Only two changes that I've noticed, and neither are welcome. One is that eggs no longer appeal to me. I still cook and eat them occasionally, but without much pleasure. The other is involves chicken. While I still enjoy chicken as soon as it's cooked, I don't feel the same way about leftover roast chicken. I have no idea why these changes occurred.

Lucille, I would say your new preferences are a good thing. They've always been my first choice. ;-)

I read that like eyesight and hearing, a person's ability to taste changes with age. I am eating less meat and more fruits vegetables than ever before.

No change here. I remember eating a biscuit and gravy every Saturday in the Sears cafeteria when I was 19 years old, .70 cents. Going to Taco Bell for lunch for 2 bean burritos. My mom made home made pizza and bought me green chilie takeout every Friday night when she went out for Mexican food without me.

Still eating ALL those things as favorites. :0)

I would offer the opinion that "times" have changed more than anything, although my living on the East coast to the West coast changed about the same time. Prior to 1980, it seems like we ate more canned food and perishables were less available.... moved back to California and availability as well the family garden (my Mom's) a great adventure that just kept getting better as my awareness grew and grew. I can't remember when I last purchased a canned veggie... not even tomato sauce (well not totally) as I freeze many tomato sauces from my few tomato plants, and my freezer is stocked with many pounds of fruit from my backyard trees and berry bushes. During my 24 year absence from California, my family moved from SF to a more rural setting, and were putting down self-sustainable roots.... fresh foods and eggs (and chicken and rabbits).

Haven't we (as a Nation) become more accustomed to eating locally and fresh, if possible, since the `1980-1990's?

I think that there is more awareness now about the value of eating more fresh foods, plus the grocery stores have more fresh fruit and veggies than they had when I was growing up. Now that I am older I know that if I want to keep my body going for a long time I had better give it nourishing fuel. When I was younger I didn't give a hoot. Now I crave fruit and veggies and what I didn't like when I was younger now taste good to me. I don't like the taste of beef anymore and could quite often skip meat.

I know that I ate a lot more healthfully when I lived in California. Much better selections of vegetables and my peer influence was much more positive than it is now.

Left to my own device, I usually choose the path of least resistance - fast foods and already made foods at the grocery store. :(

Yes, my food preferences changed at 62~I became a vegetarian. I will eat salmon 2x's a week for omega 3's and extra protein.

being different here: I like some "kick" in my food.

For me am using more Tobasco sauce on certain things.

My mother got that way as well.

I disliked green peppers as a young person, but love them now. One I cannot figure out is my current distaste for bananas.....loved them when younger.

I thought I'd lost my taste for beef, but I think it's the beef that's changed! We really enjoyed the Ranchers Cooperative beef on Maui. Regardless, I no longer cook or serve the large portions of meat we used to consume. We eat hamburger plain -- not on buns. No fries/chips; vegetables instead. (So you see why the meat needs to be tasty on its own!)

Supermarket chicken often has little flavor -- even smells like burnt feathers as I cook it. (Anybody else?) I've read we're getting immature hens -- bigger, but tasteless.

I won't buy the Hormel pork products -- that are 'Guaranteed Tender' because the meat is injected.

I appreciate being able to find a wide variety of affordable produce almost year 'round. Thank you, South America -- and the jet planes that get it to us fresh!

I'm more picky about ice cream, and I want only dark chocolate. I'll buy a pint carton of high butterfat ice cream with rich flavor over a gallon carton of heavily sugared aerated milk with a thickener added. I want real richness and real flavor, not sugary volume.

Yes or my body has changed, some foods just don't agree with me anymore.
I used to love a good steak, not anymore. I don't like the taste much and if I eat it I will pay for it in stomach distress. I have come to the conclusion that I just need to avoid oysters, clams, mussels, etc. I have been extremely sick after indulging in those items. My specialist told me about a year ago to stop eating that stuff it's just too risky with a suppressed immune system.

I find I like a lot of veggies that I didn't eat much, but it could be because I was not exposed to them much.
Brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, kale, spinach. And I never drank coffee even though my family is a big coffee drinking bunch. Now I have to make myself an iced mocha coffee every morning. And I will on occasion even drink a hot cup of coffee.

