Comments on: What Picky Eating Is Like

By: LittleGirl

LittleGirl — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:02:42 +0000

My partner is a fussy eater and when I met him 3 years ago he only seemed to like between 5 and 10 things, mostly fast food, meat and chips/crisps and no veg other than potatoes – and onion, which is one of the few things that I can’t eat in this world! As you can imagine, making dinner was a bit of a struggle, but with a bit of patience, imagination and an open mind, we have made some progress and fast food is not his staple anymore! It’s still not great and he won’t eat things like fish, fruit or boiled veg, but we have discovered that he loves most soups, so there’s where his vegetable intake comes from. Also, when making spag bol, I add things like mushrooms and carrots so that he gets some extra vegetables in his diet without suffering, and I put lots of small bits of carrot and peas in my beef stew, which he surprisingly loves! He likes meatballs, so for a healthier option I decided to try turkey mince and even meat free balls, and he doesn’t like them as much as the beef ones, but he does eat them happily these days. I also try marinating meats, using herbs and spices and cooking the things he likes in different ways (if you like one ingredient, there is a good chance you may like it cooked in at least 2 different ways, and if you don’t like something, keep trying until you find something new that excites you), and now we can have dinner together. His friends used to make constant jokes about his poor diet, now I shut them up by showing them our diet is probably healthier and more varied than theirs!! He’s done so well that one day I may even get him to eat fish

By: psychotherapist

psychotherapist — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:55:33 +0000

Thanks for not protecting the source of your difficulty, as a competitive and domineering part of your mother’s personality. Too many people protect the misdeeds of their original programmers and beat themselves up for it instead. They believe that they are self made and not a product of parental programming. Symptoms serve a purpose of managing anger away from who one is actually angry at.

Good luck and keep up the dynamic thinking:)

By: AJ

AJ — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:05:24 +0000

A friend recently linked to this blog and I’m so happy she did. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been picky since I was about two. I know a lot of my pickiness comes from texture issues (pulp – like tomatoes or oranges – makes me gag no matter what I try), but some of it I just don’t know. I’ve long suspected I’m a super-taster, based on some bitterness issues with things I have tried, but even that doesn’t explain everything I avoid.

Onions and tomatoes are my biggest issues, mainly because I come from an Italian-American family, so they’re impossible to completely avoid. I’ve gotten better at scraping off the pulpy/seedy/skin bits where I can and just coping with the rest, but it took 25 years for me to do that.

Some things I just haven’t been able to do. When I was a kid, one of my best friends loves strawberries so much, she couldn’t believe I’d never had one. After years of pressure, I tried one. It took me ten minutes to work up the nerve to put it in my mouth and bite down. Then I had to spit it right back out. I love the smell of cooking bell peppers but I have yet to bring myself to be able to put a piece of pepper in my mouth.

It’s frustrating and so often dismissed as being no big deal, so I’m thrilled to find I’m not alone.

By: MsMarvel

MsMarvel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:00:51 +0000

I am a 42yo picky eater, I have always been this way. Going to people’s houses for meals is very stressful for me. I found a lot of answers by reading this author’s books: http://www.hsperson.com/ Highly sensitive people often reject foods due to texture, flavor, association, appearance and/or smell.

By: elisabeth

elisabeth — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:05:37 +0000

Hi, I just came across this lick when i decided to google picky eaters as i was feeling quite down about not being able to eat what other people eat. You see my fiance has a great appetite and will eat pretty much anything, but i only have about 20 things that i can eat. i went out for dinner with his family recently and i ordered a plate of chips as thats the only thing that i can generally eat in restaurants as there are too many variables in the food they serve so i stick with chips as they are usually the same no matter where you get them. anyway, the evening was horrible, from the moment the waiter took the order i wanted to cry. waiter made a big deal about me ordering just chips in his fine dining restuarant, he wasnt impressed, this led to my fiances family listing off every dish on the menu saying “get this, try this”,etc. My refusal only added to their amusement and they then spent the next 2hours making jokes at my expense and claiming that picky eaters are just attention seekers and alot of other ridiculous claims. i left the restaurant feeling so low that all i could do was cry myself to sleep. so i decided to google picky eaters and so i came across this site. Its such a relief to know that im not the only one whose food intake is limited! so thank you for starting this blog as im finding it so helpful reading ur articles! please keep up the good work.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:29:17 +0000

hey i am a personal trainer and a picky eater. i am only 21 but my diet consists of plain pasta no sauce, cheese pizza, crumbed chicken by itself. i don’t eat any veggies at all and my mother is a vegan. my brother sister and father eat ne thing u put in front of them. i used to eat lots of take away such as maccas and kfc but found ordering a mcchicken burger with no lettuce and no mayo a tad bit embarrassing around my friends. i used to eat lollies chocolate cakes sweets etc and a lot of bread. wno that i’m a personal trainer i found it easy to eliminate the unhealthy stuff out of my diet but still can’t find enough goodness in the very few meals i can eat. it really makes me mad that i can’t eat other food. i try to try new things but i just stare at it on my plate and can’t put it to my mouth or if i do i have already decided i’m not going to like it and so i don’t .. does ne one know of ne way to cure it!

