# Foods for Which You Have a Bad Association **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682 "2007-02-11T01:09:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/81 "2013-06-23T15:32:08Z")
Beets of any variety, no matter how they are prepared. When I was growing up, my Mom was fond of serving sliced red beets straight from the can (like [this](http://www.delmonte.com/products/detail.aspx?id=415)). She likes them, and they were one of the few vegetables that my Dad (a pathologically picky eater) would eat. I never liked the taste or the texture, and I had many unhappy dinners where I ate everything else on my plate and argued with my folks about having to finish the damn beets. To this day, I can’t stand beets, not even the roasted golden beets that cwSpouse loves. He swears up and down that they’re delicious, but despite my best efforts, I cannot confirm that. ---
**Author:** ![Blind\_Guardian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@Blind\_Guardian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blind_Guardian)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/82 "2013-06-23T17:40:36Z")
For me, it’s beets. I was in pre-school at the time, and not feeling particularly well that day. (As an aside, like several people on my mother’s side of the family, I have an unusually low body temperature, normally somewhere in the mid to high 96 degree range. 98.6 degrees for me is running a temperature. Try explaining that to school nurses.) When we were served lunch, I told the staff I was feeling sick and didn’t want to eat. They thought I was just being picky and insisted that I eat. I warned them that if they made me eat, I was going to throw up. They had no patience for my willfulness and insisted that I eat. I don’t remember what else was on my lunch tray aside from the beets, but I vividly remember the purple vomit that followed promptly thereafter. I still can’t even consider eating beets thirty years later. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/83 "2013-06-23T20:17:42Z")
We had creamed tuna on biscuits for dinner the night I went in to labor. During labor I threw up creamed tuna all over the monitors, the nurse, everywhere. I’m think it was good 5 years or more before I even allowed it to be cooked in our home again. Kiddo is nearly 15 and I haven’t eaten since that night. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/84 "2013-06-24T00:32:21Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Kiddo is nearly 15 and I haven’t eaten since that night. Woah, that’s a hell of a record!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/85 "2013-06-24T01:26:38Z")
Cantelope.When I was about 4 or 5, I ate some cantelope and right after, got sick and threw it up. No idea if the cantelope made me sick or if it was just a bug. But to this day, and I am 53 now, I cannot stand the smell of it. Yuck. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/86 "2013-06-24T02:19:51Z")
Vietnamese curried beef. Something I know that love but cannot get over the time I got horribly sick from the flu that I didn’t know I had. High temps outside (104F) and a broken water main that rendered our workplace air conditioning useless. The temp inside, as we tried to get the next morning’s newspaper out the door, was over 120F. I didn’t know I had a fever. Any cruciferous veggie served in a cheese sauce. These overcooked, watery veggies always made me gag at family gatherings as a child. I like the veggies the way I prepare them, but I never prepare them with a cheese sauce. Too many bad memories. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/87 "2013-06-24T04:57:04Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > Cantelope.When I was about 4 or 5, I ate some cantelope and right after, got sick and threw it up. No idea if the cantelope made me sick or if it was just a bug. But to this day, and I am 53 now, I cannot stand the smell of it. Yuck. Snap. Same deal. I would have been 7 or 8. My grandparents house was next to the school so every day I’d go there for a 2 course lunch. One day was cantelope and ice cream for desert. I didn’t make it back to school, throbbing headache and vomiting came from nowhere. Can’t stand the smell of the stuff and haven’t for the last 40 years. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/88 "2013-06-24T05:10:32Z")
Graham crackers and tangerines. We were kids; Mom and the 3 of us took a train from Fla. to Pittsburgh. They had no money, so bought a bag of tangerines and a box of graham crackers to feed us. The motion of the train, and 3 kids-yep, we all puked. Cannot stand the smell of either. Forget eating them. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/89 "2013-06-24T05:14:49Z")
I associate spearmint flavored trident with taking long trips with my mom. Whenever we drove to doctors appointments, to see accountants, or whatever, either she would chew a piece, or give me one to keep my mouth busy. I will forever associate it with hot, uncomfortable cars, and waiting for thousands of hours (a child’s hyperbole) in office buildings. I get a headache whenever I smell it. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/90 "2013-06-24T06:01:15Z")
