Avocado & Quinoa: Snubbed By Over-60s

Queen Mary Berry revealed last week, once and for all, what she really thinks about the avocado. In a nutshell (avocado skin?), she’s a traditionalist and believes they’re best eaten as part of a classic prawn cocktail rather than mashed up on toast. The ultimate authority has spoken, so only time will tell whether this will lead to a sharp decline in green gunk-covered toast.

But, despite what the media and a quick look at Instagram might suggest, not everyone is surviving solely on avocado on toast anyway. In fact, 52 per cent of over-60s have never even tried it. What’s more, 22.5 per cent have never even eaten avocado by itself. Millennials’ minds will be blown. But Mary will be proud – remember what’s important now.

The Sun recently reported on the findings of a survey from the Chilean Blueberry Committee, conducted via One Poll that set out to explore whether over-60s are embracing modern food fads.

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Seeing as the results showed 1.3 per cent of over-60s have never had porridge, 3.8 per cent are yet to get around to trying garlic, 10.7 per cent haven’t eaten asparagus and 15.2 per cent remain unacquainted with the aubergine, it would seem that, on the whole, they are not.

The foodstuff given the biggest snub by the older generation is matcha, with 90 per cent admitting to never trying it. As it turns everything it comes into contact with a somewhat violent shade of green, we think they can be forgiven.

Next on the snub list was spirulina, which 85 per cent haven’t got round to trying. We have to confess that we haven’t either and *might* have had to Google what it was. Apparently it’s a type of algae that ‘can be consumed by humans’. Well, technically grass can be consumed by humans, but we don’t fancy trying that either. Over-60s are unnecessarily getting a bit of a bad rap here in our eyes.

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The survey found that 35 per cent of people aged 60 and above prefer a meat and two veg-type dinner each night, which is a perfectly balanced and healthy way to eat. But the results did show that over-60s could be being a little more adventurous in their food choices occasionally.

Almost three-quarters said they’d never tried chia seeds and 53 per cent have never had quinoa, which is fair enough in our eyes, as pronouncing them is enough of a nightmare without having to work out what to do with them too. But there are some seriously tasty foods older folk could be missing out on.

Take garlic, for example; 3.8 per cent of over-60s are yet to try it. What are they waiting for?! It’s amazing! It makes just about everything taste so much more gorgeous, and how can anyone have got so far in life without trying garlic bread?!

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Curry’s another dish too many over-60s are missing out on. Almost five per cent said they’d never tried it, but it doesn’t have to be as spicy as people might think. A mild but tasty korma is a good place to start for your first ever curry – it’ll change your life, trust us.

Interestingly, 46 per cent of older people have never drank dairy-free milk, despite more and more millennials turning to alternatives like soy and oat milk due to issues with lactose. This raises questions about whether over-60s are suffering with intolerances in silence, or is there just something of a fad surrounding these alternatives?

But one food that we’re not going to try to sway people’s opinion on though is parsnip crisps, which two-thirds of over-60s said they’d never eaten. In our opinion, the classics like cheese and onion, and salt and vinegar aren’t broken, so don’t need fixing.