If you once turned up your nose at the thought of blue cheese, anchovies, and garlic, but now love them as an adult, you're not alone. A new survey found that most adults don't enjoy "grown up" foods until their early 20s.
Why? Each person is born with approximately 10,000 taste buds that are replaced every two weeks or so. But, over time, these taste cells aren't replaced, and their numbers start to decrease. So all of those flavors that were too intense when you were a child are actually more palatable when you get older.
Interestingly, a group of U.K. researchers may have pinpointed when we actually start to appreciate these more flavorful foods. They surveyed nearly 2,000 adults by asking them to mark the age when they started enjoying spinach, mussels, pickles, and more. And they found that the transition generally happens around age 22.
Curious what other foods they asked about? Here's the full list, and the average age the participants liked them:
• Garlic: 19
• Pickles: 19
• Curry: 20
• Kidney beans: 20
• Mackerel: 20
• Spinach: 21
• Peppers: 21
• Eggplant: 21
• Horseradish: 21
• Mussels: 21
• Parmesan: 21
• Blue cheese: 22
• Anchovies: 22
• Avocado: 23
• Asparagus: 23
• Chili sauce: 24
• Oysters: 24
• Brie: 24
• Olives: 25
• Goat cheese: 28
TELL US: What foods did you hate as a child and enjoy now?
This article originally appeared on Goodhousekeeping.com.
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