Picky Eaters (S/O from Snow Flake thread)

[pearls n purls]

My DH thinks I'm a bit of a picky eater because I can't handle too much spice.  I like different spices, but if food is too spicy, all I feel is heat and no flavor.  When we go out to eat, I prefer to get spicy food at 2-3 stars, where he likes 4-5.  We usually split two entrees, so we usually get one at 3 stars and one at 4, which I think is a good compromise.

[bloo]

I'm considered a fairly picky eater.  It's not so much that I don't eat anything as that what I don't like is considered so normal (tomatoes, eggs, watermelon, cottage cheese) that people who say they don't like it are pegged as picky because most people like whatever it is.

I also don't like a ton of seasoning/flavoring on things.  I don't put mustard/mayo/tomatoes/lettuce/pickles on my burger, for example.  Just the burger itself, with maybe a bit of ketchup, is fine. 

My one totally picky thing is mac-n-cheese. It has to be Kraft, from the box, made just so.  Homemade mac n cheese?  I can't eat it; it doesn't taste good.  It's one area where my tastebuds have permanently adapted to the "low class" version.

Oh it definitely has to be Kraft! I didn't even like boxed mac-n-cheese as a kid because my mom always bought generic brands. When I got married I inwardly sighed when my DH asked me to make Kraft mac-n-cheese. Kraft, you say? Kraft! And a special request - mix half the powder with the milk, butter and hot macaroni. Then sprinkle on the rest after you've plated it.

Huh?

It was actually pretty good, although I discovered a latent pleasure in Kraft mac-n-cheese, made just so - w/o sprinkles!

[geekette]

I'm considered a fairly picky eater.  It's not so much that I don't eat anything as that what I don't like is considered so normal (tomatoes, eggs, watermelon, cottage cheese) that people who say they don't like it are pegged as picky because most people like whatever it is.

I also don't like a ton of seasoning/flavoring on things.  I don't put mustard/mayo/tomatoes/lettuce/pickles on my burger, for example.  Just the burger itself, with maybe a bit of ketchup, is fine. 

My one totally picky thing is mac-n-cheese. It has to be Kraft, from the box, made just so.  Homemade mac n cheese?  I can't eat it; it doesn't taste good.  It's one area where my tastebuds have permanently adapted to the "low class" version.

Oh it definitely has to be Kraft! I didn't even like boxed mac-n-cheese as a kid because my mom always bought generic brands. When I got married I inwardly sighed when my DH asked me to make Kraft mac-n-cheese. Kraft, you say? Kraft! And a special request - mix half the powder with the milk, butter and hot macaroni. Then sprinkle on the rest after you've plated it.

Huh?

It was actually pretty good, although I discovered a latent pleasure in Kraft mac-n-cheese, made just so - w/o sprinkles!

My mum was always upset that I never finished my mac-n-cheese when she made it; she cooked it differently to my dad, making the sauce runnier - which meant duller flavor and pasta that was the wrong texture.
It was about the only food I was allowed to get away with not eating a certain amount of. My parents never pulled the 'eat it or go hungry' route, because I would go choose to hungry and Geek-bro would copy me. Geek-bro was too thin as a kid as he had to take a medication for school that dulled hunger; he would skip lunch and was eating more like two meals a day than three (he had a pediatrician to help with that, but it was pretty unanimous that skipping a second meal was bad).
Instead, I had to eat a certain amount (about 2/3rds of whatever was served) and was not allowed to leave the table until I did so.  And, of course, I also hated tomato sauce, so I couldn't try to block out flavours and deal with only texture.   I think my record was four hours of just sitting there, not eating my roast lamb, until I got sent to bed because my mum wanted to go to sleep.


When I was about 13, I mortally offended my new aunt-in-law by refusing seconds of a dessert she'd made; it had berries in it, and I cannot stand any sort of berry, so I deliberately took the smallest piece and then said I wasn't hungry when she tried to feed me a second piece.  I was not welcome into her house for five years.

