Agriculture Secretary: Americans Need to 'Adjust' Their Tastes to Like Healthy Food

Eating well isn't that hard -- Americans just need to tweak their taste buds to find it more palatable, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said this week.

Speaking to members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday, Vilsack said Americans need to "adjust" their tastes so they'll like the healthful foods the government wants them to eat.

"You know, as we deal with this issue of reducing sodium and sugar, it sounds simple to do, but you all know better than I do, it’s not as simple as it sounds," Vilsack said. "It’s going to take time for people’s taste to adjust and they will adjust over time, but it will take some time."

To achieve this, Vilsack told the audience that the department has "a number" of research projects underway to make nutritious foods more "appealing."

"So, we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition. At the end of the day, though, we've got to deal with this," he said.

Listen to the audio, via CNS News:

According to CNS, Vilsack’s comments came in response to a question about the best way to deal with food waste. The goal of the research projects is to make nutritious food more appetizing so less is wasted.

He mentioned visiting a Colorado school that was serving children brownies made with black beans: "The kids didn’t even know they were eating a healthier snack."

Nutritious eating is of course a cornerstone of first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign to cut down on childhood obesity. She most recently teamed up with Red Lobster and Olive Garden in a plan for the two companies to cut calories and sodium levels from their menus over the next 10 years.

(h/t Gateway Pundit)