I LOVE food. I think that cooking, and eating, are transformative experiences bordering on the divine. There’s nothing I’d not try once, few things I’d ever refuse at home, and fewer I’d refuse if served while i was a guest.
That said, my middle son (10 1/2) is a picky eater. He has a soup/stew aversion, refuses gravies and sauces other than ketchup, cooked veggies, fish, and for a while went through an ‘I’ll only eat it if it’s white’ phase. He’s even started on a ‘no pork, no seafood, no gelatin, etc.’ diet due to what he feels are religious obligations (fundamentalist Christian). Even those things he eats are a chore for him- there’s nothing that he just loves. This is without any sort of GI troubles that we can discern.
Of course, the other two are eating machines, so i guess it works out.
I do think that being considered picky is directly related to how much of a pain in the butt you are, and I privately suspect that much of these aversions, where not phobias, are an attempt at attention getting. Humans are programmed to enjoy eating…I can see having a few things you dislike, but when your list of ‘won’t eats’ exceeds your list of ‘eats,’ you’ve got a problem.
I loathe Mexican food–there is nothing on the menu for me, there.
I was an extremely picky eater as a child–and taunted and teased about it, too.
My parents, like down by law , used to play control games with food–we were never smacked for not eating; we just had to sit there for hours, looking at stone cold food. The fights about food! The whole dread awfulness of it! I still shudder when I think of it. But unlike DBL, it didn’t make me an easy eater–it made me phobic about certain foods.
the “it takes 10 tries to know you don’t like something” is complete nonsense. I put one piece of okra in my mouth and my mouth said–absolutely not.
With my kids, I never pushed. They had to take a bite, and the foods were re-introduced, but I swore that I would never “make” them eat anything. It seems to have worked–they eat a lot more stuff than I do!
I’m with the folks who say, cater to the picky’s sometimes, and let them suck it up sometimes, too. If you’re an easy eater–does it matter if you don’t get to go to the Mexican restaurant this time?
It’s not nonsense, it’s a fact. But as I said in my post, I agree that some things can taste so replusive you can’t bring yourself to try them again. Marmite shall never again cross my lips.
FTR, my family never forced me to eat anything - you weren’t punished or served it at the next meal or anything like that. You were just encouraged to have a “little bit” - like three or four mouthfuls, sometimes with the encouragement of “then you can have some icecream/chocolate/appropriate bribe”. And it worked - there are no veg I don’t like now, but left to my own devices, I’d probably still eat nothing but mashed potato.
OK-so show me where the “fact” comes from, aka cite?
I see how the method would work, but is there some magic to the number? And also, how could it be surefire?
the bbc thingy looks interesting–I’m gonna check it out, thanks.
No surprise–I’m a supertaster. Since I dislike most fruits and veggies (although this has changed immensely as an adult)–I was intrigued by the bit about the flavonoids. I think they are on to something. Take cotton candy, for example. I loved it as a kid, but now it is noxious as all get out. I have found in the past 4 years that my taste for sweet is changing rapidly–things are often too sweet for me.
I’m somwhat of a picky eater as well. I can usually find a few things at a restaurant I’ll like, and I ‘ll try new things out of curiousity, but experience has taught me that I just dont’ like certain foods and I don’t see why I should eat something that I don’t enjoy. I loathe broccoli. I hate the texture and I hate the taste. I hate salmon as well. This is as a result of food poisoning.
When I go out to eat, my choice will always be anything but Tex-Mex. I rarely have a meal at a Tex-Mex place that I enjoy. The chain restaurants are the worst. If it is a mom pop place run by immigrants I’ll find something that I can enjoy, but around here those places are rarer than most.
OK, you got me - I’ve done a lot of Googling, and can’t find anything that gives a specific number. I’m guessing you won’t accept “But I read it somewhere…”?
Closest I can get to a cite is this:
From that article:
*"Picture the face of a toddler trying a Sour Patch Kid candy for the first time. How does that same puckered expression turn to sheer delight after a few more samplings?
