4 ms·

I grew up in the US in a low-sugar household and when I became an adult I found a lot of restaurant food and pre-packaged meals to be strongly, unpleasantly swe

I grew up in the US in a low-sugar household and when I became an adult I found a lot of restaurant food and pre-packaged meals to be strongly, unpleasantly sweet. I heard the same thing from foreign students when I went to graduate school: American food is too sweet. It's not "indulgent" but actually unpleasant. I presume that it's possible to reset your default sweetness expectation to a higher level, since it's happened on such a large scale, but I never did. If these drugs can perform a palate reset for sweetness, people could remove a lot of empty calories from their meals.

rainclouds 2y ago
Every time I leave the US for over a few weeks and come home it’s super notable and frankly disgusting.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  Also the amount of salt US restaurant food contains is pretty jarring. Going to an Italian restaurant in Europe is an entirely different experience because of the lack of salt
glitchcrab 2y ago
Having visited the US from the UK quite a few times now, I would agree - American food is unecessarily sweet.
oriel 2y ago
Together with breaking the addictive aspects of sugar, I found going on keto to be really effective for resetting my perception of sweetness. To this day there are a number of food items i love that are "not sweet" but satisfy the sweet craving outside of addiction cravings. I've also learned that chinese culture has the concept of "not sweet" as a compliment for desserts, as the lower sugar profile lets naturally sweetness and flavors rise to the top of your awareness.
- c_o_n_v_e_x 2y ago
  >I've also learned that chinese culture has the concept of "not sweet" as a compliment for desserts, as the lower sugar profile lets naturally sweetness and flavors rise to the top of your awareness. When I first moved to Singapore, I was surprised by the use of corn kernels in desserts like cendol. Corn is actually relatively sweet but I had never realized it until being out of the US for a few years.
Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago
This seems particularly true in the south for some reason. I once bought and ice tea drink from a gas station but didn't notice it was 'extra sweet'. I didn't even know that was a thing. It was undrinkable.
- delfinom 2y ago
  Ah yes, you discovered "sweet tea". They supersaturate the tea with sugar before cooling it down.
  - antifa 2y ago
    Sadly, I've noticed that since covid started, a lot of places stopped having unsweetened tea. It appears to also correlate with the arrival of freestyle machines, which often have full sugar tea and diet sweetened tea options, but sadly unsweetened tea is disappearing.

rainclouds 2y ago

Every time I leave the US for over a few weeks and come home it’s super notable and frankly disgusting.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
Also the amount of salt US restaurant food contains is pretty jarring. Going to an Italian restaurant in Europe is an entirely different experience because of the lack of salt

glitchcrab 2y ago

Having visited the US from the UK quite a few times now, I would agree - American food is unecessarily sweet.

oriel 2y ago

Together with breaking the addictive aspects of sugar, I found going on keto to be really effective for resetting my perception of sweetness. To this day there are a number of food items i love that are "not sweet" but satisfy the sweet craving outside of addiction cravings. I've also learned that chinese culture has the concept of "not sweet" as a compliment for desserts, as the lower sugar profile lets naturally sweetness and flavors rise to the top of your awareness.

c_o_n_v_e_x 2y ago
>I've also learned that chinese culture has the concept of "not sweet" as a compliment for desserts, as the lower sugar profile lets naturally sweetness and flavors rise to the top of your awareness. When I first moved to Singapore, I was surprised by the use of corn kernels in desserts like cendol. Corn is actually relatively sweet but I had never realized it until being out of the US for a few years.

Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago

This seems particularly true in the south for some reason. I once bought and ice tea drink from a gas station but didn't notice it was 'extra sweet'. I didn't even know that was a thing. It was undrinkable.

delfinom 2y ago
Ah yes, you discovered "sweet tea". They supersaturate the tea with sugar before cooling it down.
- antifa 2y ago
  Sadly, I've noticed that since covid started, a lot of places stopped having unsweetened tea. It appears to also correlate with the arrival of freestyle machines, which often have full sugar tea and diet sweetened tea options, but sadly unsweetened tea is disappearing.