Can you learn to love the foods you hate?
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most of us have foods we refuse to eat - think coriander, or maybe olives. But where do those strong dislikes come from, and is it possible to change them?
In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander sets out to find out whether you really can learn to love the foods you hate. From first encounters that go wrong to memories that linger, she explores why food preferences can feel so fixed, and whether anything might help shift them.
Ruth speaks to neuroscientist Dr Dana Small, professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair at McGill University, about what’s happening in the brain and body when we eat, and how unconscious reward signals shape what we come to like or avoid.
She also hears from psychologist Dr Rachel Herz, an expert on the science of smell and author of Why We Eat What We Eat, about the powerful role odour, memory and emotion play in food dislike, often before we’re even aware of it.
And registered dietitian Clare Thornton-Wood shares practical, low-pressure techniques used with both children and adults to build tolerance - and sometimes even enjoyment - for foods they can’t stand.
Producer: Izzy Greenfield Sound engineer: Annie Gardiner Picture: A woman holding a fork with a piece of broccoli in front of her, looking unsure (credit: Getty)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm no longer ravenous. I'll no longer eat until I fall asleep. |
| 0:11.0 | The Hunger Game, a new five-part series exploring the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs. |
| 0:16.0 | It's been an incredible story with these drugs. |
| 0:18.1 | The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amount of money |
| 0:21.2 | is cost. What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use. |
| 0:26.5 | We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going |
| 0:31.3 | to have to fix. The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.3 | Hello and welcome to the food chain from the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:45.8 | Today, can you learn to love a food you hate? Most of us have something we avoid. For me, it's |
| 0:52.9 | King Prawns. I've never even dared to try one. |
| 0:56.2 | So what does it mean to hate a food? We're going to look at what a dislike actually is, |
| 1:01.8 | how it can be shaped by early and even unconscious experiences, and whether as an adult or child, |
| 1:08.9 | there's anything you can do about it. To discuss this, |
| 1:11.9 | we've brought together, Dr Rachel Hertz, a neuroscientist who's an expert on the psychological |
| 1:17.1 | science of smell at Brown University in the United States and author of Why You Eat, |
| 1:22.7 | what you eat. Dr. Dana Small, Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Brain and Metabolism |
| 1:29.1 | at McGill University, and Claire Thornton Wood, a registered dietitian in the south of England |
| 1:34.5 | and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, all of whom have a pet dislike. Here's |
| 1:41.2 | Rachel's. Well, the only food that I really dislike sort of at the core is |
| 1:46.2 | Nato, which is a Japanese fermented soybean dish. There are a couple of other foods that through |
| 1:52.1 | unfortunate psychological mechanisms I have come to dislike, but there is nothing inherently |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.