She has also had 16 wellness books published by major publishers including the bestselling Easy GI Diet, The Macro Method, Quit Alcohol (For a Month) and Eat 5. Her books have sold over one million copies.
- Great Low Sodium Choices at Chick-fil-A – For Every Diet - November 16, 2023
- The 11 Lowest Sodium Choices in Taco Bell – For Every Diet - November 15, 2023
- How to Eat Low Sodium at KFC - November 14, 2023
Eating vegetables is a pretty essential part of living a healthy life. They are packed with vitamins and minerals we need, they contain lots of antioxidants that protect our body from ageing and damage from pollutants and other toxins – and they are low in calories, but fill you up which makes them very good if you’re trying to control your weight.
But what if you don’t like vegetables? Well, it might be that you just haven’t found one you like yet – or, you could be a supertaster.
What is a Supertaster?
When it comes to the ability to taste foods us humans are divided into three camps – 50 per cent of the population simply taste things normally, 25 per cent have a lowered sense of taste and find it hard to detect tastes like sweet, sour or bitter – and the other 25 percent are what science calls supertasters.
Supertasters have higher than average numbers of taste buds on their tongue and as such, they taste everything more intensely – fat is creamier, sugar in sweeter and bitter tastes can be very intense.
Now this has it’s positive side – supertasters tend to be thinner than non-tasters as they don’t need a lot of sweet or fatty things to satisfy them – but it’s also true that veggie dodging is more common in supertasters as they don’t like the bitter tastes that are found in many vegetables – especially super good for you ones like spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and, our old friend, kale.
How to Test if You Are a Supertaster?
All it takes is some blue food colouring. Here’s what to do…
- Drop a bit of blue food colouring on the front part of your tongue
- Rinse your mouth with water, spit it out then swallow a few times
- Your tongue itself should now be blue, but on top of it you’ll see some pink, or lighter blue dots – each one of these contains 3-5 tastebuds.
- If you’re a supertaster however, you’ll see a lot of pink patches particularly concentrated at the front of your tongue. If you’re a non-taster, the tongue will look more polka dot – while a medium taster will be somewhere in between.
If you really want to get specific, then punch a hole with a hole punch onto a small piece of greaseproof paper then place this over the tip of your tongue.
Now use a magnifying glass to count exactly how many dots you see – or take a pic on your phone and then zoom in to count.
A true supertaster has about 30 dots in that area, a normal taster 15-30, a poor taster will have less than 15.
How Supertasters Can Enjoy Veggies More.
Once you’ve worked out if you’re a supertaster the next question is, what do you do about it?
Well let’s just say that altering the amount of taste buds you have is not the answer, instead, you need to decrease the intensity of bitterness in the veggies you eat to counteract your added sensitivity to them.
And there are a few different ways to do this…
- Roast your veggies – this can make them taste a bit sweeter and works well with things like parsnips and Brussels sprouts. Don’t burn them though, that just makes them more bitter.
- Blend them with something creamy – like ricotta cheese or quark – which cuts through the bitterness.
- Add some lemon – sourness also counteracts bitterness.
- So does salt, but don’t go mad – no-one needs to develop high blood pressure just to eat broccoli.
- Undercook them a bit – the more you cook bitter vegetables the more bitter they become so experiment with how long you cook them for and find the perfect point for you.
So, there you have it – top tips to convert you from veggie hater to veggie lover – now, go try this fantastic Brussels Sprouts recipe from the Hemsley sisters.
Who is The Wellness Nerd?
My name is Helen Foster, and I’m a health journalist and wellness author. Publications I’ve written for include Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Body and Soul, Good Health at the Daily Mail, and more. I have also written 16 books on health and nutrition.