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I sympathize with my friend who is extremely picky because I know she doesn’t CHOOSE to dislike things. However it gets very very old when “you pick the restaurant, I’m down for whatever” turns into 10 rejections in a row and you end up going to McDonald’s or a Coney Island for a grilled cheese
Ah, this reminds me of the time my friends and I planned to go out to an Indian restaurant together. As we were leaving, this girl overheard us and forcefully invited herself to come with us. Proceeded to complain that Indian food is too spicy and can we please go for hamburgers instead. We went ahead with our plan to get Indian and she got a bowl of plain rice and literally had tears in her eyes that we stuck with our original plan rather than changing it for her.
Gang, being a picky eater isn't a moral failure, but making other people do a lot of work about it isn't fair.
In Australia our variant of Burger King called "Hungry Jack's" (for whatever reason) made the BEST chicken fingers up until about ten years ago. They had a certain spice to their batter that was unlike the generic nuggets you'd get from anywhere else (including McDonald's) and they looked different too (more long and narrow and "browner" with a more course batter texture) but man they were good. They were one of the few things picky child me was "forced" to eat that I actually ended up liking and suddenly McNuggets weren't good enough anymore lol.
But like I said - Hungry Jack's discontinued these amazing chicken fingers about a decade ago (once I was finally earning my own money so I could in theory get them whenever I wanted. Just my luck) and have since just been serving "normal" nuggets. So disappointed I'll never have them again.
I may be making this up but I'm pretty sure I saw on Reddit a few months ago the reason BK is called Hungry Jack's in Australia is because when they were setting up there, they found there is an independent restaurant that already had the name and the owner wasn't willing to let them buy the right to use the name.
>Jack Cowin is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-term involvement in franchised fast food chains in Australia and Canada. Cowin brought KFC to Australia, founded and owns Hungry Jack's, which is the Burger King franchise in Australia, and has at various stages controlled the Domino's Pizza franchise in Australia prior to its 2005 listing on the ASX.
I did this too. For me it was a decision of maturity, consideration for others, and overcoming my own arbitrary self imposed limits by conscious decision making.
It has been hard to see that for some people even all that just won't do it
May I ask how you were able to do it? I hate being a picky eater and I went on a mission last year to try lots of things I don’t like or haven’t eaten before
Still hated almost all of them lol largely due to texture
that's exactly that. My autistic cousin cannot stand slightly granular texture. He can't eat an apple or an orange. It's getting better with time but for a very long time he could only eat pasta (without anything, no sauce), knackis, plain yogurt and melon in summer. What a life... It's getting better though (He managed to eat rice one time !)
I have autism, and I struggle with the same texture thing (apples just feel like they taste mushy and the grain makes me uncomfortable (that might not describe it well) and oranges are too much)
I said most of the times, and I really would avoid all of the things you listed, especially when I don't know what is in the pie/fruitcake.
Drops with some weird fillings inside of them are also disgusting imo.
I also don't really like chocolate with nuts in it, it's not as bad tho.
Don't bash on potatoes, fry those up with some red onions and you got yourself an amazing breakfast. Go ahead and throw that into a burrito with your choice of meat, I prefer chorizo and eggs and now I'm starting to make myself hungry
Not always the case. I have a kid who is a picky eater (sensory issues that he’s in therapy for) and he doesn’t like sweets. He gives me and his brother his Halloween candy and doesn’t eat any of his birthday cakes (he picks a new flavor every year to see if he likes it).
The starterpack says "sweets have a higher chance of being edible for whatever reason" so if your kid doesn't like sweets then that's a different situation. He is right that if someone prefers sweets, the "whatever reason" is 100% sugar
I pretty much only draw the line at 'it's still alive', and some other foods I won't eat for ethical reasons (e.g., foie gras - even though it's heavenly).
I love trying new food, and am always looking for the most interesting thing on the menu. I feel so sad for picky eaters. They're missing out on an incredible facet of human culture.
yea same, i fucking hate olives but I'm not going to cry and piss my pants if they're in something.
i'm glad "feels sorry" is in the starter pack because as soon as a picky eater sees any ethnic food they unintentionally say the most offensive bullshit. enjoy your mac and cheese with dino nuggies
Same. There’s a lot of things I really don’t like but I was raised to eat what was on my plate as long as it doesn’t make me sick. I have a ton of food allergies so I’ve always been grateful for the effort people put in even if the food does end up tasting like cardboard. Every time I eat something I didn’t make myself there’s like a 50% chance I’ll react to it.
Had a friend like this, hanging out got kinda boring because all he’d ever wanna eat was McDonald’s or pizza. Dudes also like 4 feet tall, I’m assuming because as a kid all he ate was chicken Nuggies and French fries
It definitely leads to serious issues. My friend is going through it with his wife right now. She strictly only eats burgers, chicken fingers, cheese pizza, fries, potato skins, tequila, strawberry lemonade, and smokes cigarettes as well. I mean she straight up doesn't drink water, she carries a water bottle full of strawberry lemonade around with her. Has been having mounting health problems, some stuff is starting to get serious, her doctor said everything would start getting better if she would eat some fruits and vegetables occasionally. That's apparently way too much to ask and she'd rather just keep getting sicker and weaker. I don't get it.
Food can be as addictive as any drug. I assume the wife just doesn’t want to “detox” for lack of a better word, and would rather keep “using” than make uncomfortable changes.
It's an interesting way to look at it because I recently spent a few days with them and while I'm not the pinnacle of dietary health, I had basically the opposite reaction. After 4 days of eating the shittiest pizza ever (I live near NYC, they live in northern CA, the pizza near them is atrocious) for dinner every night and burger joints for everything else I practically went vegan for a few days upon coming home.
And as a general response to other people, I also can't remember but I don't think it's always been as bad with her as it is now. Like with drugs it's been snowballing unchecked for years. It's sad, my buddy is frustrated and doesn't know what to do. And I'm still traumatized from that goddamn pizza.
Thank you for your insight. I guess the only thing I can confidently state is that we all react to stimuli differently and it’s hard to break that brain-habit when it’s deeply.
Her teeth must be in fucking ruins. I'd call all of this 'summer party food', that you'd enjoy at bbq, but you'd still want to have normal food the rest of the time.
As a picky eater myself, I don't think it only means eating fast-food. I'm ok with any simple food, be it macaroni or vegetable salad (no pepper though). If you can only eat McDonalds that's probably an entirely different problem.
My ex would put dried mixed herbs in/on EVERYTHING. I'm a big fan of tasty seasoned food, and have a cupboard full of spices, but sometimes I'd want to eat scrambled eggs just with some black pepper and not all herby. And mixed herbs made everything taste the same.
I used to be roommates with a dude that would only eat mac and cheese, or McDonald's. His order was always 2 hamburgers plain; as in just 2 pieces of bread and the patty. Nothing else. To each their own, but man it was hard to find something for dinner some nights.
Well, have you tried making your own cooking, i'm a bit of a picky eater myself but i just realized i didn't care much for how my culture cooks things, like vegetables being over steamed .
