How to train yourself to like foods you don't like?

December 21, 2025 •

4 min read

Research shows that repeated, pressure-free exposure to a disliked food can be key to increasing acceptance. Learning how to train yourself to like foods you don't like involves understanding the psychology and biology behind taste perception, moving beyond simple aversion to cultivate new, healthy habits.

Quick Summary

This article explores strategies for overcoming food dislikes and expanding your diet. It details how to use repeated exposure, food pairing, and cognitive techniques to reframe your relationship with challenging foods.

Key Points

Repeated Exposure: Consistent, pressure-free tasting of a disliked food is the most effective method for developing a new preference through habituation.
Change the Context: Pair disliked foods with familiar, well-loved foods or create positive emotional associations to help reframe your perception of the food.
Mask Flavors Creatively: Use sauces, spices, and other preferred ingredients to mask the flavor of a new food, gradually reducing the masking agent over time.
Bridge with Similar Foods: Use 'food chaining' to transition from a food you enjoy to a new, similar food, focusing on shared characteristics like texture or shape.
Understand the Psychology: Recognize that food preferences are not fixed and can be influenced by habituation, emotional associations, and cognitive reframing.
Be Patient and Consistent: Taste training takes time and perseverance. Celebrate small victories and remember that progress is gradual, not instant.
Involve All Senses: Engage with the food by touching, smelling, and preparing it yourself before tasting. This reduces anxiety and builds familiarity.

The Science Behind Food Dislikes

Understanding why you dislike certain foods is the first step toward overcoming your aversion. Our food preferences are a complex interplay of biology, psychology, and experience.

Biological and Sensory Factors

Genetics: Some people are "supertasters" with more taste papillae, making them more sensitive to flavors, especially bitterness. This can make foods like broccoli or kale seem intensely unpleasant.
Taste and Smell: The perception of flavor is a combination of taste (detected by taste buds) and smell (detected by the olfactory system). When you have a cold, food tastes bland because your sense of smell is inhibited. The orbitofrontal cortex in the brain links the reward value of a food with your decision to eat it, while the primary taste cortex simply registers the taste's identity and intensity.
Texture and Mouthfeel: For some, a food's texture can be the primary barrier to enjoyment. The slimy texture of okra or the grittiness of pears can be deal-breakers, regardless of flavor.

Psychological and Environmental Factors

Food Habituation: The principle of habituation states that repeated exposure to a stimulus decreases the physiological and behavioral response over time. This is why repeatedly eating a food, even in small amounts, can diminish its perceived unpleasantness. Studies have shown that women who ate the same macaroni and cheese meal daily for a week showed faster habituation and reduced energy intake compared to those who ate it weekly.
Emotional Associations: Negative experiences, like getting sick after eating a certain food, can create a powerful, long-lasting aversion. Conversely, positive associations, such as comfort foods, can reinforce a liking for certain items.
Cultural Influences: The foods we grow up with and the traditions surrounding meals heavily influence our preferences. Cultural norms and family dining habits establish a baseline for what is considered normal and palatable.

Practical Strategies for Taste Training

Overcoming food aversion requires a gradual, systematic approach. The goal is not to force enjoyment but to cultivate familiarity and positive associations.

Repeated, Pressure-Free Exposure

The most scientifically-backed method is repeated exposure. It can take 10-15 tries or more for a person, especially a child, to accept a new food. The key is to keep offering small, pressure-free portions over time. Don't force yourself to eat more than you're comfortable with.

Flavor Masking and Bridging

Mask the Flavor: Combine a disliked food with a food you already enjoy to minimize the impact of the unwanted flavor. For example, pair bitter greens with a sweet dressing or mix new vegetables into a well-seasoned sauce.
Change Preparation: The way a food is cooked can dramatically change its texture and flavor. Roasting can bring out sweetness and create a pleasing texture in many vegetables, while steaming can produce a softer, less intense flavor.
Food Chaining: This technique introduces new foods that are similar in taste, texture, or appearance to foods you already like, creating a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar. For instance, if you like French fries, you might try roasted carrots, then carrot sticks, and eventually raw carrots.

