JulesMaigret, I think that’s quite a brilliant idea, actually, having people are so sure they can’t tolerate BSD foods or can’t survive without their carby dishes pick things at random off a menu for a week. We spend lifetimes building these intricate lattice structures of likes and dislikes, rarely venturing outside the cage, not realizing that we are imprisoning ourselves with every “oh I can’t stand mushrooms” and “I couldn’t live without pasta.”
Many years ago, I was sent to a corporate seminar on decision making. I assumed it would be a jargony bunch of nonsense, but hey, two days off work, all expenses paid, so what the hell, right? Much to my shock, it ended up being a revelation. The instructor showed us how to make a decision-making spreadsheet. You list all your criteria for, say, buying a car. Some of those criteria are required elements. If the car doesn’t meet them, it is immediately struck off as an option. The rest are desired elements. You rank them by importance and grade each car passes the required elements on a scale of 1-10 on how well it meets each desired element. Tally up the totals and you have an accurate numerical assessment of how well each option suits your needs. It’s incredibly effective at keeping out the “but I really like the way this steering wheel feels” distractions so you can focus on what matters.
Point of all this being, the instructor noted that the more required elements you have, the more you limit your options. He suggested there be no more than three and that they be major (price, size and accident record with the car example). The more picayune preferences had to be in desired elements. I realized in a thunderbolt moment that I had crammed my life full of “required elements” based on avoiding small annoyances and embracing old favorites. Ultimately it can only lead to stagnation and paralysis. To reduce food, one of the most varied and rich expressions of human culture, to a list of required elements is to reduce your life.