Absorption

I recently decided to quit buying baby carrots.

Yes, I am aware that they are simply carved out of regular size but unshapely carrots -- not young carrots -- but it made them remarkably convenient. I could put them on the table with a quick rinse and people would eat them, but I could also cook them with a roast or a few other recipes, and everyone liked them either way. They just worked well for us.

That was largely because they tasted good, and they don't anymore.

I don't know if they are coming from a different farm, or a different breed of carrot, or if the issue is the soil (we don't talk about soil depletion enough), but lately eating them has just been a chore.

It may also be a chore that accomplishes nothing.

There were two studies mentioned close together in Health At Every Size.

One took a group of Thai women and Swedish women and fed them a traditional Thai meal. The Thai women -- eating a familiar food -- absorbed 50% more iron.

Now, just because a food is unfamiliar doesn't mean it has to stay that way; you can eventually become more fond of your green smoothie or quinoa or protein bars.

In addition, there are some tricky things about iron absorption, where you might expect any nutritional difficulties to be more pronounced with iron than with other vitamins and minerals.

There still may be some self-sabotage to designing nutritious meals that you hate.

That is not the only factor. In the other study, they had a woman drinking a nutrient drink. She started just drinking, then began having to complete tasks with people talking in each ear. Although she kept drinking, she stopped absorbing nutrients.

Whether it is Slim-Fast or Ensure, drinking it at your desk while working may not be that beneficial.

There are cases to be made in here for mindful eating and for trying to reduce stress (so many good reasons to reduce stress, so much stress to work with), but also there is a real argument for enjoying your food.

This is a shame, because people so often feel guilty about that. 

It's also not the easiest balance to achieve, because highly processed foods are chemically engineered to make you love them, and developing a taste for more natural and nutritious food can take some effort. 

I maintain that all of it becomes easier if you can get over desperately wanting your body to look a certain way and hating that it doesn't. 

But also, once again individuality rears its head.

Coriander is a herb with many health benefits. We also call it cilantro, and somewhere between 4 to 14% of the population thinks it tastes like soap. It's genetic. Some of us genetically have an intense hatred of cruciferous vegetables.

That's me, actually, with the cruciferous vegetables; I am fine with cilantro. (I think lavender smells soapy, so I don't really like that.)

Actually, for me it is more when cruciferous vegetables are cooked. Those people who say roasting Brussels sprouts makes them taste like candy... well, it's just a genetic difference between us; I shouldn't hold it against you.

I can shred raw Brussels sprouts as a salad base and like them. I can sometimes deal with cabbage and broccoli if they are only very lightly cooked, but I never truck with cauliflower. 

I have decided that's okay; there are lots of other vegetables out there. It wasn't a total surrender or I would never have tried the salad with the shredded sprouts, but whatever food group you are looking at, there are a lot of options. There are many different varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and cheeses, and myriad ways of preparing them. You should be able to find ones that work for you.

There is definitely room for improvement in agriculture and access (which should include talking about soil depletion), but you don't have to follow anyone else's formula on how to be healthy. Their needs may be specifically different from yours.

Personally, if I go a few days without meat, I am going to start biting people. I'm not saying that's ideal, but I know it about myself, and so I work with what I know about my body.