{"id":4987,"date":"2022-10-25T16:33:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T21:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2022-10-25T16:46:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T21:46:28","slug":"is-familiar-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/is-familiar-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Familiar Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last night, I ordered steak,\nbaked potato, and broccoli from a chain restaurant and I began to ask is\nfamiliar better? It was late. I had just returned from 3700 miles of driving. I\nwas tired, dirty, and hungry. I was grateful a restaurant was open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the first bite, I recognized\nthe taste and smell even though I\u2019d never ordered that meal from this restaurant\nbefore. The moment seemed weird until I was struck by the fact that much of the\nfood from chains simply tastes the same. That\u2019s what was familiar \u2013 the taste\nof chain food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Is it the same? Possibly. A shared\ndistributor could mean I would eat the same steak at 3 different restaurants within\na few blocks of each other. And if it comes pre-seasoned, of course it\u2019s going\nto taste the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there some particular food\nadditive that homogenizes flavors? Also possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or could it be that the food is\nthe same because several brands are owned by the same corporate parent? That\ncould be as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the reason, I\u2019m\npondering whether familiarity makes food more appealing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something that pulls\npeople into popular chains over and over again. Some theories say it\u2019s added\nfat and sugar that causes us to crave prepackaged food. And much of the food in\nchain restaurants is at least partially preprepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others might say the food is the\nbest ever! And maybe it is. I relate better to fresh food prepared on site because\nit agrees with my tummy more. Or maybe I\u2019m picky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could come by pickiness\nnaturally. My mother took a strong stance on saltine crackers and vanilla\nwafers. According to Mom, the only good saltines were Nabisco Premium Saltines.\nAnything else was inferior and not allowed in our house. Keebler Zesta\u00ae \u2013 not even elves could\nsell her on them. Lance- never. They weren\u2019t fit to be crumbled into chili. And\nyou certainly wouldn\u2019t eat them with a piece of cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nabisco Nilla Wafers did not meet\nMom\u2019s exacting standard so brand loyalty in the way we currently think of it was\nnot at play. And yet the remnants of my memories surrounding these foods drive\nme toward to buy the brands she preferred. Or at least they did before I had to\nchoose gluten-free brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t just gravitate toward things\nmy mother liked. I also gravitate toward familiar foods I ate as a child \u2013 fresh\ntomatoes, okra, corn, potatoes, lettuce, beef, ham, chicken, blackberries,\nhuckleberries, apples, cornbread, and ginger snap cookies. I crave my\ngrandmother\u2019s beef and noodles. I love vinegar-based coleslaw like my mom made.\nFamiliar binds me to tradition as well as food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this leads me to think\nthat carefully considering which foods we allow to become familiar to our\nchildren could be an effective way to set the stage for lifelong healthy\neating. And if that happens, I feel like we can definitely say familiar is\nbetter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, I ordered steak, baked potato, and broccoli from a chain restaurant and I began to ask is familiar better? It was late. I had just returned from 3700 miles of driving. I was tired, dirty, and hungry. I was grateful a restaurant was open. From the first bite, I recognized the taste and … Continue reading “Is Familiar Better?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3288,3287,3285,3289,3286,3284],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4990,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions\/4990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}