat content). It is the complex of spices and cooking additives/techniques which make up 'cuisine' (I am a highly skilled cook).

Once habituated to the taste of vegetables, as I have noted, it is so difficult to move away from them that most people will never do it. The excuse is always those stated in the above posts by nancy lc et al. This is just their strong socialisation speaking loud and clear, it has nothing to do what is right, good or nutricious. At birth we have no 'taste' for anything, not even our mum's milk, just a sucking reflex. All food is acquired taste. The common question about 'isn't a diet of only meat boring?, is simply the result of the heavy spicing of most food items. Actually each feed of meat, even unspiced and when it is the exact same cut, smells and tastes heavenly and is consumed with gusto. Food does not have to be used as entertainment, but that is what it has come to be in our modern culture. Meals, especially in restuarants, are commonly treated as 'showtime'.

I dispute the claim about human coproliths in association with true plaeo- lithic remains- Those have been found only with meso- or neo- lithic sites. My research has not uncovered that claim for the true paleo- period. The claim of many modern 'research' projects are questionable, since financial sponsorship can and does predetermine outcomes.

theBear-

You have some fantastically thought provoking and interesting views on socialisation and its effects on food choice/preferences. I have been thinking of writing my dissertation on a topic based around this.

If you would be so kind, could you recommend any books which helped you come to this conclusion?
I am at the very basic level with my reading but this very topic is what interests me- the socialisation of food and why we choose to eat certain things- just fascinating.

You are an inspiration, I hope you carry on contributing to this board.

Gemma.

I don't think books are going to provide a way to understand something like this. No one has previously written about it, because, like doing brain surgery on oneself, examination of our 'instinctive' and unconscious socialisation process is very difficult. Babies will 'trip' inbuilt responses in the adults and other children around them to provide answers and information on skills they need according to their age-window. Children will repeat things taught them seemingly endlesssly until they become skilled.

I have been long puzzled about how easy it was for me, and how nearly impossible for virtually everyone else to adopt the all meat diet. After 47 years of this, and I am not bragging when I say that I am a bit above the average intelligence, I have finally come to the conclusions I have made about human acculturation.

For instance read my essay on Children's TV. I worked for many years as a broadcast TV engineer and technician, during which time I had a funny feeling that all was not right with Sesame Street, that it somehow was damaging kids and not really teaching anything, but I could not put a face to what it was. The essay is not about diet, but about the very insidious and hidden destruction of our society which is ongoing today by taking the irreplaceable TIME for learning essential skills amongst our kids away and subsituting the passive watching of TV (the ubiquitous electronic 'babysitter'). If you want some literary insight into how we humans learn as children to become human, read the work of the famous child educator, the Countess Montessori. Hers may be the only written work which can be said to relate in some way to our (also) dietary acculturation.

You need only understand that we have only the most basic animalistic instincts at birth and our early cultural training is fixed so strongly into who we are that it can usually override them all. Failure of acculturation therefore is a very serious and difficult to remedy disaster for humanity.

Okay 'thebear' I don't swallow your thesis on dieting. Your URL is a commercial site; are you then seeking to make a few sales through foraging on this site or to spread your conquest further on free advertising?

Your interest is on a non-carb diet; we on this site are happy with the low-carb diet and until you can provide substantial evidence to the long-term benefits of your particular diet I intend to continue following the status quo of low-carbing. Surely there is some reason why human teeth have crunching maulers rather than ripping ones that are so beneficial to carnivores?

You advocate that you have been following this no-carb aspect for 47 years; this pre-dates all current research on the subject; how then were you informed about those benefits and what motivated you to step outside the arena of social convention especially when your web site is itself so conventional!

Finally, I am 75 and in good shape and that has been from a life-time on a conventional diet. While I readily accept the premise of excess carbs on a continuous basis being harmful, my supposition is that our bodies are designed to benefit from carbs and that a little is, indeed, beneficial.

To put my opinion in a simple arithmetical form; my guess is as good as yours!

I suffer from that as well

Most people consider themselves above average intelligence.

