Apples, beets, seafood, and chitlins. Did that make you hungry? Well, if you are like many of the 50 people this reporter surveyed about their favorite foods, then no, it did not.
“I hate apples. I will throw up if you put an apple next to me,” student Tyler Hoops said.
But other students loved apples and most students loved pizza, chicken, and crab legs.
So why do different people love different foods?
Food preferences may simply reflect each person’s individuality. Race and culture may also be a factor. This reporter asked ten African American students and ten Caucasian students whether they enjoyed chitlins, which are cooked pig intestines. All ten African American students, but just one Caucasian student, responded favorably to chitlins. Five of the Caucasian students didn’t even know what chitlins are.
Researchers say that food preferences are often developed in the womb. In other words, children are born predisposed to like the foods that their mothers ate during pregnancy. Jamie Hale, a researcher who studies eating behaviors, said that students eat more fruits than vegetables, because they were conditioned to like sweeter foods as babies through breast feeding.
Given the diverse food preferences of students, it is a challenge for school cafeteria workers to prepare healthy meals that most students will eat. Michelle Coolman is a retired cook in the Fairborn School District. “Whenever we made the so-called healthy food, none of the students would get it,” Coolman said. “None of the students want to eat the broccoli, they would much rather eat a piece of pizza.”
However, Coolman also said that students tend to become more open to different types of food the older they get. “It is definitely easier to cook for the high school kids, because the middle schoolers refuse to eat most things,” she said.