I mean, I’m vegan, I don’t want her to eat fish tacos. But she was telling me the other day that her friend ordered some and she thought for a moment about trying it, but in the end she was afraid they would be too spicy. I told her they’re not, but she has it in her head that fish tacos are some strange foreign food that will fuck up her taste buds or something. A grown ass adult afraid to try fish tacos.
Then you have my dad. He is surprisingly cool with me being vegan, doesn’t really care. He’s never criticized or made fun. But he will never eat any vegan meal I prepare. Why? Because he won’t eat any entree that doesn’t have meat in it. He just refuses. Like an adult baby. My mom has asked him to just try eating a salad but he won’t. Absolutely zero interest in trying anything new that he thinks he won’t like.
Old white people are weird.
There is a particular phobia of spice among Boomers. I don't get it, in the unlikely event that your food is too spicy for you to eat just don't eat it again. You will not be harmed by missing one opportunity to consume a treat.
Besides that, though, there are unique American brainworms about nutrition. But they are complex because half of the country is convinced fat will kill them, and many more are convinced sugar will kill them, and nobody seems to agree that you can eat almost anything as long as it's in moderation and part of a varied diet.
Yeah, like there's corn syrup in practically everything, just absurd amounts of it absolutely everywhere for no reason, and they'll happily eat mountains of that and wash it all down with a big mug of even more corn syrup, then balk at putting small amounts of sugar in places it actually belongs. Like someone will drink 200 calories of corn syrup without thinking then imagine adding 5 calories of table sugar to a meal will make it "unhealthy."
there was a literal conspiracy by the sugar industry and scientists to spread the whole "low fat" thing