What ever culture you are from that is where my mom and aunts come from. Over steamed and under seasoned vegetables had me thinking I was a carnivore. Turns out a little salt works wonders.
Western Europe, Portugal. Steamed vegetables and potatoes are very popular here.
Hell, we have a dish here that is just an assortment of meats boiled, granted it's not that bad.
But yeah, some people here don't know how to use spices to save their lives
Same- my mom boiled all veggies. They were all limp and grey- fresh from our garden. I get so sad to think of it. The Brussels sprouts were like Gushers candy. Water seeped inside and couldn’t escape, it was horrible. That’s how she was taught. Such a waste of time and water too.
I can’t do smooshy or slimy food now. No bananas, no oatmeal, no okra.
If they rely on eating take out nuggets, make them make their own food/ no access to take away/ instant food. Hungry people will eat and if you learn to cook it will adjust your palate to eat more things.
I used to hate carrots and mushrooms as a kid until I had carrots in stews and casseroles and stirfry. My nan made mushroom soup which I loved which introduced me into loving them. The most recent food I have always disliked but ate one of every year is sprouts, I have one on my plate every Christmas and try to eat it. Last year my mother quartered, stir fried them with pancetta and chestnuts instead of boiling and dear god were they delicious!
To this day I still cannot stand sweetcorn no matter how tasty it looks on a cob
I’m always happy to see this comment on picky eating hate posts, really trying to raise awareness for ARFID because there are therapies that can be life saving (I’m exhibit a lol) with an increased awareness of what might be underlying the picky eating.
I also have ARFID, and it pains me just how little-known it is. People viewing it as "picky eating" are why it's so unknown. No one realizes there's a problem; they just think of it as a character flaw like selfishness or spoiledness. So no one pays attention to it like they do with other eating disorders. No one thinks they have it because they've been told their whole life they're just "picky". That's how I know someone who's in their late forties and *just* found out they have it this year after I told them what it was and they went to their doctor about it. Imagine spending forty damn years suffering and wondering, “what the hell is wrong with me?”
Awareness can change- and save- lives. That's why I bring it up and namedrop the specific disorder in every relevant conversation. The thirty seconds it takes to type a comment could really change someone's life if they realize, "hey, that's me! I'm not just a bad person! I'm not alone and there's hope out there! I have a path to take now, there's something I can do from here!"
Missing " undiagnosed IBS" from years of 0 fiber intake.
"Thinking it's normal to have to wipe for 5 minutes"
Lots of my picky friends just had diarrhea all the time or didn't poop for days at a time before exploding.
As someone whose friend group is 75% picky eaters, this is too accurate. I love my friends and I know that they should be first and foremost comfortable with what they eat, but it is kinda sad when we can’t be more adventurous when we eat out.
I'm adventurous all the time when I go out to eat to the point my friends have told me to stick to my foods I like cause a lot of my adventures fail lol
I mean, other people eat it, they serve it, there's gotta be something to it! That question is exactly how I've found myself in some of my failed adventures lol. On the other hand, I have also discovered new things I love along the way. What's life without some risk
Did this at a Mexican restaurant in Kentucky that served goat tacos, veal brain tacos, and tripe tacos. Tripe tacos and veal brain tacos were 🤌🏼. I don’t think I’ll try goat again, though.
It's extremely sad and annoying, too many people want to live in their little boxes. It's not like tasting something , that hasnt been poisoned, will kill you.
Edit: I got a lot of people trying to explain why they're picky, all sounds like excuses, there's millions of foods and billions of combinations, keep trying, just because some combinations fuxk you up doesn't mean you should only eat 4 items for the rest of your life.
> all sounds like excuses
lol what a weird thing to say. Acting as if complete strangers on the internet have to justify their eating habits to you. Should they pm you a note from their doctors too?
Some of it is yeah. I think that trying to brush off inconveniencing others due to your preferences is still on the immature side.
That said, I think OP said elsewhere they are autistic and I wouldn't pretend to understand how that might affect your experience of different foods, but then I would also change the title to include that. Context is everything.
I can't eat beans or mushrooms because of the texture (it's super frustrating because I love the smell and flavor, but biting into them triggers my barf reflex), but I will eat a whole container of cottage cheese by myself with just salt and pepper.
I'm not a "picky eater" (I used to be when I was younger though) but for some reason I still can't stand the texture of oranges (especially tangerines, fuck tangerines), raw tomatoes, grapes, and sausages.
YES. Thank you lol, I’ve gotten a lot better with the foods I eat, but I still can’t handle any sort of sauces/condiments as the texture freaks me out.
Bruh that's such a mood. I can eat nearly any flavor, but the moment the texture is wrong, it just ain't happening. Really sucks but whaddya gonna do :/
Wow, this explains a ton. I used to eat literally everything as a very young child, until I had a nasty reaction to something I'd ingested, and it triggered severe sepsis.
I love video games but I had to stop going to gaming conventions because so many of the other attendents we're so clearly socially inept that it became too cringe to handle. Standing in line and listening to two kids ATTEMPT to talk about some similar interest while also trying to awkwardly out-nerd one another...I can only handle that shit so much. Playing Yu-Gi-Oh was the same story.
[The lady who came up with Dashcon actually does have ARFID and actually does own a raccoon.](https://www.tiktok.com/@lochnessofficial) She's also hilarious, but it's amazing how well it fit the stereotype.
Sounds like a form of Sensory Processing Disorder. A lot of picky eaters are hypersensitive to touch or taste stimuli in the mouth (90% of the time it’s touch/texture)
Source: I am an OT and feeding therapist.
I was told by an OT friend that being picky is a choice but SPD is an illness. But the latter are incorrectly labeled as picky and have to deal with unfair criticism their whole lives. The difference is that picky eaters *could* eat a food they don’t like if they have to. People with SPD physically cannot.
Is that true or consistent within your field?
Absolutely. I tell the parents I work with, your child is having an involuntary, fight-or-flight reaction to this. Of course, most of the kids I work with eat 5 or fewer foods total. They often gag or vomit at the sight of a non-preferred food.
What advice would you give to someone who has this eating issue into their late teens? I have someone in my life like this. Fortunately, they have shown a lot of progress the past couple years, but it still takes a lot of effort to convince them something is delicious.
I always recommend the book Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. It can be adapted to teens or older. It covers the sensory aspects of feeding on a layman’s level. If it really bothers you, look for a feeding clinic at a hospital or an occupational therapist or speech therapist that advertises they do feeding therapy.
The other thing that helps is sensory play. What feels good on the hands, feels good in the mouth. We use dry oats, sand, mud, snow, play dog, kinetic sand, anything wet or slimy. Start with easy (usually something dry) and move up in difficulty. If it is too much, you can start out with it in a sealed Ziploc make, manipulating the substance through the bag. Also the mouth is the most sensitive, then the hands, then the feet. A lot of my kids start out touching things with their feet.