[MrsJWine]

I think that pickiness is hard-wired to a certain degree, but that parents can make it worse. I was all smug about my first kid being such a great eater because I did everything right and then HAHAHAHAHA she stopped eating anything that wasn't beige for about two years. I want to punch Past Naomi in the face.

My kids are healthy, so they're completely fine not eating if they refuse to eat what's in front of them. If they're truly hungry, they really will eat. On the advice of both doctors they've had, we attempted to put one food on the table that they'd eat at every meal--just no second helpings until they'd tried a bite or two of everything else.

Current advice is to not offer a separate meal OR to force-feed. Just like my first daughter, I was extremely picky as a child, and I remember long nights where I would choose to sit at the table forever instead of eating the hated food (which was all of them, except most fruits and vegetables, oddly enough). My parents did eventually capitulate on fish; if they made fish for dinner, I did get something else, since they realized it was a real aversion and not just pickiness. Apparently there was a food poisoning episode early in my life, and I've been off it ever since.

(I'm sure we'll find out something about the currently recommended methods is wrong by the time my kids are grown up and attempting to feed their own children, so I'll keep my mouth shut about it when that time comes.)

[ammyd]

My family sometimes consider me a picky eater but honestly it's just a few texture issues that run through the foods they want me to try. I can't do pork chops no matter what way they're cooked the texture of the meat is always wrong to me. I couldn't eat sliced cheese until last year because when I was younger family members would force me to eat sandwiches with them on there. Raw mushrooms are ok but cooked they feel slimey and gross in my mouth.

I love sushi, Indian food, and would willingly order chef salads for myself when I was four, I'm not that picky.

[CakeEater]

I think that pickiness is hard-wired to a certain degree, but that parents can make it worse. I was all smug about my first kid being such a great eater because I did everything right and then HAHAHAHAHA she stopped eating anything that wasn't beige for about two years. I want to punch Past Naomi in the face.

Ha ha ha! I hear you!

[Hmmmmm]

I'm considered a fairly picky eater.  It's not so much that I don't eat anything as that what I don't like is considered so normal (tomatoes, eggs, watermelon, cottage cheese) that people who say they don't like it are pegged as picky because most people like whatever it is.

I also don't like a ton of seasoning/flavoring on things.  I don't put mustard/mayo/tomatoes/lettuce/pickles on my burger, for example.  Just the burger itself, with maybe a bit of ketchup, is fine. 

My one totally picky thing is mac-n-cheese. It has to be Kraft, from the box, made just so.  Homemade mac n cheese?  I can't eat it; it doesn't taste good.  It's one area where my tastebuds have permanently adapted to the "low class" version.

Oh it definitely has to be Kraft! I didn't even like boxed mac-n-cheese as a kid because my mom always bought generic brands. When I got married I inwardly sighed when my DH asked me to make Kraft mac-n-cheese. Kraft, you say? Kraft! And a special request - mix half the powder with the milk, butter and hot macaroni. Then sprinkle on the rest after you've plated it.

Huh?

It was actually pretty good, although I discovered a latent pleasure in Kraft mac-n-cheese, made just so - w/o sprinkles!

My mum was always upset that I never finished my mac-n-cheese when she made it; she cooked it differently to my dad, making the sauce runnier - which meant duller flavor and pasta that was the wrong texture.
It was about the only food I was allowed to get away with not eating a certain amount of. My parents never pulled the 'eat it or go hungry' route, because I would go choose to hungry and Geek-bro would copy me. Geek-bro was too thin as a kid as he had to take a medication for school that dulled hunger; he would skip lunch and was eating more like two meals a day than three (he had a pediatrician to help with that, but it was pretty unanimous that skipping a second meal was bad).
Instead, I had to eat a certain amount (about 2/3rds of whatever was served) and was not allowed to leave the table until I did so.  And, of course, I also hated tomato sauce, so I couldn't try to block out flavours and deal with only texture.   I think my record was four hours of just sitting there, not eating my roast lamb, until I got sent to bed because my mum wanted to go to sleep.


