Friend says she doesn't like chocolate but eats it anyway??

[harvey77]

My friend always says she don't like chocolate/sweets/cake but every time we get together she eats it. Last time we went out she finished by ordering a huge white chocolate dessert dripping with chocolate sauce and cream which she demolished.

She says the same about her son - that he won't eat chocolate, etc, but when you ask her son what he wants to eat he points to the cake or chocolate biscuits.

I don't understand why she would lie about it - if you like cake eat it. She's a bit overweight but works out regularly.

Why lie?

It is a particular syndrome. People who suffer it believe that if you deny it, you don’t get the calories.

It is similar to those with fake allergies, fake vegeterianism, fake consciousness about the planet and people like me who sometimes just make things up 😉

attention seeking ? possibly hopes you won't remember her 'not liking chocolate' this reminds me of the story of a woman asking a local farmer for a sheep for her freezer but she doesn' twant one killed specially ! wtf ??

*doesn't want

I know similar, had them for dinner and made two desserts one chocolate based and they other not - due to her not liking chocolate. Then she picks the chocolate dessert ( which is clearly chocolate and I described as such)

So what? How does it actually affect your life?

Sugar addiction?

It only affects my life when we cook for them and then she goes for the chocolate over the savoury dessert I've made for her. She mentions nearly every time we eat that she doesn't have a sweet tooth.

I'm curious as to why she would feel she needs to lie.

I wonder if she's like me? I would never ever buy chocolate. But I usually order it as dessert in a restaurant. There are always 80% chocolate based options on the desert menu, they're nice as a novelty and sometimes you're just not in the mood for apple pie or whatever the alternative usually is.

My son is not a chocolate person really. He doesn't have a sweet tooth. But that doesn't mean he doesn't point to thr cake - that's just greediness. But he won't finish it. He likes the concept more than the taste.

Or she could just be super annoying!

she would have to be a very good friend for me to put up with the pita behaviour. just be yourself ops friend

It's confusing. I love choc/cake, and I don't deny it. I have been trying to be good with Christmas coming up and my clothes feeling tight but when we went out I treated myself and had dessert too. Dessert menu was varied with lots on it plus a couple of choc choices.

I don't understand why she would say her son doesn't eat it when he blatently loves it and when anyone gives him some he devours it.

When she tells me they don't like it now I'm finding it hard to nod along.

Well now you know you don’t need to plan around her. I think it is something people say when their aspiration is to not have dessert, but some of us find it hard to say no. Even when it is not our favourite.

I like chocolate, but don’t like cake.

However should you offer me a cake, they are so hard to refuse. Lots of sugary goodness, pretty icing, and often chocolatey too. In theory, what’s not to like?

Then i eat it and am reminded why i don’t like cake. Sweet sickly icing and dry cakiness.

But yes, i will say i don’t like cake, then eat it anyway.

I don't like chocolate, but I like it in things, if you see what I mean. So I wouldn't enjoy a bar of it, or a box of chocolates, but I could easily demolish chocolate brownies, or cake, or mousse etc. I never crave it though.

I quite often tell people I don't like chocolate because it's the only food I have sensory issues with. It's a texture thing so I prefer chocolate-flavoured stuff to actual chocolate. So I might eat a chocolate cake if it looked okay to me, (flavoured with cocoa powder, no chips, no chunks, no icing, no ganache) but another kind of chocolate cake wouldn't be to my taste.

Basically if it looks like wax (chocolate bars/chocolate chips) or if it smears (chocolate spread/icing) I won't fancy it, but people tend to have minimal patience for sensory issues so I just go with a blanket "no chocolate for me" out of courtesy to my hosts. It also gets you out of having to endure patronising conversations about "oh but you've just never had the good stuff", yes I have and it doesn't make any difference. People don't all like the same things, I'm quite happy for other people to like chocolate, it's just not for me.

Also a lot of people have specific types of chocolate as a migraine trigger, so there's that, too.

Can I ask - if you don't like chocolate and ordered a choc dessert as it looked nice - would you remember after a few mouthfulls the taste isn't really for you and stop eating as it's not your thing? Or finish it all?

Friend ate the whole huge choc dessert? Kind of think I'd do as I love love love choc.

I hate chocolate, although that’s probably too strong of a word. I don’t like chocolate, for various reasons, but I can’t stop eating it. If it’s there it will go in my mouth, I truly don’t enjoy most of it (we mainly have the purple stuff). For me it’s become a habit and a difficult one to break. Probably the sugar, probably because it’s been in my life so long. I guess I don’t tell people that I don’t like it though because it does sound a bit bonkers!

My stepmum is like this. Every time you eat something sweet in front of her she makes a lot of noise about how she really doesn’t like sweet things and could never eat something like that and it looks far too sweet. Then when she thinks nobody is looking she’ll demolish the lot.

I adore her and Ieave her to it but it does secretly make me chuckle.

Can I ask - if you don't like chocolate and ordered a choc dessert as it looked nice - would you remember after a few mouthfulls the taste isn't really for you and stop eating as it's not your thing? Or finish it all?

I’d finish it. For the usual complicated food reasons- i was brough up being made to finish my plate, avoid wasting food etc, and i spend so much time denying myself treats “on a diet” that if i’ve given myself permission to eat one, i am bloody well going to eat it. Even if it’s not that nice.

Oh my god OP I could have written this about someone who I used to live with. We had an argument about it and I think everyone else in the room thought I was absolutely crackers for even caring but it just baffled me so much We were discussing foods we didn’t like and she said she hated chocolate. I was a bit taken aback and said no you don’t, I’ve seen you eat it hundreds of times. She was very defensive, kept saying no I definitely do hate it. Whenever any of us had any chocolate she would always be asking for some! I couldn’t believe it. Never worked it out.

If it looked nice and I ordered it, unless I found a rogue chunk or spready bit concealed in it, it would be fine, so I could continue eating it. Unless I was getting full, or if my teeth felt weird from the texture.

That's what I was thinking NoMilk - that she tells us she doesn't eat it to convince us she's healthier than she is. She's currently training hard 3-4 times a week and I've been wondering is why she isn't losing weight - she works out loads. I can't say I've seen a change in her body shape/weight.

Yes I'd finish it. Too much conditioning not to, as really* above. If it was mousse/cream/ice cream I'd find it easier, but if it was cake I would force myself. And feel sick afterwards.

The dessert she demolished was white choc chunks of cake with choc sauce and choc malteasers on the top of whipped cream. So every type of texture you could get in a sundae dish.

Whether she's losing weight or not the exercise will be beneficial to her health. I just find that comment about her not changing shape a bit cruel.

I don't have a sweet tooth and would choose savoury over sweet every time but sometimes you're not given savoury as an option so sweet it is! It would be odd to sit and eat crisps for dessert so if I was still hungry at the end of a meal I'd choose something sweet. I just don't have that thing where I crave sweet food or if I opened a tub of ice cream I could polish the whole thing off. Maybe she's like me!