Kiwi and any kind of drink that has more than two fruits mixed together. As a very young child, I got sick after eating too much kiwi, and then carsick after drinking some kind of canned fruit punch, haven’t been able to deal with it since. I’ve had a few more temporary food aversions that arose under similar circumstances (beef stew, fried chicken, mandarin oranges) but got over those after a few years. I also cannot eat honey mustard pretzels. Which sucks, because I actually really like them. But for about 15 years now, they unfailingly make me vomit. It’s gotten progressively worse: I used to be able to eat about half a bag, then I’d be up in the middle of the night throwing it up. That happened four times in a row over about a year, with fewer and fewer pretzels each time. I’ve attempted to eat them very sparingly a few times since and could only manage about 4 pretzels before warning nausea set in. So I’ve reluctantly had to give them up completely. I eat honey, mustard, and pretzels in other contexts with no issues, but with this it’s a 100% fail rate. So in this case, it’s two warring associations: “this tastes good” versus “this will absolutely positively make me sick.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/91 "2013-06-24T06:48:34Z")
Blue cheese salad dressing. I used to love it. But then I went to work for a restaurant that made its own dressings, and their recipe for blue cheese dressing called for celery seed. I absolutely _loathe_ celery and its parts. Disgusting stuff. So I simply could not eat this place’s blue cheese dressing. That was almost 25 years ago. To this day I cannot taste blue cheese without also tasting celery seed, _even when I know damn well the dressing in question is uncontaminated with celery_. I make the salad dressings at my current job and I know exactly what’s in the blue cheese dressing, and yet I can still taste celery seed _even though it’s not there_. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/92 "2013-06-24T09:17:49Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > \*\*Kiwi \*\*and any kind of drink that has more than two fruits mixed together. **As a very young child, I got sick after eating too much kiwi,** and then carsick after drinking some kind of canned fruit punch, haven’t been able to deal with it since. I’ve had a few more temporary food aversions that arose under similar circumstances (beef stew, fried chicken, mandarin oranges) but got over those after a few years. > > I also cannot eat honey mustard pretzels. Which sucks, because I actually really like them. But for about 15 years now, they unfailingly make me vomit. It’s gotten progressively worse: I used to be able to eat about half a bag, then I’d be up in the middle of the night throwing it up. That happened four times in a row over about a year, with fewer and fewer pretzels each time. I’ve attempted to eat them very sparingly a few times since and could only manage about 4 pretzels before warning nausea set in. So I’ve reluctantly had to give them up completely. I eat honey, mustard, and pretzels in other contexts with no issues, but with this it’s a 100% fail rate. So in this case, it’s two warring associations: “this tastes good” versus “this will absolutely positively make me sick.” Umm, I assume you are referring to Kiwi Fruit, aka chinese gooseberry? You may want to be careful saying you ate to many Kiwis, or Kiwis make you sick. Apart from being a small flightless bird, it’s also a colloquial name for people from New Zealand (where the bird comes from) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/93 "2013-06-24T21:48:55Z")
That All Blacks brisket just isn’t sitting right. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/94 "2013-06-24T21:59:20Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Broccoli will, literally, make me gag. When I was a kid my parents got on a ‘eat everything on your plate’\* jag. Thankfully it didn’t last long. I had to eat broccoli once or twice, Iall of it, and now I gag if I eat it. I had the same issue with tomatos for a bit but out grew it. > > Slee > > \*This did not last long and it is about the only truely stupid parenting move I can remember my parents making. They are good people and were great parents when I was growing up. This one was really stupid though. I am entirely grateful that my parents didn’t have this damned hangup when I was growing up. Perhaps it is also because of the style of table service - instead of prepared plates coming out the food came out [service a la russe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_%C3%A0_la_russe) or [a la francaise/family style](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_%C3%A0_la_fran%C3%A7aise) instead. [depending on grandparents house with cook and servants, or at home with amish origin mother:D] My brother and I got to pick what we were going to eat and serve ourselves. The main caveat was that if there was a new food we had never had before we had to at least try it once. We grew up actually liking vegetables, I actually have trouble understanding how there are people who absolutely refuse to eat vegetables, or will only eat chicken nuggets, french fries and wash it down with coke. 