Instinct tells us to refuse new foods – particularly flavors like bitter and sour, typically associated with poisonous foods in nature – because we don’t know yet that they are safe. Once we accept a food as safe, we learn a taste preference. "*
And also (bolding mine):
*’“For an infant to interpret a food to be safe and acceptable, there has to be repeated exposure – particularly when you get to fruits and vegetables that aren’t naturally sweet,” says Dr. Melvin Heyman, chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at UCSF and co-author of “Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health” (Bantam, 1999).
One of Markworth’s clients has a 1 year old who refused everything that wasn’t sweet. “But for four weeks in a row, I gave her kale. Now she chows it down. Kale is pretty bitter, but three spoonfuls a day is amazing in terms of nutrition,” says Markworth. This tactic is likely to work best before the “terrible twos,” when toddlers begin to assert their independence. "*
So I stand by my assertion, if not the number I attached to it. For me the best example of this is beer. Not many of us really like the flavour of beer the first time we try it, but most of us keep drinking it till we acquire a taste for it!
I don’t think people are arguing that you can’t acquire a taste for something. But your original claim was that it takes ten tastes to like anything, which is to say that all food preferences are acquired tastes. That, I’d have to call bullshit on. There’s been too many things I’ve tried for the first time as an adult and loved immediately for me to believe that particular fact.
[QUOTE=Q.N. Jones]
I’m not picking on you personally, but I know a ton of guys who say this (and no women). What’s up with that?
[QUOTE]
I tend to not eat vegetables either, and last time I checked, still female. They don’t taste good.
I think (I hope) I fall into the same into the same picky/fussy/whatever you want to call it eater that Jess’s brother is. I don’t like a lot of food. I don’t really care what you put in to your mouth, so long as I don’t have to eat it. I can usually find something at most restaurants that I’m going to like. So I’ll order that (even if it is “white rice”). I will not hold up a group that wants to go somewhere…chances are, if I want to go with them, the company is far more important than the food for me. I only get caught in endless discussion when I get pressured by other people (“but the salmon” “why won’t you have the salmon?” “are you sure you don’t want to order the salmon?” “why don’t you like fish?” “Just try it, I know you’ll love it”). I don’t bring it up, I try to steer the conversation away from my palate. But for every Picky Eaters who fuss about what you’re eating, there is some person trying to force a perfectly happy picky eater to put some nasty tasting or feeling food into her mouth and won’t let the conversation move. When I’m invited over to someone’s house, I take small portions and smile, claiming it’s wonderful. Then I drive home and try and get the taste out of my mouth.
I will try most things once - I reserve the right not to like it after I’ve tried it. When growing up, I was exposed to and ate pretty much everything. And my parents did not cater to my likes and dislikes at all. I know I don’t like certain foods because I’ve eaten them, several times. And yes, that includes beer.
Oh-I understand your reasoning and even agree with it, to a point. I have learned to like the taste of dry white wine (when I started drinking wine, it had to be the sweet ones) and even a few (very few) reds, for example.
but I will not attempt to re-educate my tongue to like oh-beets, kale, okra, peppers. Why should I? I live fine w/o them. There will be those who say, “but a good borscht is heavenly–you don’t know what you’re missing!” To which, I say, so what?
It’s like books to me–I may want very badly for you to read this book that moved me and I loved yadayada…but if you are not interested…not gonna happen. OR you try the book and after chapter one, say “yuck!”. I’m ok with that–so why do people get offended when I don’t like foods that they do? (not saying you, in particular).
I was the same as your son as a child. I also got really twitchy in crowds and was bothered by noises, lights, and textures that other people didn’t even notice. I grew out of it (the picky eating, not the rest), but not until I lived on my own and started cooking for myself. Now I can go to any restauraunt and find something to order, and I enjoy trying new things, but back then certain textures just made me feel nauseated.
Sounds like my high school graduation dinner. Now, granted, we had just moved to a new town, so we didn’t know what-all was available. But there were plenty of people we could have asked: the staff and other residents in our building, the yellow pages, a stranger on the street whatever. Think my family explored any options? No! They just walked into the first restaurant we encountered. Hunan. Where nothing was an option for me. And of course, one block further up was a steak house, where I would have been ecstatic. :mad:
Picky is anyone who won’t eat whatever I put in front of them, unless they are allergic.
