Forgetting to enjoy food may be unhealthy

Imagine a day scientists discover that foods you like are more nutritious than those you don't.

That day occurred more than 25 years ago. A series of experiments run by researchers in Sweden and Thailand showed that people absorb more iron from meals that appeal to them than from meals they find less appetizing.

Promoters of good nutrition throughout much of the world appear to have taken note. Britain's number-one guideline, ahead of admonitions to eat more fiber and less fat, is simply: ''Enjoy your food." Norway, in its own set of guidelines, reminds its citizens that ''food and joy equal health," while Vietnam counsels people to have food ''that is delicious . . . and served with affection."

In stark contrast, the latest edition of the US Dietary Guidelines, released last month, make no allusion that nutrition and taking pleasure in eating have anything to do with each other. Some believe it may be that very disconnection that is contributing to Americans' less-than-optimal diets, not to mention obesity.

Part of the problem occurs on a gut level -- literally. In the late 1970s, Swedish and Thai researchers collaborated on a study that centered on a Thai meal of rice and vegetables spiked with chili paste, fish sauce, and coconut cream. They fed the meal to a group of Thai women and a group of Swedish women.

The Thai women absorbed almost 50 percent more of the dish's iron than the Swedes, who ''liked the meal" up to a point, reported the researchers, ''but considered it very spicy."

The investigators also discovered that when the meal was fed to the Thai women after it had been blended together and turned to an unfamiliar and unpalatable paste, their absorption of iron from the meal decreased by 70 percent.

Apparently, if you don't like the way your food looks or tastes, your brain might not be as apt to get your digestive ''juices" flowing as freely, and that could hinder digestion and subsequent absorption of various nutrients, said Robert Russell, a gastroenterologist at Tufts who heads the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center there.

But there's more to taste's impact on nutrition than the digestive process. People are just not going to eat nutritious foods that don't taste good.

''If the rule of thumb [in the US] weren't to make nutritious foods as unappetizing as possible, people might eat more of them and less ice cream and cookies," said Jill Melton, a dietitian and editor-in-chief of Cooking Smart magazine. ''Our idea of a vegetable in this country is steamed spinach with a pat of margarine. They'd never eat like that in Europe. Imagine what sautéing minced garlic in a little olive oil could do for spinach."

Research backs up Melton's thinking.

Survey work makes clear that people will eat more of a presweetened high-fiber cereal or nutrient-dense dairy item than similarly nutritious foods without any sugar to add palatability, said Joanne Lupton, a professor of nutrition at Texas A&M University who served on the recent Dietary Guidelines committee. The sweetness ''actually enhances" vitamin and mineral intake, she said.

So, why don't the Dietary Guidelines in this country account for taste and pleasure's contribution to the nutrition equation? Why are people in the United States guided with more of a count-'em-up, nine-of-this, three-of-that, hold-your-nose-and-swallow-it approach?

''We have so much emphasis on obesity as a major public health problem in the US that that's what we were trying to solve," Lupton said. ''Maybe we need to lighten up a little."

Fay Reiter, a certified social worker in Hopewell, N.J., argued that the lack of attention paid to foods' gustatory attributes plays right into the obesity epidemic.

''Volume stands in for quality in this country," said Reiter, who has counseled overweight patients. ''People overeat in an attempt to make up for a lack of taste."

Unfortunately, the emphasis seems to be moving even further away from connecting the dots between the pleasure principle and good nutrition. Irwin Rosenberg, immediate past dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, was on the committee that came up with the 1995 edition of the guidelines, and said that, at least back then, ''we came one vote short of the wording, 'Enjoy a variety of foods.' "

It didn't pass because the slim majority was afraid such wording ''would unleash unlimited license" for people to eat ''whatever," explained Rosenberg, a gastroenterologist.

He and others in the ''enjoy" contingent, on the other hand, were more concerned that people were getting the message ''that eating killed you -- gave you heart disease and so on," Rosenberg said. ''Many of us felt that negative advice was poisonous, that it was going to turn people off to nutrition advice."

Rosenberg said he believes people would have an easier time following a nutritious diet ''if the hedonistic aspect of eating were in there.

''Research has even shown that if you eat comfortably, with people you like, you'll have better digestion. A prohibitionist view of dietary advice" doesn't begin to get at that. ''It's more reasonable to tell people what to do than what not to do."

Lawrence Lindner can be reached at lindner@globe.com.

How to get the most nutrition out of what you eat:
Never eat what you don't like.
Eat in the company of others when possible.
Savor your food; don't rush meals.