😕 > [@dwc1970](#): > > For me it was clam strips. The date was May 16, 1986. My family and I went out for seafood that evening and I ordered clam strips, deciding to try something new and different. Fast forward to 2:00 AM the following morning. I got a queasy feeling in my stomach and I knew I would have to puke, so I went into the bathroom and ralphed it out. Funny how you feel better once it’s over with. Unfortunately this was only the first of several trips to the bathroom over the next 24 hours or so, before I finally got it out of my system. My mother called the restaurant the next day to find out if any other patrons had reported illnesses from eating there that night, but nobody else had called in with any such reports. Whatever it was that caused me to throw up, it was enough to put me off of clam strips forever. > . You may have the same issue that I have with [bivalves](http://animals.about.com/od/molluscs/p/bivalves.htm) - they all cause varying forms of gastric distress - from the mild [scallops only give me diarrhea] to extreme [clams, oysters and mussels cause projectile vomiting] Have you had clams in any other way/time? [we figured it out because any time I tried clams or oysters it ended badly, and I tried a mussel at a friends house many years after giving up on bivalves and have now sworn off tryign any new type ever again!] And pork - I am still ambivalent about pig products even after being off byetta now for 5 years. If we are cooking it in any form it still may take me careful thought before deciding to taste it, even if it is something I normally have liked before. Any time we make any form of pork/pig now we also have something on hand I can eat instead as it has actually happened that something is fine right up until I get it up to my mouth and I get a smell and my stomach starts churning. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/95 "2013-06-25T02:55:02Z")
Anything with peach flavoring that isn’t actually a peach. Many years ago I did some taste-testing for an anonymous brand that starts with a “yo” and ends with a “plait” that involved peach. Except that the flavor was mostly chemical. They were looking for the peachiest one. Ewww. I OD’d on it in one evening and that’s been enough to last me over 20 years now. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/96 "2013-06-25T03:10:08Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Blue cheese salad dressing. I used to love it. But then I went to work for a restaurant that made its own dressings, and their recipe for blue cheese dressing called for celery seed. I absolutely _loathe_ celery and its parts. Disgusting stuff. So I simply could not eat this place’s blue cheese dressing. > > That was almost 25 years ago. To this day I cannot taste blue cheese without also tasting celery seed, _even when I know damn well the dressing in question is uncontaminated with celery_. I make the salad dressings at my current job and I know exactly what’s in the blue cheese dressing, and yet I can still taste celery seed _even though it’s not there_. When I was a teen, I worked at a restaurant, making the salads. Pretty fancy place - baked our own croutons, made all our dressings. So I made up a five gallon bucket of the blue cheese dressing and carried it to the walk-in to put on the shelf. The upper shelf. The whole bucket wound up tipping onto me. I had no other clothes, so I had to walk a mile back home, reeking of blue cheese dressing. I have avoided all exposure to blue cheese in any form, _especially_ as dressing, ever since. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/97 "2013-06-25T06:08:49Z")
When I was a child we used to drive to visit grandmother, over an hour away, on weekends. My father frequently wanted blueberry pancakes for breakfast on weekends. I was always made to eat breakfast. And I always got car sick on the drive to grandma’s. The result of all this being that I couldn’t eat blueberries for over thirty years. I like them now but I avoided them for so long that I usually don’t even think about getting any, they just don’t register. What do blueberries even go with? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/98 "2013-06-25T07:35:06Z")
I tried a **corndog** once, when I was a kid in Culver City. It wasn’t very good and I didn’t try one again for 15 years; then I tried one at Hot Dog on a Stick, and it was much better. I was never interested in trying one again. I don’t mind fish, but if the \*\*fish has bones \*\*I consider it a nuisance! And if the fish still has the _head_ on it (as I got once in a restaurant in San Francisco) that’s even worse! My Mom used to make **salmon cakes** —and left the vertebrae in! This even though I sometimes put the patty in a sandwich, with tartar sauce and cheese. I’ve tried **churros** —forget it. The sugar they’re slathered with is not the worst part. Chewing on a churro is like trying to eat a bicycle inner tube. Rubbery. **Tofu** is gross. It has a squishy texture and worse taste. I sometimes go to a Chinese restaurant where every patron is served a small bowl of egg drop soup that has some tofu in it; I just swallow the tofu instead of biting or tasting it. Ick. When I was a kid I liked \*\*boiled eggs \*\*and hated fried eggs. Now it’s the other way around. Our parents insisted we eat all kinds of vegetables, including **sweet potatoes**. I never liked them, and haven’t eaten them in years. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/99 "2013-06-26T03:07:33Z")
My brother gave me a piece of Cracklin’ Oat Bran cereal. After I ate it, he convinced me it was Meow Mix cat food. Won’t touch the stuff to this day! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682/100 "2013-06-26T03:50:55Z")
The night before I had an aneurism/brain hemorrhage, I ate a whole Korean fried chicken, drank a pitcher of beer, and had a little side dish of sliced-up cabbage with thousand-island dressing. I will never touch sliced-up cabbage with thousand-island dressing again as long as I live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-for-which-you-have-a-bad-association/391682.md?page=4)