I’m so obsessive about my food not touching that I try, if at all possible, to have everything in its own bowl. And yes, I eat one thing at a time. Drives my family nuts. And I’m male.
My father is always obsessed with the order in which I eat my food. And indeed, seems overly obsessed with my food in general. There was an incident at Thanksgiving in which he asked why I didn’t have any potatoes. I promptly told him because I planned on eating my food in the order that I wanted. This seemed to piss him off. I can’t imagine why anyone would care in what order food is eaten (by others.)
Sometimes I eat all of one, and then move on. Sometimes I mix. It depends on my mood.
I’m sure you’re probably kidding, but no, this is not a symptom of OCD. It’s not a “sign” either. :rolleyes: (Coming from someone who was diagonosed with pretty damn severe OCD three years ago.)
I have usually have very little time to eat, so I usually just shovel everything in as fast as possible, and enjoy the taste afterwords. I just got my tongue pierced so until a couple days ago eating any meal became a long production. At least its taught me to slow down and enjoy my food a little.
I usually eat what I don’t like first, moving my way up to the really good thing, so that the last thing I taste is the really good thing.
With M&Ms and other such candy, I sort by colors. Then I must make sure there are the same number of each color, and that number must be even. (So if there are, say, 15 browns and 13 reds, I must eat three of the browns and 1 of the reds so that there are 12 of each. This goes for all four colors.) Once I’ve evened that out, I eat them a pair at a time, one on each side of my mouth.
Wow. Just finished visiting this other thread about odd little habits:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41543&perpage=50&pagenumber=1
Some of the posts there are about this very same oddity of eating one type of food before moving on to the next!
Hmmm… we both can only eat Mac n cheese if it has peas and we’re both in Minne-soh-tah.
(Cues Twilight Zone music)
Oh wait! You hate peas, I hate Mac N Cheese. Peas aren’t bad alone, as long as they are buttered. Mac N Cheese? Wallpaper paste.
Jeanster- bagels with cream cheese and salsa is nummy!
Anything with salsa is nummy!
And I guess for me the “weird” condiment combo I prefer is catsup with grilled cheese sammiches. And dill dip with fries.
I do that too!
Additionally, a bite must be totally swallowed before I even think about taking a sip of my drink because mushy food bits floating around in my mouth feels all eww. Orange juice with pulp? Not on my watch mister.
Sounds just like me! 
My other food compulsion relates to eating at McDonalds or similar fast food outlets. The burger wrappers must all be folded neatly and put inside the chip packet which is folded in half and put inside the drink cup. If this does not happen I get slightly nuts - Rubbish MUST Be Neat!!
I must eat the yolk of my fried eggs in one bite. It can’t drip or be cut up. That would be wrong.
A nutritionist I used to go out with once told me that because of the way we digest food, it was always better to eat high protein foodstuffs first and carbohydrates last. She gave a more detailed explanation, something to do with the protein and fat stimulating the bile ducts which broke down things easier, and the time it took to digest things and dilution of stomach acid…
But overall she said the best way to eat was :
Meat first
Pasta/rice/potatoes last
Anything else, in the middle.
Chew your food!
I love the saying “Life is uncertain; eat dessert first”.
People’s eating habits do not bother me (unless they make gross noises when eating - argh!). It must be the cultural anthropologist in me, but the way people actually eat fascinates me. It says a lot about them.
Whilst there are no real food issues such as touching, I do eat my foods in a particular order. Veggies are always eaten first, then the potatoes, then the meat. Bread can be eaten at any time during the meal.
Like swampbear, I separate M&Ms into colour groups (eating the blue ones last). This is also done with other coloured candies such as Starburst (Opalfruits), candy hearts, etc.
I’m weird. I know it. Oh well…
I eat whatever gets the coldest, fastest, first. Usually ends up being the vegetables.
I always eat foods individually. A habit I started in childhood, when I thought my enormous stomaches were caused by food being mixed up in the wrong section of my stomach. I always ate the meat last. Turns out I have serious problems digesting meat, and don’t eat it anymore.
My parents actively taught me to make up a mixed forkful of food. I think I was more or less inclined to do so anyway.
Is there something wrong with that? That is the only way to eat jelly.
Oh really? But bile doesn’t go into your stomach, and I can’t see why anybody would want bits of meat and fat go down his bile duct. The only job of your stomach is to grind up the food, so by the time it gets down to your small intestine, it’s all a mess anyway.
When I was in the orphanage work-house, you couldn’t eat gruel any other way than all at once.
Oh, wait, that wasn’t me - Some guy named Ollie or something.
I do tend to drink all of whatever I’m having with a meal before I even get halfway done, leaving nothing left when I get to the dry stuff (assuming no bottomless restaurant iced-tea refills)
Otherwise, my belt size will tell you that I have no habits that restrict how, when, where or what I eat …
If you have a plate of different foods, then OF COURSE you have to eat one before moving on.
Otherwise mixing flavours ruins the taste!
My step-father repetitively tells this peas-with-honey-on-a-knife joke, but tells it as if it were a true story about my mother doing it at a restaurant, then he says “I was so humiliated I almost dropped a whole handful of mashed potatoes.”
He, too, will be here all week.