That is incorrect. Chocolate is about 19% carbs of which about 45% is fiber. Where did you get the 50% from? My numbers come from the USDA database for unsweetened chocolate.

TheBear,
hi again! Could you tell me exactly how to make mayo? How much of everything do i put in? is raw egg yolk safe or do you cook it. i never made mayo before so sorry if i sound like a dunce! I would love to make my own mayo instead of using hellmans which seems to have sugar in it..thanks.

Also, i dont buy organic meat, its too expensive. Thanks for sharing about the meat, now i dont have to save all my pennies to try and buy organic, which is what i was hoping to do someday!

I know this is a lot to ask, but would you mind posting..besides meat, poultry and fish..everything that is in your diet?? i am seriously interested in your ideas!! I would love to see a weekly menu of yours too! lol thanks alot!

foxgluvs,

The cayenne tea idea comes from a book written by Dr. John Christopher titled "School of Natural Healing". He has some amazing formulas in there that are quite effective. Cayenne is one of his favorites and especially good for the heart. If you ever get tightness in your chest after a stressful day mix a quarter teaspoon of medicinal cayenne (90,000) in half a cup of hot water and sip, it can't hurt you. Your mouth will feel like its on fire but your chest will feel better right away. If you google it you will come up with some interesting sites.

Hmmm.

'Swallow'? 'Thesis'? Nothing I have written constitutes a 'thesis' (perhaps you meant theorum), it is a recount of life experiences and references to fact.

I guess that the term 'swallow' is humorously related to the subject matter....

Sorry about that, duparc, but my website is NOT commercial in any sense of the word, it is partly a virtual gallery and show site for my art past and present, my music and an online venue for exposing some of my philosophical thoughts to those who are interested. I do not offer anything for sale anywhere on the site. I am at a loss as to what you define as 'commercial'.

'We on this site', Are you the moderator? Did you poll everyone and find that to be the case, or are you just trying to look important. I suggest you not go there. A low carb diet is what my eating regime is, it is one of the obvious end-points on the scale. Judging by the response, your attitude is in the minority.

I am not interested in attempting to justify any 'long term benefits', I simply am sharing my 47 years of experience with a very effective and healthy diet.

'Predates'? On the contrary, my diet was based on a large body of life experiences, knowledge and research by experts such as Richard Macarness, MD, and Dr Viljhalmur Stefansson- who as is well known was a subject with Dr Anderson in a year long closely monitored all meat diet in 1928 at the Mayo clinic in NYC, which, if you are 75, is prior to your birth. I am definitely not 'stepping outside any social convention'. I would really like to hear just what that term means to you! I guess this sort of information has put your social food-training and concepts under threat. I am sorry, but I can't help you with it.

Finally, although YOU may indeed be guessing (and for that matter, what you define as 'being in good shape' and mine may be miles apart), nothing I have written in my posts or on my site is a 'guess', it is all verifiable fact. I do not deal in guesses nor belief systems.

What has arithmetic to do with dietary fixation?

dodger- The usual grade of 'cooking/baking' chocolate you find on grocery shelves in the US (USDA) may indeed be as you state, but fine qualilty, European 100% chocolate and high fat cocoa is 40 to 50% carbohydrate, as is shown on the label. Try Belgian Callibrot if you can find it, for a real choc treat. Just be mindful of the carbs-

jandlsmom- I eat anything which is not a vegetable or contains carbohydrates, like milk or yoghurt. Thus any animal will do, and all cheeses- watch the label on cottage cheese, however many kinds have a lot of lactose residue. Menus? actually I don't bother, I just buy what strikes me at the market and if I happen to wind up eating the same cut of meat for days, weeks or months, like finding a great discounted/wholesale special price on whole cryovac'd sirloin strip steak, it does not bother me. Heavy reliance on 'variety' is connected with vegetation, even heavily addicted people cannot stand to eat the same one over and over.

I enjoy cooking, been at it since age 12. So, rather than menus, how about a recipe I developed?