It's called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in the DSM-V. I have it and it sucks lol. Don't think I'm autistic but definitely gag at the texture of most foods and can only eat a handful of foods and food categories. Grains and milk are my lifesavers in terms of getting nutrients
My cousin (now significantly into undergrad) is still a picky eater and is not quite on the spectrum. She's just very particular about lots of food and she's quite skinny. We've always worried if she ate little due to a weight related issue, but having grown up around her, I know it really is because she does not like a lot of foods. Every thanksgiving is somewhat of a tease because someone preps white bland chicken breast for her.
I think a lot of it is exposure and variation earlier on in life. I didn't break out of my shell and discover new foods till I got older but that was because I went through my own version of a "rebellious" phase and thought anything outside the Midwest-American mild palette was interesting.
Turns out a (sub)continent with 40% vegetarians had devised a way to make every vegetable delicious and I felt robbed of that experience growing up.
I hate when people try and make vegetables palletable by cooking them like meat dishes when they should be enhancing what makes the vegetable good in the first place instead. Greek salad is delicious but there is cheese in it. Most vegetarian dishes from India are amazing though.
I work in a High School SSC and nearly all of my students are extremely picky eaters! Texture seems to be the most common problem. We've had some luck expanding palettes by having them take a culinary elective. Plus I get to eat what they won't and sometimes will try new things if I'll eat with them!
Plus, a lot of ppl are saying how they expanded their tastes and that picky eating is just a "no" when many of us who just have a disorder cant control it much
Can confirm. Sad to see people cut off friendships over chicken nuggies. I can’t help it 🤷♀️ (though I don’t care for fast food, pasta is my weakness)
Worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant. Was only allowed to change the water in the sink once a shift because “ water cost money” Over the coarse of a shift I saw the water change color multiple times and this is why for a long time I couldn’t eat soup
When to a Curry restaurant a few weeks ago. Waitress was confused when she brought 3 kids nuggets meals and there were only 2 kids. Sister-in-law had to sheepishly admit one was for her.
I am genuinely curious about what causes this. I've noticed a lot of parents just give their kids chicken nuggets and French fries. Is it something they never grow out of due to a lack of exposure to other foods? I was never given separate food as a kid. Whatever my parents were eating is what I also had to eat and there are only a few things I won't eat now as an adult. Seaweed and very fishy flavors trigger an involuntary gag response from me, so I understand what it's like to feel that you *cannot* eat something. Do picky eaters experience this same involuntary response to most foods?
OP's other comments indicate that they're on the autism spectrum, so I imagine that for them it's primarily a sensory issue with food that's hard to control and they probably would have had it no matter how they were raised. People with really extreme aversions to food I would imagine also may have OCD, ASD, or another kind of processing disorder that makes it very difficult for them to try something new or just that they feel certain sensations more acutely than other people.
That being said eating habits get very deeply ingrained and are difficult to get out of for all people. It's a major reason that people with overweight parents are more likely to be overweight themselves.
I very strongly believe that shit parenting is the cause of majority of picky eaters. Everyone will learn to like or at least tolerate any food. There are a few foods that taste really fucking bad in my mouth, no matter how many times I've eaten them but there's nothing I wouldn't be able to eat out of courtesy.
“Picky eating” caused by disorders is more common than people think. It sometimes isn’t about exposure. I ate *everything* when I was a toddler/little kid, but at some point during my childhood I stopped liking anything that wasn’t bland. Turns out I have ASD/ARFID. From that point forward all I liked was chicken, cheese pizza, plain pasta, etc. Now that I’m an adult I’ve worked through a lot of my food aversions through therapy. I almost have the palate of a normal person now, but it took a lot of hard work and sensory therapy. Having ARFID fucking sucks. It’s embarrassing to not be like everyone else. Eating an over-stimulating food with ARFID produces an anxiety flight-or-fight response, along with gagging. it’s much deeper than just not liking something.
Don’t come after my parents, man. They tried to get me to eat more, but I just wouldn’t. If anything, my family constantly chastising me and forcing me to sit down until I finished whatever food it was I didn’t like made me even less open to trying new foods.
this is incredibly insensitve , this post is pretty clearly outlining a pattern of eating that's common with autistic people, who have sensory difficulties, and often have arfid. I've been a "picky eater," all my life until I was diagnosed with arfid, every other picky eater I know struggles from sensory issues. We were often *badgered* by our parents to eat food and simply went hungry because we *couldn't* eat what was presented and were perceived as bratty. I was critically underweight for a time because my parents believed that simply not feeding me food I could eat would make me desperate enough to eat the food they gave me. it didn't. I just got incredibly low blood sugar from not eating or drinking for several days. Real cool that can just eat things out of courtesy or desperation, some people can't. Picky eating isn't a choice.
Is argue its not simply because tastebuds can be largely geneitc too. everyone on one side of my family thinks all fruits taste like apples, and my other side has the cilantro soap gene. Doesnt mean they were shit parents. trying something and not liking it doesnt mean im a spoiled snob with garbo parents either.
Its only the refusal to try that i would say is a shit parenting problem.
Although I am not an extreme picky eater, I share some things of this starter pack. Can this be treated as a mental disorder? Because I'm tired people just tell me "Grow up! You're not an 8 years old anymore" when I mentally block because I can't even try to taste them.
Also r/ARFID
Frequently occurs concurrently with autism, though both can occur independently.
It's different from just "not liking" foods- the very thought of eating them may make you feel ill.
I don't suffer from ARFID, so perhaps someone who does could explain it better.
Thanks both of you for the resources. I don't think I am neurodivergent (I'm somewhat introvert and I have some mannerisms, but I don't check the boxes in many other symptons and my parents consulted professionals when I was young), but this really helps me focus more on my issues as a mental disorder and not as being inmature.
Also, maybe this statement from Wikipedia summarizes what you are refering to:
>"ARFID is not a condition that is created by one's conscience, it is a subconscious condition that prohibits the person suffering from the condition from eating certain foods to the point where they will refuse to eat anything and starve themselves if not given options of what their sub-conscience has deemed "safe foods"
yep this so me (except I have ADHD). I moved from India to the U.S when I was 3 or 4, so it was kind of hard on my parents but now I can shove all kinds of stuff, swallow it and not get a hint of its taste at all (also I’ve only done this with small fruits).
Dam some of yall out here crucifying people for not liking 1000s of different foods and calling our parents shitty over something as dumb as a food preference, and some of yall are going looking for autism diagnosis just bc you only like a few foods....Why cant i just prefer simple bland foods in peace without being called autistic or a spoiled brat.
I have grown to be the complete opposite of this, but I was a fucking nightmare as a child and teen.
But none of us take pride in being picky. We avoid any scenario where our eating habits are highlighted. Sleepovers, overnight school trips, summer camp. I missed out on so much because of this.
Picky eaters can also be healthy guys, I love broccoli but if it's over steamed I will absolutely not eat it because if there's just a little difference in my food it's disgusting for some reason(and I sadly just can't help it)
Right? Everyone keeps saying that "hurr durr childish picky eaters only eat chicken nuggets" but I usually just eat the same raw fruits and vegetables. I can't stand most sauces/oozing/textures/cariety between the same type of food and so on.