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:22:11 +0000

hey i am very picky on what i eat things i mostly eat is fruit,junk food, chips and for pop its cream soda,sprite and pepsie i feel so good saying what i am picky about know i don’t have to hide it again

By: Lizette

Lizette — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:20:37 +0000

Picky eating to me is that I eat out of habit not because I really love it and want it. I do not eat any vegetables or fruit. I do not eat out things I do not know what ingredients were used. I do not like eating other peoples cooking. In fact I don’t like eating except for junk. I love chocolate, chips and used to like nuts but have diverticular disease and can’t eat them now. I stopped eating apparently when I was about 3. Before that I ate everything even things I should eat. Mum and dad worried about my eating and would take me to the drs who fobbed them off as being neurotic. They tried to force me a couple of times, never good. I vomit. I was made to stay at the table , I would sit ALL night if I had to. I would hide food in my pockets, shoes etc. I can’t go to restaurants or friends for dinner. I could not even buy fruit and vegies , now I can. Progress! I have a very limited diet and it impacts on my life immensely. I hate it . Good to know though at 40 there are others who understand. Maybe together we can have our plight seriously looked at so that we can aim for some sort of health diet and normality. I was always so thin, but at 40 it seems to have caught up to me. How do you diet when you have such a limited range to start with? I do not want my children to suffer as I do. I can see my children learning stuff from me I would rather they didn’t, despite my best efforts. My husband suffers as I hate cooking, eating etc. When we go out he eats both our meals. Not great for him either obviously. Lets hope that someday soon they nail the cause and possible treatments to help us all. I think it is a smell, textural and unknown thing. I am too anxious to try new things. I hate the smell of things like asparagus, cabbage etc I can’t stomach mushy foods. Have tried crunchy carrot and celery. Kept down but don’t like. Can’t try to often is totally overwhelming.

Sorry this is so long, trying to share 40 years of frustration. Feel better already!! There is hope;)
Lizette

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:23:10 +0000

I know everyone else has already said it, but I can’t believe there’s a site for this! I’m almost 20 years old (American, but moving to England, so perhaps I count as a UK picky eater!) and have been labelled as “very picky” my entire life, and even though I use the term “picky,” I’ve always felt like I never had any choice in the matter. Like a lot of you, I can only eat potatoes and corn for vegetables, mostly because of the texture and odor. I love tomato sauce and inhale pizza and mozerella sticks and the like, but for some reason I can’t eat large quantites of tomato sauce on pasta without feeling sick. I’d rather slather my pasta in cheese, which I love in pretty much all forms. Fruits I can’t eat for the texture, but I LOVE fruit juice and smoothies and fruit-flavored things (though I can’t deal with pineapple, and peel a citrus fruit in the same room as me and you’ve HAD it). I hate the sound of fresh vegetables and fruit being eaten or sliced, and I can’t touch or go too close to vegetables because I think the smell will get on my hands or something. I love hot dogs and I like bacon, but sometimes I can’t handle bacon because it’s too chewy. I’m particular about my chicken as well, but I can manage it in most forms. In the past year, I’ve been able to manage hamburgers, but I’ve tried and failed with steak. Fish is an absolute no-go. I’ve been getting better and better year by year, but even though occasionally I can broaden my horizons by one or two food products a year, I know I’m never going to be able to eat perfectly normally. I’ve considered hypnosis for the sake of my health, but it’s encouraging to see so many older people that have made it mostly unscathed .

I can be a bit insane about other things related to food…for the most part, I can’t stand watching food being prepared, even my own. I eat lots of things with a knife and fork even when it’s not required. I need separate peices of silverware for a lot of food items, and none of my foods that aren’t self-contained (i.e., have any chance of leaking or oozing onto each other) can touch, which usually means separate plates. When I’m full, even safe foods repulse me, and I can’t think about putting anything solid into my mouth until I digest.

Even though I’ve never really cared what people think about me in any form, my food aversions can be embarrassing at sit-down dinners, especially when someone else has cooked something at home. I’m an expert at cutting up my food and mushing it around to make it look like I ate something, but I could never hide it for fear of being found out. I usually just say that I have a “small stomach” (which I do…I can’t eat large quantities even of safe foods for the most part) and people never expect me to eat a lot, but I always am embarrassed when they look down at my plate and see hardly any food missing. I don’t care what other people think about me and my food issues, but I always feel terrible about wasting food or the money that was spent on the food, and worry about offending the host.

I wonder where all this came from, since my parents say I used to eat everything until I was about four or five. While they were never extremely strict and they never said anything like “you MUST eat this, you can’t leave until you do,” they badger me about it to this day. I’ve learned to shut off my ears and wait till the topic is changed, because it’s not like I’m doing it to defy them or be original…I just CAN’T eat certain things. My friends just know I’m “selective” and eat small quantites and for the most part don’t notice anything that irregular, since I’m a normal weight and height and am actually never, ever sick. I think I must be a sponge or something that sucks nutrients from the air.

I’ve always known I was picky, of course, but I’ve never thought it was an actual disorder or anything like that. I started to explain my eating habits to a friend yesterday, putting it all into words for the first time, and it made me wonder, so I got to googling and realized that there are more people out there like me than I thought. I read all the comments and they almost made me cry, because now I know it’s not just me being stubborn and that I’m not kidding myself when I say I physically CAN’T put certain things into my mouth. because I know I’ll gag or throw up. Thank you for this site! I was a bit worried that it was now defunct, but I see 2009 posts at the bottom! Even if it was defunct, though, it was wonderful to read all the old comments.

Thanks to you all for sharing!

By: James

James — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:00:05 +0000

Hi Claire,

You’ve put it into words that I never could… it’s all that and more. I get the gag / choking / panic reflex, a phobia is the best analogy I can come up with. It’s not for lack of want – people can’t seem to understand that it’s not an active choice. I would love to eat normally more than anything. I’d trade anything & everything to enjoy food.

Accessing any kind of help seems impossible… medical professionals seem unaware. “You need to eat better” – great advice doc!

Hopefully starting CBT in the next few weeks see if I’ve any luck that way. It’s a complete mental block & something that drives me crazy.

Good luck to all battling this.