Mindful Eating

Paying close attention to the sensory aspects of food, such as its appearance, smell, and texture, can help create a new, less-negative association. Focus on the positive attributes of a dish, even if it contains an ingredient you dislike, to shift your emotional response away from fear and disgust. This can also involve eating without distractions, allowing you to focus on the experience.

Comparison of Taste-Training Methods

Here is a comparison of different approaches to help you decide which method might be best for you.


Method	Description	Best For	Considerations
Repeated Exposure	Continuously offer small, non-pressured portions of a food over time.	Long-term changes, overcoming basic aversions.	Requires patience; results are not immediate.
Flavor Masking	Combine disliked food with a preferred food to minimize the unwanted flavor.	Introducing new flavors discreetly, making nutrient-dense foods palatable.	May not help overcome the aversion to the original food's taste on its own.
Food Chaining	Introduce new foods with similar characteristics to already-liked foods.	Expanding a narrow diet, addressing texture issues.	Requires creative cooking and careful observation of food traits.

The Psychological Approach to Expanding Your Palate

The mind-body connection plays a crucial role in shaping our food preferences. Your brain can be trained to respond differently to food stimuli over time.

Change Your Narrative: Remind yourself of the reasons you want to like a new food, such as health benefits, culinary exploration, or social inclusion. A positive mindset can significantly influence your perception.
Create Positive Associations: Pair the disliked food with a positive context. Eat it with friends whose company you enjoy or during a relaxing evening at home. This can help your mind link the food with good feelings instead of aversion.
Involve Yourself in Preparation: Cooking or growing a food yourself can foster a sense of ownership and curiosity. This can help you become more comfortable with the food before you even taste it.

Ultimately, the journey of expanding your palate is one of self-discovery and patience. There is no instant fix, and some genuine aversions may never fully disappear. However, by using a combination of psychological and practical strategies, you can significantly broaden your horizons and cultivate a more adventurous and nutritious diet. The key is to be consistent, stay curious, and be kind to yourself throughout the process.

For more detailed information on food aversion, you can read about behavioral and cognitive approaches on the Moriah Behavioral Health website.

Conclusion

Training yourself to like foods you previously disliked is a process of habituation and retraining your brain's reward and sensory systems. By consistently applying strategies like repeated, pressure-free exposure and creative preparation methods, you can gradually reduce your aversion. Incorporating mindfulness and creating positive emotional associations further reinforces this process, moving you from repulsion to acceptance. With patience, you can expand your food preferences, leading to a richer and more balanced dietary experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no magic number, but research suggests that children may need to be exposed to a food at least 12 times before they start to like it. For adults, patience and consistent, pressure-free exposure are key, and it may still require several tries.

Yes, your sense of taste can change with age. Taste buds can decrease in intensity, which can make some strong flavors more palatable later in life. This natural evolution of taste can make certain foods you disliked as a child more enjoyable as an adult.

If texture is the main issue, try changing the food's preparation method. For example, roast or bake vegetables to make them crunchy instead of steaming them. Adding the item to a smoothie or soup can also hide the texture while introducing the flavor.

The 'mere exposure effect' in food refers to the finding that we are more likely to develop a liking for foods the more we are exposed to them. This familiarity can turn a once-strange food into a familiar favorite over time through repeated, low-pressure encounters.

Yes, emotional associations have a powerful impact on food preferences. If a food is linked to a negative memory or experience, it can cause a strong aversion. By pairing a disliked food with a positive experience or relaxing setting, you can help create new, more favorable emotional associations.

The orbitofrontal cortex in the brain processes the reward value of food, not just its taste. By repeatedly experiencing a food in a positive or neutral context, you can train your brain to assign a more favorable reward value to it, increasing your acceptance.

While related, they are distinct concepts. Sensory-specific satiety is a decrease in the pleasantness of a specific food during a meal, even if you are not full overall. Habituation is a broader, longer-term process where repeated, low-stakes exposure over time leads to a decrease in the psychological and physiological response to a food.