On Bacon, Peanut Butter, and High Fructose Corn Syrup

I love the reaction I get when I tell people I don't like a certain type of food. I get the best reaction when I tell people I don't like steak and that I don't like bacon. They usually look at me like I am purple. Nothing against purple people, I am just decidedly NOT purple. Then I usually go on to tell the tale of how I could possibly like neither steak nor bacon. It really boils down to not eating them.
I have had many such conversations over the years and have developed a theory. There was some point in my life where I decided not to eat steak and bacon, so I stopped. Since I haven't been eating them for many years now, when I do try them, I just don't like them. Sounds like I have amazing willpower, right? Don't be fooled. There are certain kinds of food that I most definitely would not be able to trick myself into disliking. My food magic trick worked with steak and bacon because I really wasn't the biggest fan of them anyway. In my quest to eat healthy, I am very fortunate that I prefer vegetables over meat any day. Now, if I could just do some magic trick on my sweet tooth!
Speaking of sweet--Continuing my theory that when you remove something from your diet for long enough, you stop missing it, I used to hate peanut butter. It is still not one of my favorite foods. There was a point in college when I had a cholesterol test, I tested high. I don't know what the breakdown of good and bad cholesterol was, but the student health services center gave me all these pamphlets on nutrition. I have family history of high cholesterol, so I decided to take serious measures to keep my cholesterol in check with diet and exercise. Long story short, I forced myself to start eating peanut butter on toast for breakfast to get some morning protein. A couple years ago, I started buying natural peanut butter, because sugar is bad, right? Remember a couple days ago when we were stuck in Rhode Island, in a hotel? I bought a few staples at CVS, so I would have food to eat. I bought some JIF peanut butter. Why do you have to add sugar to peanut butter? After eating natural peanut for so long, anything else just tastes wrong.
Drumroll please--high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I am always amazed when I read labels to see how many products have HFCS in them...things you wouldn't think need it, like bread or applesauce? During our Rhode Island hotel stay, I also grabbed some Smuckers strawberry preserves and Motts applesauce. Both items have HFCS and another sweetener. I took one bite of the applesauce and threw it in the trash. It didn't even taste like applesauce!
The moral of the story is: After years of not eating steak, bacon, sugar in my peanut butter, and HFCS in my jelly and applesauce, my taste buds have changed. Maybe I am a food snob. Now if only I could cut all sugar out of my life. I would probably have to remove my "sweet" taste buds, first.