Try this: A large chicken, 4-5 lbs (2.2+ kg). Carefully separate the skin from the meat by passing your hand gently through the evisceration opening in the abdomen- try not to tear the skin.. Make a mixture of 4 oz (100gm) of unsalted butter and the same amount of Philly cream cheese. Mix spices, like curry or chilli powder, 2 teaspoons with the softened (not too soft) cheese and butter to make a uniform paste- I like a spice mix used in Argentina, called Chimi Churi- a spice preparation which I buy here in Oz from Peter Watson in Melbourne Vic. But it is not required what spices you use, try different mixtures. Using a spoon, place the mix through the opening, some on each side, and squeeze it out between the skin and meat to form a thickness of 1/8" (3mm). Take the last bit and smear it over the skin, place on a rack over a pan in a 350F (180C) oven, preferably a fan-circulating one, and roast for 60-70 min. It is hard to stop eating this bird. The drippings make a wonderful gravy. I like this style of chook so much that I often roast two birds at once- two people can completely devastate one between them.

Opps, almost forgot:

How to make mayo- basic instructions may be found in any good basic cookbook, like Joy of Cooking, etc. Use raw egg yolks, beaten well. The oil is slowly drizzeled in while vigorously stirring. I don't add any salt, but add a bit of lemon juice. The right ratio of egg yolks to oil has to be found by experiment, to produce a nice texture. It is a bit tricky, so don't give up if your first attempt is not what you expect.

The only good veg oils are palm, coconut and macadamia nut- but only mac is easy to use in mayo, although if you can get a fine quality of palm it may be worth a try. Coconut has too high a melting point. Mac oil gives mayo a nice nutty flavour.

TheBear,
thanks for the mayo recipe and explaining about the good oils. what about olive oil? you didnt mention it. Do you think it is a bad oil for some reason? If so, could you tell me why?

Thanks also for the chicken recipe, that does sound really yummy. I have a whole chicken in my freezer now. I will try it and let ya know how it turns out!

I forgot to ask...do you eat eggs? If so, how often? thanks
*editing because i just realized how stupid of a question that is considering you just gave me a mayo recipe with raw egg in it! oops! So just answer the second part, how often and how many eggs? I have been eating lots of eggs. I love them boiled, poached, fried, hard boiled, yummy!

Ok, jandlsmom- but please read carefully my earlier posts and my essays, I think most of your questions have already been seen to.

Eggs are very good food- but not if hard cooked, which denatures the protein. Don't eat raw eggwhite, it has an antivitamin, avidin (antibiotin). I can eat a dozen eggs a day, easy.

Olive oil has a lot of poly-unsats- has a strong, not very pleasant taste, as well. Mac oil is mostly mono-ok, if not in large amounts, and tastes great. Good for frying fish, too. Palm and coconut are both saturated and therefore very good food unlike the rest of the veg oils, which are best avoided.

Smart thing is to stick to animal fat, which is the perfect fuel our body was 'designed' to use (saturated triglycerides are the kind of fat you store). High cuisine was traditionally based on beef tallow, lard and butter, vegetable oils used were few and put mostly on salads. What do you put mayo on? I can find few things other than cold chicken or fish on which it can be used- it is something put on vegetables, bread (andwiches) etc., which are not a part of my diet. I have not used much mayo in a long time. Last major use was for canned tuna, but i gave that away. I think egg 'salad' is about it.

'Bear' If you fail to understand to what I am alluding then why attempt to answer? I was wrong about the commercial aspect of your Web site but if you are not selling per se then what is its true purpose; merely a shop window? How does IQ connect to the authenticity of your statements? To throw-in my 2 cents worth, when last measured my IQ rating fell within the top 2% of the male population; so what? I too was aware of the research done by Dr Richard Mackarness and the writings of the others but I don't buy your tale that as a young man in your early twenties (which was prior to the publication of Mackarness's research findings) that you were sufficiently impressed nor motivated to commit yourself to being a martyr to the cause of low-carbing, the term, which was not then coined. Do try pulling the other leg, it has bigger bells on it!

Oh, no! It's contagious!