Picky Eaters, All Growed Up

[gategrrl]

Here's an article in the Washington Post online paper. Makes me soooo thankful that for the most part, my husband and I have roughly the same palates and love most of the same foods (with the exception of lobster and scallops, yech, I can't stand them).

We have a friend who was like most of the picky eaters in this story. He had a child's palate. I've heard that he's since started expanding it a bit, which is good, because he's getting married. But it seems to me that many of the picky eaters have had their choices politicized by their mates, and have dug in their heels, or have gotten to the point where they absolutely refuse to try anything new even if they wanted.

Also, the possibility of any of these people, like the woman Ashamalla, (I love that name!) might have sensory issues that have gone undiagnosed wasn't mentioned. She seems the likeliest candidate for that. I personally couldn't imagine not wanting or being eat anything more than the ten things she'll accept. I nearly went nuts in Korea when I was there, because there was simply no selection of foreign foods there to vary the tastes. There was one little tea shop that also served curries, a pizza place, a McDonalds, Chinese food slanted to Korean tastes (nothing like Americanized Chinese food), no Thai food, nothing of that sort.  Anyhow, Ashamalla probably has sensory issues or perhaps is very sensitive to texture.

Comments

[switch842.livejournal.com]

This was really interesting. I am actually a very picky eater. Though not quite as extreme as some of the people. Like sandwiches are meat cheese only. Burgers are cheese and maybe ketchup and mustard. No lettuce, no tomato. I don't like Asian cuisine. But, I have gone to those types of restaurants with friends and I can usually find something on the menu I'll eat. Even if it's just chicken and some rice with the sauce on the side.

If possible, my husband is even pickier than me. He won't do gravies or sauces other than pasta sauce. He won't even go to a Chinese restaurant and try to find something he might eat. And he thinks the oddest things, too. Like, he thinks green peppers are spicy. They're not. At all. But because they're a "pepper" he automatically thinks spicy. It's so strange. And yeah, most nights we have chicken for dinner. But it works for us, so I'm not too worried. I am worried, however, when we start having kids. How am I going to get my kid to eat his vegetables when I don't eat mine?! LOL

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I hope you take supplements to make up for the lack of veggies in your diet?

I noticed a couple of months ago that a lot more hair than usual was coming out in my brush, and started taking my supplement again (those chewable orange horsepill lozenges for women). Sure enough, the hair loss went down, and I feel better, so something must have been missing from my diet that I didn't know about.

My kids are picky about vegetables, but they will eat a select few. My husband doesn't help their food habits when he declares he doesn't like, say, nuts in bread. He repeated it often enough that the kids, who didn't seem to mind it, started to refuse the healthier bread for the crap breads. I wanted to kill him.

Anyhow, maybe you just haven't met a veggie prepared the way you like. That's really key. My son will eat carrots ONLY if he can dip baby carrots into ranch dressing. *shrugs* I don't care as long as he's getting something. He will eat broccoli as long as its steamed.

My daughter loves anything with a sprinkling of cheese on it.

And that thing with your husband? Disguise them. Roast them. OMG, roasted veggies are the bomb! I'll even eat onions that have been roasted. YUM!

[switch842.livejournal.com]

I do eat some veggies. I just don't like cooked veggies. Veggies to me should be cold and crisp. Not warm and mushy. So, salad and carrots and broccoli with some Ranch dressing is all good to me. I probably should be taking some sort of supplement, I just don't for whatever reason....

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

LOL, my husband has this weird thing about cold fruit. He hates chilled apples or oranges, or whatever. He says they hurt his teeth, but I think he just doesn't like them cold. If I take them out in the morning to give to him for lunch, he goes all stubborn. I'm like, Dude, it will be room temperature by the time you get to it in a few hours!

I think my son feels the same way about veggies that you do-at least about some veggies. Broccoli is easier to eat steamed, because it's so damned tough otherwise.

[superbadgirl]

By boss eats the same thing every day for lunch. There is never variation. I wouldn't care, really, because whatever works for people, right? I do care, because the Chinese broccoli and weird fish smell oozes out of her pores and is a constant on her breath (no matter the time of day).

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I admit to eating the same thing, like getting into a binge or a rut. But wow, that's stinky food. It must be a real comfort food to her. Or the easiest thing to make at home and carry into work.

I've had to cut back on the garlic. I can't stand the smell coming out of my palms. Ick. She must not be able to smell or herself, or not care since she *likes* how she smells.

[agentotter.livejournal.com]

My granddad ate the same thing for lunch -- a hamburger, a pear, and a Twinkie -- for something like forty years. Now that's dedication. It's a wonder he lasted 40 years with all those Twinkies, though. :D

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

:: Raises hand ::

Picky eater here too.

Sometimes, it's not that I won't eat something but rather I can't eat something. I can't eat spicy foods (there's really only one barbecue house I can go to because they don't put barbecue sauce on the meat as it cooks). I'm not that fond of veggies. Hamburgers are meat and bread because I can't handle the smell of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup or pickles. I can't eat lettuce or cabbage -- it just doesn't break down when I chew it. I'm not fond of cheese because I absolutely get weirded out by the texture although I love cheese on my pizza and on macaroni and grilled cheese sandwich. I do put a slice of white American cheese on my ham sandwich, but nothing more.