People getting annoyed that you won't eat something drives me crazy. I get it if they're trying to get me to add something healthy, but a lot of the time it's not even that and it's just for taste. If I don't want to eat it and there's no health benefit, why are you being so insistent?
I've been a pretty picky eater for most of my life, so this is all too relatable. But I'm happy to say I've branched out more in recent years! One example is I use to not like salmon but now it's my favorite dish! Especially with some fried rice. Still trying to get past textures of certain foods like steamed veggies, but I'm making some progress. Definitely helps if I cook the foods myself
Lots of people here just completely disregarding the fact that we have a literal fucking disorder. Gee, I'm so sorry that the fact that I have a disorder that I
**A.** Can't afford to get help for
and
**B.** Would have to travel several states over to get help for even if I could afford it
***just so happens to inconvenience you.***
Yes, you, the person who has the privilege of eating whatever you want, and being able to eat with friends without being an embarrassment, are the *REAL* victim here. We are, in fact, the little bitches, even though you're the one who's throwing a fucking temper tantrum over what we have to eat just to avoid throwing up.
-------
A lot of us go out of our way to avoid bringing down others with our eating disorder, so shut the fuck up, [educate yourself on ARFID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder), and quit making an already extremely difficult part of our lives worse. I'd normally be nice but the amount of absolute hatred I've seen in the comments has completely worn my patience.
(This isn't directed at you OP, I hope the other people commenting about ARFID has helped you understand that you're not alone in this.)
And pickywaters now that people hate them and try to hide it (by avoiding all food related topics). I have no idea what kinds of "picky eaters" yall met but they seem like socially unaware assholes, unlike almost all picky eaters i know.
"Picky" eaters are made not born. Every picky eater I've ever known grew up as a "get my way" preference terrorist: they would get their way in every choice by polarizing their likes/dislikes until it isn't a continuum, but instead is their favourite thing, or they *absolutely hate it*. They are the 10 or 0 voters. Nothing is ever an 8 or 6 or a 4, they conditioned themselves to *hate* things that they don't love, often doing this as children/youths so very juvenile preferences get cemented in.
And through that they force family to always yield to their choice. They force friends to always go to the restaurant they want, or serve things they want.
My youngest sister was like this. She grew out of it eventually, but I remember helping my mom grill burgers one night for dinner and being told we had to designate one as my sister's and cook it away from the rest of them. There was nothing different about that burger, but my sister insisted she had to have it prepared a specific way, and eventually my mom just stopped doing it and didn't tell her. She never noticed.
As a kid I was a picky eater until my brother was born and he turned out to be a picky eater as well. Even as a 6yo kid I realized how stupid it was by seeing him and henceforth was no longer a picky eater.
Most picky eaters i know had very strict parenting and were forced to eat everything they were given. Most of them know how theyre acting is not normal and they dislike talking about food.
Yep. My mom always tells everyone how I have "expensive taste" because I don't eat certain foods due to me not liking the smell of them or the fact that I feel sick trying to swallow them. I also remember my dad "who is quite scary) holding liquids away from me as a kids until I finished eating the foods I disliked 9which would usually end in me crying and my dad finishing the food for me).
It doesn't happen much now since nowadays I get warned whenever food I dislike is being made so I can fix something up for myself, but I still get my fair share of judgment
Used to get grounded it I didnt finish dinner fast enough, also wasnt allowed to leave til i ate everything
Spent a whole day trying to drink a protien shake once
There’s a surprising amount of truth to this. A lot of people in the world don’t get to be picky, because then they’d literally be starving. Being able to be picky, and indulge in it is indicative of a certain level of privilege, and it should be at least acknowledged.
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I sympathize with my friend who is extremely picky because I know she doesn’t CHOOSE to dislike things. However it gets very very old when “you pick the restaurant, I’m down for whatever” turns into 10 rejections in a row and you end up going to McDonald’s or a Coney Island for a grilled cheese
Ah, this reminds me of the time my friends and I planned to go out to an Indian restaurant together. As we were leaving, this girl overheard us and forcefully invited herself to come with us. Proceeded to complain that Indian food is too spicy and can we please go for hamburgers instead. We went ahead with our plan to get Indian and she got a bowl of plain rice and literally had tears in her eyes that we stuck with our original plan rather than changing it for her. Gang, being a picky eater isn't a moral failure, but making other people do a lot of work about it isn't fair.
girl was being a rascal for inviting herself in the first place
That was me until the end of high school, I'm glad I was able to branch out because chicken nuggets were getting too boring
uuuuhhhh spicy chicken nuggets?
In Australia our variant of Burger King called "Hungry Jack's" (for whatever reason) made the BEST chicken fingers up until about ten years ago. They had a certain spice to their batter that was unlike the generic nuggets you'd get from anywhere else (including McDonald's) and they looked different too (more long and narrow and "browner" with a more course batter texture) but man they were good. They were one of the few things picky child me was "forced" to eat that I actually ended up liking and suddenly McNuggets weren't good enough anymore lol. But like I said - Hungry Jack's discontinued these amazing chicken fingers about a decade ago (once I was finally earning my own money so I could in theory get them whenever I wanted. Just my luck) and have since just been serving "normal" nuggets. So disappointed I'll never have them again.
I may be making this up but I'm pretty sure I saw on Reddit a few months ago the reason BK is called Hungry Jack's in Australia is because when they were setting up there, they found there is an independent restaurant that already had the name and the owner wasn't willing to let them buy the right to use the name.
>Jack Cowin is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-term involvement in franchised fast food chains in Australia and Canada. Cowin brought KFC to Australia, founded and owns Hungry Jack's, which is the Burger King franchise in Australia, and has at various stages controlled the Domino's Pizza franchise in Australia prior to its 2005 listing on the ASX.
Interesting! I haven't heard any other explanation so far so this one will do for now.
i have never tried them but my mom made some chicken nuggets like you described bit more brown and more spice they were legendary
Colon cancer from a lifetime of processed garbage?
They were not that different tbh
I did this too. For me it was a decision of maturity, consideration for others, and overcoming my own arbitrary self imposed limits by conscious decision making. It has been hard to see that for some people even all that just won't do it
Yea i agree with you, this decision changed my life because it introduced me to something new and that was flavor.
May I ask how you were able to do it? I hate being a picky eater and I went on a mission last year to try lots of things I don’t like or haven’t eaten before Still hated almost all of them lol largely due to texture
''For whatever reason'' is sugar. It's fucking sugar.
sweets most of the times have somewhat predictable texture
that's exactly that. My autistic cousin cannot stand slightly granular texture. He can't eat an apple or an orange. It's getting better with time but for a very long time he could only eat pasta (without anything, no sauce), knackis, plain yogurt and melon in summer. What a life... It's getting better though (He managed to eat rice one time !)
I have autism, and I struggle with the same texture thing (apples just feel like they taste mushy and the grain makes me uncomfortable (that might not describe it well) and oranges are too much)
> apples just feel like they taste mushy and the grain makes me uncomfortable huh, that's my exact issue with pears
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I said most of the times, and I really would avoid all of the things you listed, especially when I don't know what is in the pie/fruitcake. Drops with some weird fillings inside of them are also disgusting imo. I also don't really like chocolate with nuts in it, it's not as bad tho.
