These jumped out at me. Do taro & potato taste the same to some people? To me, they have totally different flavors and textures. Mashed potatoes and tomatoes (no matter how they’re prepared) aren’t even on the same planet as far as texture is concerned. Statements like that make me wonder if some non-picky people just can’t distinguish flavors or textures very well. If to them, all food tastes and feels pretty much the same and it’s all pretty good, so of course they don’t care which of the many nearly identical to them things they eat.
Bingo.
I used to associate with a fairly distance outdoor activities club a handful of times a year. After a long day of having fun, the group would often want to eat out somewhere before the long drives home.
Being a fairly large group, and often a mix of people that didn’t know each other well, reaching a consensus on where to eat (as well as many other issues on how to coordinate, where to go, what exactly to do for the day blahhh blahh blah) was like herding cats.
So, each trip had a designated DIC. After a bit of group discussion the DIC made a decision. And barring a mutiny (that never happened), that was that.
DIC stood for Dick In Charge.
Bolding mine. Huh. No kidding. This could explain a lot
Another question for the Watchy McJudgment’s (love it) - My Wife will eat just about anything. But when we grab lunch at a pub, I’d say 75% the time she will go for a Salmon Ceaser salad. If not that, a mushroom burger. And almost ALWAYS some sort of veggie skillet/omlette for breakfast. Sounds to me that since she is not always trying something new, a lot of people would classify her as picky. Doesn’t bother me in the least. But I guess some folks would take offence.
Sounds to me like she is a grown woman just trying to enjoy a meal and * a lot of people* are in dire need of minding their own bees wax 
Not quite the cite requested but the impact of poor diet (and exercise) choices on our healthcare costs is dramatic. This pdf is an old article but even then the estimate was that “healthier diets might prevent $71 billion per year in medical costs, lost productivity, and the value of premature deaths …” Michael Pollan notes, in a piece discussed how the health insurance industry is squaring off against agribusiness, that
But nah, not the big driver of the cost differential between countries. We have more obesity but fewer smokers and overall our population is not sicker than other countries’.
I don’t think the driver is so much the differential in cost for the same care though but that we do different care: much more high tech care and much poorer management of chronic disease states for large segments of the population. Much of the Affordable Care Act was aimed at improving the latter in particular.
But those are other threads …
That’s not at all what people are describing here. People are complaining about ostensible adults who limit their eating to a few items that can all be found on the children’s menu of a Ruby Tuesdays and who make their dysfunction every one else’s problem.
People are talking about both. About the roll eyes and sighs when you always order the same thing. About not being able to share in some sort of food comeradery because you order boring stuff at an exciting restaurant. People are most certainly talking about judment of what someone is eating, not just the difficult to pick a restaurant part. Two differnet things.
At my last job, I was thrilled to discover a middle eastern place that delivered. Living out in the ass end of plain vanillaville Connecticut, the chance at getting something that I didn’t have to cook myself was wonderful.
Nobody would order from there so if I wanted something, I would end up having to order enough food for 2 people and take home lots of leftovers …
Despite their also making the usual pizza/sub/salad stuff that you could order from anywhere else. The simple thought that it was a middle eastern/ethnic place apparently contaminated all the food even if it was a conventional pepperoni pizza …:smack:
Well, it IS Applebee’s, so the odds of that are already pretty high, picky eater or not.
Yep. I have a great friend. We went to Disneyworld. Turns out he likes *plain *hamburgers (*nothing *on them.) fries and hot dogs- and some fruit. Ate none of the wonderful adventurous food at Epcot.
“Man-child” is a good term.
I don’t think either is more “valid”. I’m not about judging either way.
But I can totally understand why for some reason, eating out is just as much about the food as it is the company. I mean, ya’ll could chit-chat over some chicken strips and french fries, all from the comfort of home. It’s kind of like paying $13 to see a movie you’ve already watched a million times already, one that you can easily watch on TV right now. Sure, it’s a different experience watching it in the theater. But I can totally understand why it wouldn’t be desirable for someone who wants to use their hard-earned money on new experiences.
Shit like this reminds me why it’s smart to make friends with people who share your interests. Personally, even though I am not picky, I am not a foodie. I don’t think I’d want to be friends with a foodie. Not because foodies are bad people, but because they are interested in a subject that I don’t care that much about. I only want to hang out with people who don’t care if I’m ordering the pork chimichanga for the millionth time.
