The Psychology Of Smoothing Things Over At The Dinner Table

I have to come clean about a recent recipe I posted for Portabello Mushroom Pizza Burgers. 

Nobody in our house would eat them but me. 

Refusing to throw those glorious mushrooms bathed in cheesy, herby goodness away I gave one last effort for salvation. 

I threw the mushrooms in the blender with a  little tap water, blitzed them into a creamy, smooth soup, heated in the microwave and served it to my ravenous teenage daughter with a crust of bread and butter.  The response was tremendous. 

“This is the best soup I have ever tasted in my life!  Oh my gosh, Mom, this is amazing!”

I could not believe it.  She had eaten a couple of nibbles when I first cooked them but had turned her nose up to them ever since.

Naturally I waited until she wolfed the whole bowl down before telling her about the soup’s former life. 

“You are kidding me!” she said, unfazed by my trick. “Well, it tastes awesome!”  

It made me think about some of the other things my kids won’t eat that have bits or chunks in them. Soups, jam, peanut butter and especially yogurt will not be eaten unless they are a smooth, chunk-free consistency.  It got me wondering about the psychological reason behind the preference for smoothly texture of food, even in the teen years. 

According to Dr. Therese Wehman, program director of Early Childhood Special Education at Elmhurst College, there is a method to our children’s madness. 

“There is a tactile feeling of food and this idea that food is easier to swallow when it is smooth," she explained. "Sometimes children can have a gag reflex.” 

She added that it’s not necessarily the taste that the child doesn’t like, but the texture. 

“Don’t interpret a gag response as having a negative connotation. It could just be an immature digestive tract. You haven’t introduced the tract to that food yet.” 

When I told her about my mushroom recovery act, she laughed hard.

“That is hilarious!" she said. "That makes sense. Kids use all five senses as a barometer. It could be she didn’t like the way the mushroom looked.” 

Whatever the psychological reason, I plan to use my blender a lot more to blitz all of the things my kids snub.  Chicken, beef, beans and tofu could all benefit from the smoothing effect. 

It may not force their digestive tracts to become more mature. But it could smooth things over in the short term and save me a few dollars of otherwise wasted food.