Now studies show the power of the tablet to change palates by expanding what people are willing to try. When eaters use technology with food, we are simply more likely to eat new things.

The convenience store Sheetz unveiled espresso drinks in areas where such drinks were unfamiliar, and customers weren’t buying. The company then presented the new drinks prominently on an electronic ordering screen, with descriptors to make the drinks seem more familiar and desirable. The words used presented the drink as special but also demystified it and, as any parent who has gotten a toddler to eat broccoli by calling them “dinosaur trees” knows, names matter.

With the debate over school lunch reform and many school districts claiming they