Basic Pursuits

There's been a dust-up over the publication of the results of a study inquiring into the eating habits of young kids and McDonald's.

Three to 5 year-olds tasted food served side by side in no packaging and in McDonald's packaging. The kids preferred the food packaged in McDonald's wrappings over unpackaged food even though both contained exactly the same food! Whether it was chicken mcnuggets or milk and carrots, if it was wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper, the kids liked the taste better.

We can shake our fist and holler "foul" at the overwhelming influence of the super-sizers on our children and we should.

We can also be glad that our tastes can be influenced by our minds.

Just like a young man decides that something tastes better if it's covered in a McDonald's wrapper, we adults can decide that something tastes better because it's better for us. For example, I've seen many people who have taken a liking to salmon when they heard how healthy it is, whereas before they wouldn't touch it.

Taste is very much in the mind. If you think it should be good, it will be good. If you make up your mind that right eating is good and good for you, it will be.