I am much more willing to give something new a chance these days too.
Some of it I think is also changing the area we live, and the cultures of those areas.

I lke chicken or fish more, red meat less....I'll have a bite of steak now and then but don't care to eat much of it..eat less hamburgers too.

My taste buds really went whacky on me after a surgery two years ago and still haven't returned to normal. Or maybe it's my olfactory senses that have gone bad. The primary tastes of sour, bitter, salt, and sweet seem to be multiplied by ten to my taste which makes some previously enjoyed foods seem horrible to me now.

But I also totally agree that I've learned to love (crave) fresh fruits and veggies, and different kinds of grains and seeds.....'learned ' because of health reasons. Boy, did our palates evolve over the past few years!

I know I have a harder time in the kitchen as we get older. Hubster and I always preferred our red meat medium rare. Then he wanted his cooked more on the medium side, now medium well. Everything, to him, is "too salty" now. I use more salt, because I can't taste it anymore. (I don't use it in cooking anymore, at all. Just add mine at the table.) The spaghetti sauce, I have been making for 40 years, is too acidic to me now. I grate some carrots into it and add a little milk at the end to mellow it out a little.

Still pigging out. Don't read labels. Maybe when I get to that 'old' category things will change.

The senses of taste and smell are connected and for many people sensitivities can decrease as the years pass. Wikipedia says that they can also be diminished by repeated illnesses and/or exposure to various substances in the air. Wanting to use more salt or hot sauce might be an indication of reduced taste perception.

Changing preferences also happens over time too. Thank goodness, wouldn't it be boring if it always were the same?

I was raised on red meat and potatoes. Fried chicken almost every Sunday. We never had food delivered to the house.

As a young married man, I did things a bit different and scaled back on the red meat. I cooked some things (I was much better than my wife at the time), that substituted for fast-food to pacify my three sons. Growing up, we never had tacos or pizza - I fixed those on a regular basis.

Now that I am in 60s, I noticed that my taste buds are not as good as they used to be and I end up adding 'something' to pep it up. I make more soups (not from the can) and we have fish more often in one month than I used to get in an entire year.

I too grow some of our veggies and we belong to a CSA. That means from May until November we get lots of fresh produce each week. Extras get canned or frozen. My doctor likes that kind of eating. He is of the opinion that I ought to lose 40 pounds though!

Have my tastes changed? It is more like my life-style has changed.

Angelaid, I'm like that with spaghetti sauce, too. I find that a little sour cream helps.

Your taste buds will deteriorate as you age, hence the need for more spices, tabasco sauce, salt etc. The other thing that is commonly lost as one ages is your sense of thirst. So its really important to make an effort to keep the fluids up.

I've always eaten quite healthy avoiding packaged foods, canned goods and prepared store meals. What I have noticed is that I don't like going out for dinner anymore. I just prefer my own cooking because I know what's in it and I just don't enjoy the food or prices that restaurants are charging these days. A lot of my friends feel the same way.

I too have noticed that I don't taste foods like I used too, also don't enjoy going into restaurants much anymore either. Just a waste of money if you don't enjoy it.

I want to taste the essence of what I am eating. If something is overwhelmed by seasoning I wonder what's wrong with it that it needs to be disguised. Sauces and seasonings were originally employed to make spoiled foods edible in the centuries before canned goods and refrigeration. Now I think they often hide poor quality.

Some manufacturers seem to have taken note. You can now find lower-sodium and lower-fat this and that. I think I see a little decline in the epidemic of hugely fat Americans. Might that be partly due to the economic downturn shaving the numbers of gargantuan meals eaten 'out'?

Good tip about drinking more water! I think having cool, filtered water through-the-door in our fridge helps encourage that. I haven't walked down the Poison Food and Drink aisles in our grocery for many years. (These are usually in the middle of the store and contain shelves of sugar and salt disguised as overpriced food and drink.)

Yeah, mine changed. I now eat more prunes.