When I was about 13, I mortally offended my new aunt-in-law by refusing seconds of a dessert she'd made; it had berries in it, and I cannot stand any sort of berry, so I deliberately took the smallest piece and then said I wasn't hungry when she tried to feed me a second piece.  I was not welcome into her house for five years.

I think that would be a ban I'd welcome. 

I had a friend in college who'd makes Kraft Mac & Cheese with just melted butter mixed with the powder.  She didn't vwantb to keep milk on hand because it would spoil before she'd use it up. Later I had a friend who made a lower fat version mixing the powder with low fat sour cream and a little  skim milk.  It wasn't bad and I still like to up the creaminess of the box stuff with a little sour cream.

[Firecat]

I don't consider myself especially picky, but I have a few "can't eat" and some "don't like" foods. On the can't eat list are: shellfish and rhubarb (allergic) and pepperoni (ok, technically it won't kill me, but I will be horribly uncomfortable for several hours afterwards). My digestive system apparently thinks tofu is a toxic substance - I actually didn't mind it in the item I tried it in (a frozen meal that included chunks of tofu), but my intestines apparently said: "What the @#$!! is THIS STUFF??? CORE DUMP! CORE DUMP!"

On the won't eat list: melon (I've found that I dislike watermelon, canteloup, and honeydew, so it's easier to just say I don't like melon); spicy food that's "hot" spicy; I don't care for slices or chunks of raw tomato, but will eat salsa (as long as it's mild), and tomato sauces are just fine. I'm not big on green beans, but will eat them occasionally, and I tend to prefer broccoli and cauliflower raw, but will eat them cooked as long as they still have some texture and aren't completely cooked to mush. Oh, and I won't eat jello...unless it's in a jello shot, which comes under different rules.

The rule at my house was I had to try two bites of something. If I didn't like it, I could fill up on other stuff and nothing would be said about it. There were children's menus at some places when I was growing up, but I usually didn't want one. I'd usually just order something like a petite steak or something like that off the regular menu instead. Which delighted my maternal grandfather in particular; he loved a good steak, and loved buying me one. 

[Hmmmmm]

The kids menu discussion got me to wondering when they became popular.  I'm in my mid 40s.  As a child our family only dined out once a month or so for dinner.  I do remember there being kids meal items on menus, but in most cases they were just smaller portions of the same adult menu.  I only have one memory of actually receiving a different menu as a child and that was at an upscale steak house when i was around 8. The hostess handed me a different menu but my mom interceded and ask for a regular menu to be brought to me.

With my kids, we probably ate out dinner 3 nights a week when the kids were little.  They always had the option of ordering from the kids menus, sharing a plate between them, sharing with me, or ordering appetizer as their main.  But when they both made the move with in a year of each other (at about 9 for DD and 8 for DS) from the kids to full adult meals, we definately started cutting back on dinners out because it had just become so expensive.  I wonder if the popularity of kids menus was tied to the increased frequency of families eating out and the cost. 

[Emmy]

Agree with the PP.  Your DD is associating shape with taste.  She might have a heightened visual since.  Be prepared for only liking certain pasta shapes, baby carrots versus standard size, apples needing to be cut into cubes versus quarters, and sandwhiches having to be cut a certain way. My DD would complain food didn't taste the same if it wasn't shaped correctly.  Her brain is preparing her taste buds on what to expect.  Think of it like thinking you've been served ice tea and it looks like iced tea put when you take a drink it is a soda.  I love soda but not when I'm expecting iced tea.

DD is very young, 17 months so she is learning what stuff is and what it is supposed to look like.  She doesn't seem to mind graham cracker goldfish, but like another poster eating the same food in different shapes is often a different experience.  She is definitely starting to have foods she doesn't like.  I gave her a little bit of a scrambled egg today and she pressed it with her fingers, decided she didn't like the texture, and handed it back to me. 