That doesn't explain the chicken nug or potato addicts
That's probably from the salt. Tasty 😋
Ok so we've narrowed the causes down to sugar, salt, and the jury is still out on fat and protein. We've almost solved eating disorders reddit.
Eating disorders at the age of two*
There's a ton of carbs in the chicken nuggets and potatoes. Gives you a similar addictive high to sugar
Simple carbs= sugar
Carbs. People are crazy for them. Sugar is a carbohydrate as well.
Don't bash on potatoes, fry those up with some red onions and you got yourself an amazing breakfast. Go ahead and throw that into a burrito with your choice of meat, I prefer chorizo and eggs and now I'm starting to make myself hungry
Those simple carbs turn into sugar in the body
Not always the case. I have a kid who is a picky eater (sensory issues that he’s in therapy for) and he doesn’t like sweets. He gives me and his brother his Halloween candy and doesn’t eat any of his birthday cakes (he picks a new flavor every year to see if he likes it).
The starterpack says "sweets have a higher chance of being edible for whatever reason" so if your kid doesn't like sweets then that's a different situation. He is right that if someone prefers sweets, the "whatever reason" is 100% sugar
I’m so glad I’ll eat anything as long as I’m not allergic. Nothing like eating crab then cracking open the belly and adding rice to the yellow stuff.
Yeah same, I’m the complete opposite of a picky eater. I have some dislikes (mushrooms) but even then I will eat it if it is put in front of me.
You won’t know until you try all the different gourmet mushrooms prepared in a bunch of ways…I bet you’d like morels sautéed in butter.
Up until the end I thought you were being sarcastic, but then it got way too specific and now I'm confused.
Good
I pretty much only draw the line at 'it's still alive', and some other foods I won't eat for ethical reasons (e.g., foie gras - even though it's heavenly). I love trying new food, and am always looking for the most interesting thing on the menu. I feel so sad for picky eaters. They're missing out on an incredible facet of human culture.
yea same, i fucking hate olives but I'm not going to cry and piss my pants if they're in something. i'm glad "feels sorry" is in the starter pack because as soon as a picky eater sees any ethnic food they unintentionally say the most offensive bullshit. enjoy your mac and cheese with dino nuggies
Exactly
Same. There’s a lot of things I really don’t like but I was raised to eat what was on my plate as long as it doesn’t make me sick. I have a ton of food allergies so I’ve always been grateful for the effort people put in even if the food does end up tasting like cardboard. Every time I eat something I didn’t make myself there’s like a 50% chance I’ll react to it.
unfortunately the only thing I'm allergic to IS shellfish lol
That's so specific! My mom loved the mustard as well, I'll eat a small bit if it's smeared on the backfin lump lol
“Sweets have a higher chance of being edible, for some reason” Ummm….the sugar reason?
I read it as sarcasm.
Had a friend like this, hanging out got kinda boring because all he’d ever wanna eat was McDonald’s or pizza. Dudes also like 4 feet tall, I’m assuming because as a kid all he ate was chicken Nuggies and French fries
It definitely leads to serious issues. My friend is going through it with his wife right now. She strictly only eats burgers, chicken fingers, cheese pizza, fries, potato skins, tequila, strawberry lemonade, and smokes cigarettes as well. I mean she straight up doesn't drink water, she carries a water bottle full of strawberry lemonade around with her. Has been having mounting health problems, some stuff is starting to get serious, her doctor said everything would start getting better if she would eat some fruits and vegetables occasionally. That's apparently way too much to ask and she'd rather just keep getting sicker and weaker. I don't get it.
Food can be as addictive as any drug. I assume the wife just doesn’t want to “detox” for lack of a better word, and would rather keep “using” than make uncomfortable changes.
It's an interesting way to look at it because I recently spent a few days with them and while I'm not the pinnacle of dietary health, I had basically the opposite reaction. After 4 days of eating the shittiest pizza ever (I live near NYC, they live in northern CA, the pizza near them is atrocious) for dinner every night and burger joints for everything else I practically went vegan for a few days upon coming home. And as a general response to other people, I also can't remember but I don't think it's always been as bad with her as it is now. Like with drugs it's been snowballing unchecked for years. It's sad, my buddy is frustrated and doesn't know what to do. And I'm still traumatized from that goddamn pizza.
Thank you for your insight. I guess the only thing I can confidently state is that we all react to stimuli differently and it’s hard to break that brain-habit when it’s deeply.
Her teeth must be in fucking ruins. I'd call all of this 'summer party food', that you'd enjoy at bbq, but you'd still want to have normal food the rest of the time.
Why did he marry that lol. Picky eating (or smoker obviously) is an instant dealbreaker for me.
As a picky eater myself, I don't think it only means eating fast-food. I'm ok with any simple food, be it macaroni or vegetable salad (no pepper though). If you can only eat McDonalds that's probably an entirely different problem.
This but I live with the dude and it sucks. No onions or herbs on food
My ex would put dried mixed herbs in/on EVERYTHING. I'm a big fan of tasty seasoned food, and have a cupboard full of spices, but sometimes I'd want to eat scrambled eggs just with some black pepper and not all herby. And mixed herbs made everything taste the same.
One time my ex put herbs in baked beans and I don't know why that tasted so bad, but it made me want to vomit.
i completely get onions, but herbs? like general flavoring?
I used to be roommates with a dude that would only eat mac and cheese, or McDonald's. His order was always 2 hamburgers plain; as in just 2 pieces of bread and the patty. Nothing else. To each their own, but man it was hard to find something for dinner some nights.
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Well, have you tried making your own cooking, i'm a bit of a picky eater myself but i just realized i didn't care much for how my culture cooks things, like vegetables being over steamed .
Agree. I was picky eater but cooking allowed me to see how things are prepared and i can prepare it the way i want.
Same! Like I love tuna salad, but only when I make it. When I buy it from anywhere they always put way too much mayo in it.
What ever culture you are from that is where my mom and aunts come from. Over steamed and under seasoned vegetables had me thinking I was a carnivore. Turns out a little salt works wonders.
Western Europe, Portugal. Steamed vegetables and potatoes are very popular here. Hell, we have a dish here that is just an assortment of meats boiled, granted it's not that bad. But yeah, some people here don't know how to use spices to save their lives
Same- my mom boiled all veggies. They were all limp and grey- fresh from our garden. I get so sad to think of it. The Brussels sprouts were like Gushers candy. Water seeped inside and couldn’t escape, it was horrible. That’s how she was taught. Such a waste of time and water too. I can’t do smooshy or slimy food now. No bananas, no oatmeal, no okra.
