At long last, we now know why Tom Brady hates strawberries.
The New England Patriots quarterback recently appeared on NPR’s popular quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” Brady discussed a variety of topics, but perhaps the most interesting bit came when the conversation turned to his notoriously stingy, strawberry-free diet.
Brady revealed that he grew up hating the smell of fruits — largely thanks to his Aunt. He also talked about his surprising decision to eat a strawberry during a recent appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“My aunt lived in central California,” Brady told ‘Wait Wait’ host Peter Sagal, “and when she’d drive up to see us, she would stop at the fruit stands on the side of the road and she’d get these big trays of strawberries. She’d bring them up to your house and she would put them in our refrigerator. Every time the refrigerator door was open, the smell of strawberries would permeate the room.
“I could not stand it. Since then, I’ve never eaten a strawberry and the thought of a strawberry is just terrible for me. The fact that I did it the other night, I couldn’t believe it.”
When asked how the strawberry tasted, Brady replied, “like s–t.”
Well, that settles that.
While it admittedly still is hard to fathom someone disliking delicious, juicy strawberries, you can’t really argue with Brady’s explanation. Many psychologists claim that one’s individual taste preferences, which are entirely subjective in nature, largely are the products of whether that person had negative or positive experiences with a given food/beverage during their youth.
For example: If, as a kid, you once got nauseous after eating fried dough, chances are you’ll always hate fried dough, even if the fried dough had nothing to do with why you got sick to your stomach. The same theory purportedly can be applied to whether you think something smells good or bad.
Still, strawberries are pretty awesome — and so is fried dough.
