According to a recent YouGov survey, tofu ranked as the fourth most-hated food in the country – behind anchovies, liver, and sardines. It’s a strange list when you think about it. Anchovies, liver, sardines – all body parts of dead animals.
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Ignorance
aug 31, 2025, 3:30 pm • 1 0 • view
I love all of those things. My parents lived through WWII and did not play when it came to high protein, affordable food options. I was a teen in the 80’s when tofu was introduced to my diet. It’s so versatile, and sucks up the flavor of any sauce you add to it. It’s so underrated in the U.S.
aug 31, 2025, 4:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Yet tofu, a block of beans, somehow earns just as much vitriol. The survey showed that dislike for tofu increases with age, race, and political conservatism. Middle-aged and older Americans, especially white Republicans, are leading the charge against it.
aug 31, 2025, 3:30 pm • 16 1 • view
Gen Z and Millennials, meanwhile, are far more open to it. What does that tell us? That resistance to tofu isn’t really about the food itself. It’s about culture, habit, and identity.
aug 31, 2025, 3:31 pm • 16 4 • view
Check politics too. I’m a younger genX (basically Xennial ) I love tofu I’m also liberal. I can definitely see maga types more against tofu. I ate it before I became vegan 11+ years ago when I was just vegetarian and eat it even more as Vegan. it’s awesome!
aug 31, 2025, 3:36 pm • 1 0 • view
For many, tofu is seen as “other” – foreign, vegan, not part of the meat-and-potatoes narrative that dominates American eating. Hating tofu isn’t about taste. It’s a declaration of allegiance to a system where eating animals is normalised and expected.
aug 31, 2025, 3:32 pm • 18 4 • view
Tofu’s reputation as “tasteless” is laughable. By that logic, pasta, rice, and potatoes would all be hated foods too – unless seasoned, they’re bland. The difference is cultural framing.
aug 31, 2025, 3:33 pm • 22 4 • view
Potatoes are comfort food; tofu is branded “weird health food.” The truth is that tofu is a canvas: it absorbs marinades, crisps up beautifully in the pan, blends into sauces, and can replace eggs, cream, or meat depending on how you use it.
aug 31, 2025, 3:34 pm • 16 3 • view
When people dismiss tofu, what they’re really revealing is their lack of imagination – or their unwillingness to learn a new way of cooking.
aug 31, 2025, 3:35 pm • 13 0 • view
Consider the hypocrisy: flesh from cows, pigs, and chickens is seen as “real food” even though it only tastes like anything after seasoning, marinating, and cooking. Strip away the salt, fat, and spice, and you’re left with something nobody would eat raw.
aug 31, 2025, 3:36 pm • 14 1 • view
Yet somehow tofu gets singled out as “flavourless.” The irony is that tofu is healthier, more sustainable, and doesn’t require killing someone to put it on your plate. In places like Okinawa, where tofu is eaten daily, people live some of the longest, healthiest lives on Earth.
aug 31, 2025, 3:37 pm • 16 1 • view
But in the US, where animal protein is idolised, heart disease and obesity rates are through the roof. Hating tofu isn’t really about tofu. It’s about defending the mindset that animals are food, that eating their bodies is tradition, and that alternatives are a threat.
aug 31, 2025, 3:38 pm • 11 1 • view
Tofu becomes a stand-in for everything the animal-exploiting industries fear: change. And that’s why tofu matters. Every time someone chooses it over flesh, they’re voting against a system built on exploitation, slaughter, and environmental collapse.
aug 31, 2025, 3:39 pm • 11 0 • view
I do struggle with it. Spuds I love.
aug 31, 2025, 3:40 pm • 1 0 • view
They say if you don't like tofu you've not had it prepared well. I've come across many instances of poorly prepared tofu and a few places that were delicious.
aug 31, 2025, 3:44 pm • 1 0 • view
Spuds are awesome though 😅
aug 31, 2025, 3:44 pm • 2 0 • view
This is the problem: me, preparing it.
aug 31, 2025, 3:46 pm • 2 0 • view
After much practice I make passable tofu, there's a handful of restaurants I love.
aug 31, 2025, 3:47 pm • 2 0 • view
I'll grant you that with pasta, except for pasta stuffed with various fillings. It's the sauces that make the dish. And, it's true, cooked past is a far more familiar texture than tofu to many people outside of east Asia. But potatoes and rice? Your point fails.
aug 31, 2025, 8:56 pm • 0 0 • view
And potatoes absolutely are not tasteless even with little or no seasoning. Potatoes also are incredibly versatile, they're very familiar and adaptable, and they play a central role in the cuisine of many nations; far more than tofu.
aug 31, 2025, 8:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Rice because it's usually either cooked with flavorings to make it tasty, or it's intended to be used as a bland counterpoint to highly flavored and often spicy food. In other words, its blandness is a welcome quality. A quencher. And its texture is familiar to almost everyone on the planet.
aug 31, 2025, 8:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Guarantee if you sampled the most favourite you'd also find a lot of parts of dead animals.
aug 31, 2025, 4:38 pm • 1 0 • view