Love & Relationships

If you ask couples to list the things they most enjoy doing together, topping the list are cooking and eating. But what happens when one of you is an adventurous foodie who loves exotic flavors and trying new things and the other will only eat, say, meat and potatoes? Conflict!

Experts point out that foodies can be fun dinner companions, because they turn friends and family onto new tastes but they often view unadventurous eaters as stubborn or even boring. On the flip side, people with simpler tastes see foodies as intimidating, judgmental, or even snobby.

One wife we read about orders wine with dinner, while her husband drinks milk. And one woman only eats chicken and pasta and refuses to be persuaded to try anything new – even while her husband eats things like frog’s legs and chicken hearts.
 
It may sound funny, but for some couples, different palates can cause a lot of friction. Drew Ramsey is a Columbia University professor of psychiatry and co-author of The Happiness Diet. And he's seen food come between couples. He says, unless they can bridge that gap, they run the risk of feeling that something is missing in the relationship.

So what's a foodie and a chicken nugget-eater to do? Understand your partner's complaints. Nugget-eaters, you may need to be a little more open-minded. And foodies, you may need to tone down your superior attitude.

Also, you can upgrade your ingredients. Non-foodies value quality, too. So, for the steak-and-potatoes lover, try grass-fed beef, and purple potatoes with garlic and butter.

So are you in a food-conflict relationship? Tell me about it at Facebook./JohnTesh.