If I can't handle the smell of a food, I really can't eat it.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Smell is so intimately interconnected with food. My mother lost most of her sense of smell when she fell and hit her head last winter. She barely ate before, and now she finds she doesn't enjoy the food she DID like because she can't *taste* it. She can barely taste wasabi!

You also don't like the texture of mushrooms, either, am I remembering correctly?

Korean food can be really spicy, and I ate a particularly spicy seafood soup for breakfast for months while I was there. I loved it. But then one day my stomach couldn't handle it (or rice, weird) and for a few years after I got back, I simply could not handle ANY spicy food at all, to my sorrow. It's only been the past five years that I've been able to get near anything above a mild spice. And rice still gives me heartburn if I'm careful.

So I understand where you're coming from.

Are there tastes you'll try as long as the smell and texture doesn't weird you out?

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Actually, mushrooms hate me. Food allergy. :(

I used to eat mushrooms in other foods like soups or when cream of mushroom soup was an ingredient, but I can't anymore.

I'll try foods -- goodness knows my diet needs the extra input *g* -- but if it's one of those smells I absolutely can't stand, I won't go near the food.

[schmusimausi73.livejournal.com]

I was a picky eater when I was a kid. I expanded my tastes hugely once I moved to Lux. and started sampling French food and learned to cook.
Turns out, it wasn't my palate that was the problem. It's just that my mom is a bad cook LOL

[agentotter.livejournal.com]

But it seems to me that many of the picky eaters have had their choices politicized by their mates, and have dug in their heels, or have gotten to the point where they absolutely refuse to try anything new even if they wanted.

I think you're right, to a certain extent. I grew up on a very limited palette -- in part because my mum was just not an adventurous cook and we couldn't afford to eat out much, and in part I think because both my mum and I had at that time undiagnosed acid reflex disease, and instinctively avoided anything too spicy -- and have since expanded it quite a bit, but it's not an easy thing. For me, there's the poverty on top of it... I eat a lot of things I know I like and I don't experiment a lot because if I end up really not liking whatever I've bought, then I probably don't have enough money left to get something else. I do try to be adventurous and I do try new things but there are also certain things I know I'm not going to like, whether it's just the taste (or the bigger one for me) the texture. I don't like shellfish of any kind, which is mostly a texture thing with mollusks and the like, but with things like lobster and shrimp I can hardly stand the sight and smell of them, much less the taste. Just a quirk, I guess. Sushi's also a texture thing for me. (Also I've noticed that 99% of the time I don't want meat if it's cold, but it's perfectly acceptable to me if it's hot.) I literally tell basically anyone who ever mentions it that I'm allergic to shellfish, because it's the only way I can get them to leave me alone about it. It's not that I don't like every kind of shellfish except the kind at your favorite restaurant, people. I just don't like shellfish.

Which is where the politicizing comes in, because you would not believe how pushy people get over food. My boss once threatened to fire me if I didn't try the sushi at dinner. (I'm sure she wasn't serious, and I already knew she was a bully by nature, but that's just an example of exactly how aggressive people get about it.) I mostly walk a fine line between trying new things and making excuses. I LOVE to try new foods but I also would love for there to be no judgment involved when I try it and say, "Yeah, I'm not really into that." And there are a lot of times I just won't try something because it's easier to say I'm not hungry or I've got an upset stomach or whatever than to try it, not like it, and have to deal with the person who wants me to like it being disappointed or mad that I don't like it. (This is usually less of a problem at restaurants then if somebody's cooked something. It's also one of the reasons why I have traditionally avoided dinner parties. If I go somewhere and I don't like most of the appetizers laid out and maybe find one or two I like and graze on those, I'll get shit for only eating the ones I like. I really, honestly, do not get why people are so fucking invested in what I eat.)

Personally, I don't think I have that ridiculously limited a palette that I ought to get so much shit over it, and it does make me kind of belligerent when people act like I'm some sort of sheltered idiot or something. I don't like the majority of dishes you'd find at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, but I can usually find something that's good, even if it's just teriyaki chicken and rice or something. I love Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican, and just haven't tried a lot of other ethnic restaurants like Ethiopian or whatever else, and though not being a big fan of steak apparently makes me a heretic, usually anywhere I go I can find something that's good. There's tons of stuff I haven't tried and am willing to try (if I hadn't, I'd have never discovered my passion for any of the above foods) but I do wish people would stop trying to force me to eat things. I'm never going to be one of those people who properly appreciates "high art" kind of culinary dishes, and I get my cheeseburgers plain because I honestly think they taste better that way: without all the other stuff in the way, I can actually taste the meat and cheese. That's just how I like it. I'm not sure why whether I put lettuce and tomatoes (which I have also pretended to be allergic to :D) effects anybody else's enjoyment of their own meal.

THE END. ;D

[jennywren102.livejournal.com]

Many years ago I dated a guy who had no sense of smell. He would eat steak and potatoes, burgers and fries, and pizza. Foolishly, I once made dinner for him at my apartment. I made spaghetti sauce from scratch using my Grandmother's most delicious home-canned tomatoes *which she grew in her own garden and lovingly canned for me*. I watched in horror as he scraped all the wonderful food on his plate into the trash can because he didn't like the taste. Bastard. I was on food stamps at the time, too. Bastard.