At least try it, unless it is truely disgusting, like liver. bleech! Fried blood clot! I don’t see how anyone can eat that. And yes, I’ve tried it the way your mother, my mother, my sister and everyone else makes it, . I’ve eaten it fried, fried with onions, fried with bacon and onions, smothered in sauce, stuffed in an intestine with rice (morcella). Totally gagworthy.
Everything else though, so far, is fair game, including sushi, very rare beef, every fruit or veggie I’ve run across,
although, maybe not bugs, I don’t think I could eat mopani worms…
We were in Colorado on vacation and also for two family weddings. (SIX nephews/nieces got married last year!!) The one day it was our daughter’s birthday. There were about 20 people at the house. My husband goes to Kentucky Fried Chicken and gets food for 20 people. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law took his son (going into 8th grade) to KFC to pick up his own personal meal because he was afraid the mashed potatoes might have gravy on them.
This child basically eats ground beef. Sometimes chicken and mashed potatoes, obviously without gravy.
In our house if you don’t eat what is on the table you are welcome to make yourself a peanut butter sandwich. Whatever. I will not cater to a picky eater. I certainly would not drive to KFC when KFC food was on the way to the house already.
But why is it for anyone to say what falls under “truly disgusting” for anyone else? To some people that physical retching feeling you have about liver is just what they feel for chunks of tomatos. Disgusting is subjective.
Moderately reformed picky eater here. I don’t eat anything that lived in water in any for whatsoever, and never will. I try one bite of a bland fish once every 6 months or so, just to be sure and every time it still tastes like rot. Just the smell of kippers in the house is enough to make me gag.
My tastes have improved since childhood though. My all-time favorite veggie is spinnach, and I would have died before trying it at age 10. Of course what makes a difference is being able to cook it for myself - no one smothered my spinnach in garlic and butter when I was 10. I also think my taste buds have died off a bit over the years, what with being a former smoker and enjoying a nightly glass of wine still.
I spent years being hasseled by family and friends about what I would and wouldn’t eat. Nothing is worse than being a picky eater and everyone else at the table is there scrutinizing every mouthfull you eat. Enough to give a gal a complex.
Meh. By some people’s definitions, I’m a very picky eater. I’m a vegetarian, which, in some people’s eyes, automatically makes me intolerable. It’s partly for health reasons, but also, I’ve never liked meat. I don’t care if you eat and I’m not one of those evil vegetarians who’ll scream at you for eating a burger. I don’t particularly like the following: most nuts, white rice (yeah, I know), mushrooms, cauliflower, squash, eggplant, raw broccoli (cooked is fine), most types of berries, any type of cooked fruit. I can’t stand dried fruit, which is quite easy to avoid.
But if I’m out with friends and the only vegetarian-friendly item on the menu is, say, some sort of squash dish, I’ll either A) know that in advance and eat before going out or B) order it, eat enough so I’m not really hungry, and then eat something more to my liking once I’m home. If I order pizza with friends and we’re all just eating out of the box (college, it happens), I’ll eat the mushrooms. If I’m eating a leftover slice on my own in my room, I’m going to pick off the mushrooms. I think it’s more having strong likes/dislikes than being fussy: being fussy is when you absolutely, under no circumstance, will eat things. I’m like that with meat (including poultry and fish, that’s animal flesh too).
Do some of you think it’s overly fussy to only drink, say, skim milk, or whole milk, or whatever? I know a lot of people like that (I’m one of them, but it’s for health reasons), and others who think it’s utterly ridiculous.
Well, we’ve stopped fighting with him re: food. It’s just not the sort of power struggle we want to get into, so we’ve compromised. If he doesn’t like what his mom or I cooked, he can fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a food that we *know * he can eat. It’s just to make sure that he gets enough nutrition to live. I can only hope he grows out of it. But, just from looking around here, I know that there are lots of adults that don’t. It really does mystify me.
It just took a while to get beyond taking his refusal to eat personally. I think that’s what might be at the bottom of the hostility toward picky eaters- they are seen as spurning hospitality. Human interactions have had food as a central component for a long time, ever since Og the caveman shared his kill with Grock from across the valley.
