The body always needs time to adjust to changes and this is especially true of our tastebuds. The best way to make changes in your diet is to do it gradually, making small changes that will lead to new habits.

Salt

People who've put salt on everything for years, and then discover it's a major cause of high blood pressure, expect to be able to give it up instantly and still enjoy their food. It takes about three months for the average person's tastebuds to adjust to using less salt. The best way to reduce salt intake is to gradually use less and cut out salt in cooking before throwing out the salt shaker because the salt on the outside of the food is much more important to the tastebuds.

Sugar

Similarly with sugar, by cutting back gradually your tastebuds will adjust after a couple of months and you won't even enjoy a cup of sweetened tea anymore. Start slowly. If you take two teaspoons of sugar, try one and three quarters for a week, then one and a half for the next week and so on until you prefer tea or coffee without sugar at all.

Milk

It is also possible to go from full-cream milk to fat-reduced milk more easily if you take it gradually. Start by mixing three-quarters regular milk with one-quarter fat-reduced, then move to half and half, then one-quarter regular milk and three-quarters fat-reduced until your tastebuds have adjusted. However it doesn't really matter what kind of milk you put in your tea or coffee because there's not much fat in a slurp of any kind of milk. Using fat-reduced milk is much more important when having a big volume such as in a milkshake or on cereal.

Weight loss

When people want to lose weight they often do something extreme, like lots of exercise or going on a crazy diet. They might have taken ten years to gain their weight but they want it all off in ten days, which can't work. With weight loss it makes sense to take it gradually because fast weight loss is usually followed by a fast regain of weight, often with a bonus kilo or two. The latest news is that if you're overweight and you lose about 10% of your weight, that's probably all you need to lose. Similarly, exercise gradually by walking up stairs, parking your car at the edge of the carpark and walking to the shops or doing a bit of gardening each day. Generally trying to be more active is much more effective for weight loss than exercise that is so strenuous that you have to sit down to recover from afterwards.

Further information

For more of Rosemary Stanton's advice on food and nutrition consult: Rosemary Stanton's Complete Book of Food & Nutrition (Simon & Schuster, revised edition 1995, rrp $29.95)
Eating for Peak Performance (Allen & Unwin, second edition, 1994, rrp $14.95).

Copyright CTC Productions 2006