So I’m not understanding why people are allowing themselves to get so worked up. If your friend only wants to eat chicken tenders and this makes you irate, then you need to either stop being friends with that person or you need to just focus on those other areas you have in common. And if your friends keep giving you a hard time over your chicken strip obsession, you either need to stop associating with them or make a concerted effort to let go of the chicken strips. I don’t either choice is unreasonable, since friendship is built on common interests. Take that away and of course there’s going to be problems.
It’s not even necessarily that they only like a few things. It may be that the offerings of the restaurant are more limited you you might think. For instance, chicken fingers are not my favorite food. I love Mexican food, but I cannot stand sour cream or guacamole. If I am in a restaurant where the cook seems to be incapable of making a dish that doesn’t include liberal amounts of one or both of those, it may be that the chicken fingers are the only things on the menu that are edible.
Same thing with delis and mayo. There are some delis where they seem to think that every sandwich must be slathered in mayo, and a men’s chorus is strolling around singing “Mayo-ty mayo, mayo-ty mayo!!”
Meh, it would probably turn out to be the wrong brand of nuggets or something. Maybe the point is that I don’t want to deal with her micro-managing my menu, or that her son really is profoundly picky, or a bit of both.
Yeah, I had the same reaction. Potato and taro are very different. And I like tomatoes, but they have a weird slimy texture that can be off-putting, and is nothing at all like the texture of mashed potato. I sometimes wonder if some people like extremely spicy food because that’s the only food sensation they notice. 
This is your friend’s severely autistic child and you are resentful that his food restrictions are micromanaging your menu and of his being “profoundly picky” to the point you won’t have her over for dinner rather than heat up some frozen chicken fingers?
Just … wow.
Some people might actually even ask what his favorite brand is and what he likes to dip them in and when buying the dinner supplies be sure to get what he will like … not much effort and sure to be appreciated.
Minimally the friend could be informed that you have no nuggets and could she please bring a package for him?
Meanwhile make the meal that you and your friend would enjoy … unless you only want to make what you want to eat and thinking about what your friend might enjoy is being micromanaged too much …
A severely autistic child with food issues? Say it ain’t so! And right on topic too - I’m sure that’s exactly the type of person the OP had in mind when asking what to call adults who are picky eaters.
Yeah, I think if I were dealing with someone with some significant issue like severe autism, I would just try to make everyone’s life as hassle-free as possible.
I think having flexibility in food preferences in a virtue, but having flexibility about trying to help friends cope with difficult situations without judgment or hassle is a bigger one.
My mother only eats plain hamburgers, because she can’t physically tolerate anything other than cheese on them. If you have a problem with that, that’s just too damned bad. Did he force you to eat them? If not, then shut your trap. My uncle is extremely picky, and won’t eat any other meat than hot dogs. We always have to make sure to make some at family gatherings. Is it weird? Hell yes. Do I roll my eyes? Of course. But do I really care? Not really.
Being “profoundly picky” is a very common trait of autism. It’s not her trying to “micro-manage your menu”. It’s one of the issues when you have a child with a disability. Try and show a wee bit of patience there.
My ex husband was a super picky eater, the likes of which most of you have never seen. Somehow I didn’t know this till too late (I’m an extreme omnivore; cooking is one of my passions). When we were first married, I made him meatloaf. He asked me not to put vegetables in it, so I didn’t, but I did add 1 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce. He started gagging and spit up at the table. No kidding.
He would eat a few well done meats (no breading or seasoning beyond salt and maybe a little garlic powder–that took 4 years to get him used to that), rice (only Minute Rice), plain pasta, Wonder bread, mashed potatoes or french fries, canned corn (about a tbsp worth) Cheetos, Mtn Dew, milk, and Froot Loops. That is about it.
I made basically two dinners every night for a decade. My family would freak out over holiday dinners to make sure there was something he could have; it was embarrassing.
He was a bit on the Asperger’s side, and I’ve noticed that correlation with other people. I called it (only in my head) “Anorexia Nerdosa.”
We go to a restaurant that serves food he can eat. It’s not as if we stopped seeing the friend or her family. We just don’t cook for them any more.
Sheesh, people are touchy. My point was that the ONLY person I know whose food preferences are so restrictive that it creates any issues for me is profoundly autistic, and obviously has other issues more serious than being a picky eater.
But it seems really weird to me to say “Oh, your autistic child will only eat chicken fingers. You really are trying to micromanage my cooking. You can’t come to dinner.” There’s such an easy workaround that it seems odd not to work around.