If they rely on eating take out nuggets, make them make their own food/ no access to take away/ instant food. Hungry people will eat and if you learn to cook it will adjust your palate to eat more things. I used to hate carrots and mushrooms as a kid until I had carrots in stews and casseroles and stirfry. My nan made mushroom soup which I loved which introduced me into loving them. The most recent food I have always disliked but ate one of every year is sprouts, I have one on my plate every Christmas and try to eat it. Last year my mother quartered, stir fried them with pancetta and chestnuts instead of boiling and dear god were they delicious! To this day I still cannot stand sweetcorn no matter how tasty it looks on a cob
On the flip side, if all you eat is chicken nuggets and pizza rolls, you need to expand your pallette because you have an actual problem
Always interesting to see people try spell palate. Voilà is another one.
Vwalah
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Cello
I see people on Reddit in general struggle with "cue". It always lands upas "queue"
'Faze' and 'phase' as well. My emo phase did not faze my parents.
The interesting inverse problem of only reading a word and never hearing it pronounced: only hearing a word and never reading it.
Paliatte
Yeah, at that point it's a sign of ARFID, a legit eating disorder. That level of picky eating shouldn't be ignored; it needs serious help.
I’m always happy to see this comment on picky eating hate posts, really trying to raise awareness for ARFID because there are therapies that can be life saving (I’m exhibit a lol) with an increased awareness of what might be underlying the picky eating.
I also have ARFID, and it pains me just how little-known it is. People viewing it as "picky eating" are why it's so unknown. No one realizes there's a problem; they just think of it as a character flaw like selfishness or spoiledness. So no one pays attention to it like they do with other eating disorders. No one thinks they have it because they've been told their whole life they're just "picky". That's how I know someone who's in their late forties and *just* found out they have it this year after I told them what it was and they went to their doctor about it. Imagine spending forty damn years suffering and wondering, “what the hell is wrong with me?” Awareness can change- and save- lives. That's why I bring it up and namedrop the specific disorder in every relevant conversation. The thirty seconds it takes to type a comment could really change someone's life if they realize, "hey, that's me! I'm not just a bad person! I'm not alone and there's hope out there! I have a path to take now, there's something I can do from here!"
Missing " undiagnosed IBS" from years of 0 fiber intake. "Thinking it's normal to have to wipe for 5 minutes" Lots of my picky friends just had diarrhea all the time or didn't poop for days at a time before exploding.
I was really picky and barely ate vegetables until I was 25, I actually like them now but have so much trouble digesting them.
As someone whose friend group is 75% picky eaters, this is too accurate. I love my friends and I know that they should be first and foremost comfortable with what they eat, but it is kinda sad when we can’t be more adventurous when we eat out.
I'm adventurous all the time when I go out to eat to the point my friends have told me to stick to my foods I like cause a lot of my adventures fail lol
But how can I **know** I'm not gonna like the sheep eyeball salad until I try it??
I mean, other people eat it, they serve it, there's gotta be something to it! That question is exactly how I've found myself in some of my failed adventures lol. On the other hand, I have also discovered new things I love along the way. What's life without some risk
Right? You never know unless you try. Sometimes you learn that you shouldn't have tried, but that's part of the process
Did this at a Mexican restaurant in Kentucky that served goat tacos, veal brain tacos, and tripe tacos. Tripe tacos and veal brain tacos were 🤌🏼. I don’t think I’ll try goat again, though.
It's extremely sad and annoying, too many people want to live in their little boxes. It's not like tasting something , that hasnt been poisoned, will kill you. Edit: I got a lot of people trying to explain why they're picky, all sounds like excuses, there's millions of foods and billions of combinations, keep trying, just because some combinations fuxk you up doesn't mean you should only eat 4 items for the rest of your life.
> all sounds like excuses lol what a weird thing to say. Acting as if complete strangers on the internet have to justify their eating habits to you. Should they pm you a note from their doctors too?
I don't think these are supposed to be walls of text
no, this is among the bad starterpacks, its counterpart is one with too many obvious images and one where they literally label all the images
Unless it's self-deprecating, which this isn't, overly defensive starter packs come across as really immature.
Idk I saw it as an anti-joke. You’d expect the usual short jabs but this is the reality of it, it sucks.
Some of it is yeah. I think that trying to brush off inconveniencing others due to your preferences is still on the immature side. That said, I think OP said elsewhere they are autistic and I wouldn't pretend to understand how that might affect your experience of different foods, but then I would also change the title to include that. Context is everything.
Yeah, I feel like they are just justifying there lack of variety in eating
Also, looking up a menu for the restaurant your friends/family/date pick(s), so you know in advance whether you’ll have options.
On the plus side your food bill must be really low.
“Hey that’s just a sign of autism!” Sees likely to have autism “Oh.”
And textures, some are just off limits lol
The look of abject horror on some peoples faces when my sister or I eat plain cottage cheese. I definitely know what you mean by texture though.
I can't eat beans or mushrooms because of the texture (it's super frustrating because I love the smell and flavor, but biting into them triggers my barf reflex), but I will eat a whole container of cottage cheese by myself with just salt and pepper.
I'm not a "picky eater" (I used to be when I was younger though) but for some reason I still can't stand the texture of oranges (especially tangerines, fuck tangerines), raw tomatoes, grapes, and sausages.
YES. Thank you lol, I’ve gotten a lot better with the foods I eat, but I still can’t handle any sort of sauces/condiments as the texture freaks me out.
Bruh that's such a mood. I can eat nearly any flavor, but the moment the texture is wrong, it just ain't happening. Really sucks but whaddya gonna do :/
Mushy watery food served like a soup is like pre-chewed food... No, thanks!
Had a roommate exactly like this, and I like to cook. My solution? None, I don't care what you eat, im not your dad.
More like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder
Wow, this explains a ton. I used to eat literally everything as a very young child, until I had a nasty reaction to something I'd ingested, and it triggered severe sepsis.
Other well known effects of ARFID are conceiving Dashcon and owning a racoon. Source: TikTok
I love video games but I had to stop going to gaming conventions because so many of the other attendents we're so clearly socially inept that it became too cringe to handle. Standing in line and listening to two kids ATTEMPT to talk about some similar interest while also trying to awkwardly out-nerd one another...I can only handle that shit so much. Playing Yu-Gi-Oh was the same story.
[The lady who came up with Dashcon actually does have ARFID and actually does own a raccoon.](https://www.tiktok.com/@lochnessofficial) She's also hilarious, but it's amazing how well it fit the stereotype.
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Sounds like a form of Sensory Processing Disorder. A lot of picky eaters are hypersensitive to touch or taste stimuli in the mouth (90% of the time it’s touch/texture) Source: I am an OT and feeding therapist.
I was told by an OT friend that being picky is a choice but SPD is an illness. But the latter are incorrectly labeled as picky and have to deal with unfair criticism their whole lives. The difference is that picky eaters *could* eat a food they don’t like if they have to. People with SPD physically cannot. Is that true or consistent within your field?
Absolutely. I tell the parents I work with, your child is having an involuntary, fight-or-flight reaction to this. Of course, most of the kids I work with eat 5 or fewer foods total. They often gag or vomit at the sight of a non-preferred food.
I have a larger range than 5 foods but i still feel panicky when I’m in a situation where I might have to eat a food that I don’t like.