As a kid, I didn't like, but would eat white bread.  It tastes like flour and water to me.  I much preferred wheat bread as a small kid and probably would have loved multi-grain.  I don't plan on introducing DD to white break, she likes wheat.  I'm hoping if she develops a taste for certain foods before getting to the age where many kids decide they look 'funny' or 'yucky', she'll be comfortable with continuing to eat them.  I can only hope. 

I would also define picky as somebody who eats only very limited food due to preference, not allergies, religious, or health reasons.  I don't think not liking certain foods or even a whole group of food (like seafood) makes somebody especially picky.

[snowdragon]

Sweet potatoes or white? That's not safe, is it?

There is some old wives tale that white potatoes raw are poisonous...I have been eating them that way for as long as I can remember.  So did my grandma and an uncle. I have eaten the green parts and even the peels, no issues. They can be harder to digest than mashed or baked, but I can't imagine that they will actually harm you.

[Rohanna]

http://www.livestrong.com/article/523041-the-risks-of-eating-raw-potatoes/

Taters, precious!

[Elfmama]

So a lot of people assume that the way food tasted the first time it was presented to them is the way it always taste and if it tasted bad then, they won't want to try it again.

That's my DH, right there.  If his mother prepared it poorly, he won't eat it now, no matter HOW mine differs from his mother's.  (MIL served the same thing every night: meat baked into shoe leather, mashed potatoes, and fresh/frozen veggies boiled until they tasted like canned.  NO seasonings, no onions, garlic, herbs, nothing but salt, and after FIL had to limit salt intake, not even that.)

And if his mother never made it at all, he won't eat it.  He "just knows" that he doesn't like it. 

And he claims that *I* am a picky eater, because I can't stomach meat fat.

[Elfmama]

Also, I never wanted spinach as a kid because it looked like cooked seaweed plopped on the plate, all stringy and wet. Imagine my surprise as an adult to learn that I love it cooked in dishes and raw in salads.

Oh, gawds, canned spinach!  Little Brother loved it (because his TV hero Popeye ate it to make himself strong) and I loathed it, just the way AfleetAlex did.  Mom cooked it with vinegar, the way her mother did, and it would lie on the plate in this reeking slimy green mass.      Fortunately Mom didn't like it either, because HER mother had forced her to eat it, so she didn't make me eat it.  Little Brother was welcome to my share.

I can eat it cooked in something like pizza or quiche, but raw green leafy veg give me terrible gas, so I skip any and all forms.  I like lettuce, but it doesn't like me. 

[Lady Snowdon]

Also, I never wanted spinach as a kid because it looked like cooked seaweed plopped on the plate, all stringy and wet. Imagine my surprise as an adult to learn that I love it cooked in dishes and raw in salads.

Oh, gawds, canned spinach!  Little Brother loved it (because his TV hero Popeye ate it to make himself strong) and I loathed it, just the way AfleetAlex did.  Mom cooked it with vinegar, the way her mother did, and it would lie on the plate in this reeking slimy green mass.      Fortunately Mom didn't like it either, because HER mother had forced her to eat it, so she didn't make me eat it.  Little Brother was welcome to my share.

I can eat it cooked in something like pizza or quiche, but raw green leafy veg give me terrible gas, so I skip any and all forms.  I like lettuce, but it doesn't like me. 

My dad used to love canned spinach, cooked in the microwave for a couple of minutes, with apple cider vinegar poured on top.  Blech!  To this day, I can only handle spinach in small quantities, because of my associations with it.  I've heard so much about how using vinegar to clean things is a good alternative, so I bought a bottle of vinegar to try it out with.  I opened it, caught a whiff, and immediately gagged - it smelled like my memory of cooked canned spinach.  I can't use it at all.