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1 " The danger of growing up surrounded by these endless sweet and salty industrial concoctions is not that we are innately incapable of resisting them, but that the more frequently we eat them, especially in childhood, the more they train us to expect all food to taste this way. "
― , First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
2 " When eating becomes a matter of life or death, and each new bite is a celebration, you may discover that none of the other stuff was quite as important as sitting and breaking bread together. "
3 " If we consistently eat less sugar, it actually changes our sense of sweetness. "
4 " Why is a bowl of frosted cereal loops with added rainbow marshmallows allowed to count as ‘breakfast’ and not ‘sweets’? "
5 " Our olfactory bulbs have gathered endless sense patterns of foods high in sugar, fat and salt. These flavour memories have become part of the fabric of our sense of self and are not easily discarded, because the system, as we have seen, is designed ‘not to forget’. "
6 " Umami is the savoury meatiness in seaweed and miso and soy sauce. It is, to a large extent, the concept that enables Japanese cuisine to be healthy and attractive at the same time. "
7 " It is possible to educate children in the pleasures of food; and that doing so will set the children up for a lifetime of healthy eating. Feeding is learning. "
8 " It is not about learning to like this or that vegetable; but developing an overall attitude to eating that is more open to variety and less governed by the simple sugar-salt-fat palate of junk food. "
9 " No one is too busy to cook. "
10 " There is a deep resistance to the idea of dietary change, at both a cultural and an individual level. And yet, you accept the premise that eating is a learned behaviour, it follows that changing eating habits must be - if not likely and certainly not easy - at least possible. "
11 " The concept of “delicious” was born in Japan in 1908 when a chemist called Ikeda discovered a “fifth taste” called umami that was neither bitter nor salty nor sweet nor sour but something more wonderful and compelling than any of these. "
12 " Anything can start to taste good if you have enough positive memories of being fed it by a parent. "
13 " The art of feeding, it turns out, is not about pushing ‘one more bite’ into someone’s mouth, however healthy the food. Nor is it about authoritarian demands to abstain from all treats. It is about creating a mealtime environment where those eating are free to develop their own tastes, because all the choices on the table are real, whole food. "
14 " Love and travel are both powerful spurs to change. "
15 " The rise of vast portions - particularly in fast-food restaurants - means that if we eat only the calories we need, we should often stop at half of something; or even a quarter. And no one - child or adult - seems to like the feeling of the glass- - or plate - half empty. "
16 " The existence of birthday cake ice cream suggests that we can no longer distinguish celebration foods from everyday ones. We are also not too sure whether we are children or adults. "
17 " The way you teach a child to eat well is through example, enthusiasm, and patient exposure to good food. And when that fails, you lie. "
18 " No one is doomed by genes to eat badly. Pickiness is governed more by environment than biology. "
19 " Every man carries within him a world, which is composed of all that he has seen and loved, "
20 " Eating well is a skill. We learn it. Or not. It’s something we can work on at any age. Sugar is not love. But it can feel like it. "