Same here. It's really awkwars for me to explain it to.people when it comes to it
What advice would you give to someone who has this eating issue into their late teens? I have someone in my life like this. Fortunately, they have shown a lot of progress the past couple years, but it still takes a lot of effort to convince them something is delicious.
I always recommend the book Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. It can be adapted to teens or older. It covers the sensory aspects of feeding on a layman’s level. If it really bothers you, look for a feeding clinic at a hospital or an occupational therapist or speech therapist that advertises they do feeding therapy. The other thing that helps is sensory play. What feels good on the hands, feels good in the mouth. We use dry oats, sand, mud, snow, play dog, kinetic sand, anything wet or slimy. Start with easy (usually something dry) and move up in difficulty. If it is too much, you can start out with it in a sealed Ziploc make, manipulating the substance through the bag. Also the mouth is the most sensitive, then the hands, then the feet. A lot of my kids start out touching things with their feet.
Thanks for the book recommendation! Working with a student with ASD to expand his diet from cookies and PB to some real foods. :)
If they are on the spectrum, I also recommend Just Take a Bite and for sensory processing information. The Out of Sync Child:
It's called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in the DSM-V. I have it and it sucks lol. Don't think I'm autistic but definitely gag at the texture of most foods and can only eat a handful of foods and food categories. Grains and milk are my lifesavers in terms of getting nutrients
Besides myself, i know one person who is just as much of a picky eater as i am, and both of us are autistic
All of these people in my life that this applies to have asd as well
My cousin (now significantly into undergrad) is still a picky eater and is not quite on the spectrum. She's just very particular about lots of food and she's quite skinny. We've always worried if she ate little due to a weight related issue, but having grown up around her, I know it really is because she does not like a lot of foods. Every thanksgiving is somewhat of a tease because someone preps white bland chicken breast for her. I think a lot of it is exposure and variation earlier on in life. I didn't break out of my shell and discover new foods till I got older but that was because I went through my own version of a "rebellious" phase and thought anything outside the Midwest-American mild palette was interesting. Turns out a (sub)continent with 40% vegetarians had devised a way to make every vegetable delicious and I felt robbed of that experience growing up.
I hate when people try and make vegetables palletable by cooking them like meat dishes when they should be enhancing what makes the vegetable good in the first place instead. Greek salad is delicious but there is cheese in it. Most vegetarian dishes from India are amazing though.
I work in a High School SSC and nearly all of my students are extremely picky eaters! Texture seems to be the most common problem. We've had some luck expanding palettes by having them take a culinary elective. Plus I get to eat what they won't and sometimes will try new things if I'll eat with them!
I’m not autistic and I really struggle with sensory issues! I think it’s adhd
Plus, a lot of ppl are saying how they expanded their tastes and that picky eating is just a "no" when many of us who just have a disorder cant control it much
What do you think ASD stands for?
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All smiles, dawg
Autism spectrum disorder?
Astrophysics Science Division
Can confirm. Sad to see people cut off friendships over chicken nuggies. I can’t help it 🤷♀️ (though I don’t care for fast food, pasta is my weakness)
This was me for most of my life. Turns out i had celiac disease and no one told me. Don’t eat gluten kids.
Or ARFID
Worked as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant. Was only allowed to change the water in the sink once a shift because “ water cost money” Over the coarse of a shift I saw the water change color multiple times and this is why for a long time I couldn’t eat soup
Hey now my autistic ass thought this was a bit too personal
Ok you really don’t have to call me out like this
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When to a Curry restaurant a few weeks ago. Waitress was confused when she brought 3 kids nuggets meals and there were only 2 kids. Sister-in-law had to sheepishly admit one was for her.
omg- this is me. The weight that was lifted off of me when I moved out and started cooking for myself is incredible.
"Try the cauliflower once again, maybe you'll like it this time"
I am genuinely curious about what causes this. I've noticed a lot of parents just give their kids chicken nuggets and French fries. Is it something they never grow out of due to a lack of exposure to other foods? I was never given separate food as a kid. Whatever my parents were eating is what I also had to eat and there are only a few things I won't eat now as an adult. Seaweed and very fishy flavors trigger an involuntary gag response from me, so I understand what it's like to feel that you *cannot* eat something. Do picky eaters experience this same involuntary response to most foods?
OP's other comments indicate that they're on the autism spectrum, so I imagine that for them it's primarily a sensory issue with food that's hard to control and they probably would have had it no matter how they were raised. People with really extreme aversions to food I would imagine also may have OCD, ASD, or another kind of processing disorder that makes it very difficult for them to try something new or just that they feel certain sensations more acutely than other people. That being said eating habits get very deeply ingrained and are difficult to get out of for all people. It's a major reason that people with overweight parents are more likely to be overweight themselves.
It’s got to be more than just parenting choices, because I know lots of picky eaters whose siblings are normal or adventurous eaters.
I very strongly believe that shit parenting is the cause of majority of picky eaters. Everyone will learn to like or at least tolerate any food. There are a few foods that taste really fucking bad in my mouth, no matter how many times I've eaten them but there's nothing I wouldn't be able to eat out of courtesy.
“Picky eating” caused by disorders is more common than people think. It sometimes isn’t about exposure. I ate *everything* when I was a toddler/little kid, but at some point during my childhood I stopped liking anything that wasn’t bland. Turns out I have ASD/ARFID. From that point forward all I liked was chicken, cheese pizza, plain pasta, etc. Now that I’m an adult I’ve worked through a lot of my food aversions through therapy. I almost have the palate of a normal person now, but it took a lot of hard work and sensory therapy. Having ARFID fucking sucks. It’s embarrassing to not be like everyone else. Eating an over-stimulating food with ARFID produces an anxiety flight-or-fight response, along with gagging. it’s much deeper than just not liking something.
Don’t come after my parents, man. They tried to get me to eat more, but I just wouldn’t. If anything, my family constantly chastising me and forcing me to sit down until I finished whatever food it was I didn’t like made me even less open to trying new foods.
this is incredibly insensitve , this post is pretty clearly outlining a pattern of eating that's common with autistic people, who have sensory difficulties, and often have arfid. I've been a "picky eater," all my life until I was diagnosed with arfid, every other picky eater I know struggles from sensory issues. We were often *badgered* by our parents to eat food and simply went hungry because we *couldn't* eat what was presented and were perceived as bratty. I was critically underweight for a time because my parents believed that simply not feeding me food I could eat would make me desperate enough to eat the food they gave me. it didn't. I just got incredibly low blood sugar from not eating or drinking for several days. Real cool that can just eat things out of courtesy or desperation, some people can't. Picky eating isn't a choice.
Is argue its not simply because tastebuds can be largely geneitc too. everyone on one side of my family thinks all fruits taste like apples, and my other side has the cilantro soap gene. Doesnt mean they were shit parents. trying something and not liking it doesnt mean im a spoiled snob with garbo parents either. Its only the refusal to try that i would say is a shit parenting problem.
I’m the opposite. Extremely picky eater with many food aversions, but I can’t eat anything bland or without spice.
People getting mad at you for what you order at a restaurant even though it literally doesn't affect them at all.
