> I assume that your son avoids denatured foods, Jean-Claude. Does he avoid
> them by instinct or have you taught him what's good and what's bad?

That amazed me . he never touch foods that have been denatured . I simply
offered to him only  raw undenatured .
foods . first as baby by chewing for him then as he could serve himself by
free choice among what is on the counter or in jars in the pantry . he
allways have been exposed to cooking on a daily basis as my wife and her son
eat cooked food on a daily basis (  organic but whatever the manufacturers
managed to convince them to buy ( from candy bars to noodle and corn chips
all the things that kids are supposed to love )
I also seen him as young as 2 feeding her little friend from her plate (
cooked foods ) with her spoon without any desire to try . He never showed
desire to try anything .
her sister, almost 2 never touch cooked foods ever but her story is
differente , i have been less present with her about feeding her ,she is
still breast feeding also . at her birth i was not 100 percent instincto
anymore as i was eating seasonned salads so she love seasonned salad and we
share almost everyday a sald bowl ( i can't convince my 6 years old son to
eat some despite i wishh he will eat more greens - he eat them as long we
harvest them directly from the garden and eat on the spot,  nettles corn
salad )
she is also by temperament way more curious and adventurous than her brother
and few time when young i was warning  her to not eat pice of corn ships
scattered on the beach by making a face of disgust . that was enough for her
to not want to pursue ( despite than in other aeras as a strong willed as
she is  , she will try anyway ....like try to stop her to use a  sharp knife
to cut vegetables or fruit ...dangerous enterprise !)
for a while because both my wife and her older were taking supplements in
capsules she did wanted to try ,we let her do it with fish  oil where she
was sucking all the oil after bitting into it and spitting out the capsule
.she love dry salmon and eat a lot of it too .
so despite they are very different in behavior the first one is very prudent
by nature , they don't see cooked foods as foods and it is as simple as that
.
Teaching kids is against my philosophy . I believe in the concept of
unschooling . I am there as a ressource for them to tap into from their own
will and they turn toward me or their mother to check if an experiment is
okay when they are not too sure themselves . because the way we raise our
childrens they both have great trust in us so that explain also why there is
no fight in themselves between our influence and model and the influence and
model from other sources .
they are also invited regularly to birthday parties where the traditionnal
cake is such a big thing and still don't show interest . when it is their
birth day we make a  big fruit sculpture instead ( other kids devore it too
, no left over )
hope it meet your curiosity
about avoiding by instinct i raised horses ( free range ) : we were trying
to get young ones  used to grains or horse pellet to attract the herd back
to the stabble when we needed them . they allways sistematically refused
them , we had to force them in their mouth and once they tasted it  few time
, were crazy about it as the older horses . even the exemple of the mother
was not enough to persusade them . It is like smoking the first time there
is an instinctive no .
jean-claude