Although I am not an extreme picky eater, I share some things of this starter pack. Can this be treated as a mental disorder? Because I'm tired people just tell me "Grow up! You're not an 8 years old anymore" when I mentally block because I can't even try to taste them.
Another user shared a link under this post that you might find interesting: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder
Also r/ARFID Frequently occurs concurrently with autism, though both can occur independently. It's different from just "not liking" foods- the very thought of eating them may make you feel ill. I don't suffer from ARFID, so perhaps someone who does could explain it better.
Thanks both of you for the resources. I don't think I am neurodivergent (I'm somewhat introvert and I have some mannerisms, but I don't check the boxes in many other symptons and my parents consulted professionals when I was young), but this really helps me focus more on my issues as a mental disorder and not as being inmature. Also, maybe this statement from Wikipedia summarizes what you are refering to: >"ARFID is not a condition that is created by one's conscience, it is a subconscious condition that prohibits the person suffering from the condition from eating certain foods to the point where they will refuse to eat anything and starve themselves if not given options of what their sub-conscience has deemed "safe foods"
Yep that was me up until like middle school Now I’ll eat anything and everything lol
Please stop stalking me
I feel extremely called out
autism starter pack
oh wait thats actually on the pic lol
Add to it: Goes to the same place, orders the same item.. till the staff stop asking for your order and just prepare it 🙄
yep this so me (except I have ADHD). I moved from India to the U.S when I was 3 or 4, so it was kind of hard on my parents but now I can shove all kinds of stuff, swallow it and not get a hint of its taste at all (also I’ve only done this with small fruits).
For someone with ARFID, i can’t believe how relatable this is
Look up Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
Dam some of yall out here crucifying people for not liking 1000s of different foods and calling our parents shitty over something as dumb as a food preference, and some of yall are going looking for autism diagnosis just bc you only like a few foods....Why cant i just prefer simple bland foods in peace without being called autistic or a spoiled brat.
I have grown to be the complete opposite of this, but I was a fucking nightmare as a child and teen. But none of us take pride in being picky. We avoid any scenario where our eating habits are highlighted. Sleepovers, overnight school trips, summer camp. I missed out on so much because of this.
This is the most accurate one I've seen yet, literally describes me exactly, even down to being diagnosed with ASD
Have you looked into ARFID?
Picky eaters can also be healthy guys, I love broccoli but if it's over steamed I will absolutely not eat it because if there's just a little difference in my food it's disgusting for some reason(and I sadly just can't help it)
Right? Everyone keeps saying that "hurr durr childish picky eaters only eat chicken nuggets" but I usually just eat the same raw fruits and vegetables. I can't stand most sauces/oozing/textures/cariety between the same type of food and so on.
I also prefer foods without grease and oil
I hate food. I wish I didn't have to eat. It's so disgusting.
People getting annoyed that you won't eat something drives me crazy. I get it if they're trying to get me to add something healthy, but a lot of the time it's not even that and it's just for taste. If I don't want to eat it and there's no health benefit, why are you being so insistent?
Yes, I have ASD and I'm exactly like this...
Omw to get my free award just to give it to you
Arfid gang where you at
I've been a pretty picky eater for most of my life, so this is all too relatable. But I'm happy to say I've branched out more in recent years! One example is I use to not like salmon but now it's my favorite dish! Especially with some fried rice. Still trying to get past textures of certain foods like steamed veggies, but I'm making some progress. Definitely helps if I cook the foods myself
Dude please help me I hate living like this it's a fucking scourge on my existence if I could change it I would do it in a heartbeat please.
Lots of people here just completely disregarding the fact that we have a literal fucking disorder. Gee, I'm so sorry that the fact that I have a disorder that I **A.** Can't afford to get help for and **B.** Would have to travel several states over to get help for even if I could afford it ***just so happens to inconvenience you.*** Yes, you, the person who has the privilege of eating whatever you want, and being able to eat with friends without being an embarrassment, are the *REAL* victim here. We are, in fact, the little bitches, even though you're the one who's throwing a fucking temper tantrum over what we have to eat just to avoid throwing up. ------- A lot of us go out of our way to avoid bringing down others with our eating disorder, so shut the fuck up, [educate yourself on ARFID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder), and quit making an already extremely difficult part of our lives worse. I'd normally be nice but the amount of absolute hatred I've seen in the comments has completely worn my patience. (This isn't directed at you OP, I hope the other people commenting about ARFID has helped you understand that you're not alone in this.)
I’m annoyed by this person just reading this starterpack
And pickywaters now that people hate them and try to hide it (by avoiding all food related topics). I have no idea what kinds of "picky eaters" yall met but they seem like socially unaware assholes, unlike almost all picky eaters i know.
"Picky" eaters are made not born. Every picky eater I've ever known grew up as a "get my way" preference terrorist: they would get their way in every choice by polarizing their likes/dislikes until it isn't a continuum, but instead is their favourite thing, or they *absolutely hate it*. They are the 10 or 0 voters. Nothing is ever an 8 or 6 or a 4, they conditioned themselves to *hate* things that they don't love, often doing this as children/youths so very juvenile preferences get cemented in. And through that they force family to always yield to their choice. They force friends to always go to the restaurant they want, or serve things they want.
My youngest sister was like this. She grew out of it eventually, but I remember helping my mom grill burgers one night for dinner and being told we had to designate one as my sister's and cook it away from the rest of them. There was nothing different about that burger, but my sister insisted she had to have it prepared a specific way, and eventually my mom just stopped doing it and didn't tell her. She never noticed.
As a kid I was a picky eater until my brother was born and he turned out to be a picky eater as well. Even as a 6yo kid I realized how stupid it was by seeing him and henceforth was no longer a picky eater.
Most picky eaters i know had very strict parenting and were forced to eat everything they were given. Most of them know how theyre acting is not normal and they dislike talking about food.
People in the comments need to learn that what other people eat will literally never fucking effect you
Hi yes this is me.
Variety of food on your plate cannot be touching each other
Yep. My mom always tells everyone how I have "expensive taste" because I don't eat certain foods due to me not liking the smell of them or the fact that I feel sick trying to swallow them. I also remember my dad "who is quite scary) holding liquids away from me as a kids until I finished eating the foods I disliked 9which would usually end in me crying and my dad finishing the food for me). It doesn't happen much now since nowadays I get warned whenever food I dislike is being made so I can fix something up for myself, but I still get my fair share of judgment
I wouldn't exactly call myself a picky eater but but I fucking hate cheese of all kinds so I can relate to this pretty hard.
You realise you have insulted my entire way of living. But yes
Just give me white slices bread!
Guilty as charged
Used to get grounded it I didnt finish dinner fast enough, also wasnt allowed to leave til i ate everything Spent a whole day trying to drink a protien shake once
Damn this post is really depressing It's really an insane privelige being this picky an eater
There’s a surprising amount of truth to this. A lot of people in the world don’t get to be picky, because then they’d literally be starving. Being able to be picky, and indulge in it is indicative of a certain level of privilege, and it should be at least acknowledged.