Different foods touching

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Ok, so this is something that I never really thought was different to normal until I found out about AS. Now I'm wondering who else here can't stand having certain types of food touch.

I have hot foods and cold foods. Most hot foods can also be eaten cold, but very few, if any, cold foods can be eaten hot or even slightly warm.

Cold foods include salads and fruits. Things like lettuce, tomato, pineaple, apple orange, banana and other basic things that are generally eaten cold.

Hot foods include meats including ham, chicken, sausages etc, hot chips/wedges and cooked vegetables only once they have been cooked. (Eg. Raw carrot is cold, cooked is hot.)

Hot foods cannot be touching cold foods, cold foods can touch hot foods, but not if they are also very moist. Tomato sauce only goes on hot foods. There are also neutral foods like rice which can touch both hot and cold foods, as well as irregular foods like mashed potato which cannot be eaten once it has touched any food.

I'm not too fussy about what can't be eaten. If something has only touched something else for a short time, (i.e, a few seconds) I will eat it, or if one part has touched something else and another part hasn't I can eat the part that hasn't touched the other.

The main controversy comes into play when Mum cooks meat and chips and puts them on the same plate as salad. I'll hand the parts of cold food that have touched the hot or tomato sauce, and the wet parts of hot food that have touched moist food to my brothers (Who eat anything and everything, no rules) while my parents aren't looking. Most meals, however, are either hot or cold so this is not a big issue most of the time.

I think that the most interesting part is you have a mother that indulges your obsession. When I was raised the only time I got to decide how I wanted dinner arranged was if I were paying.


Merle

yes!
i don't like different foods touching. i prefer to eat all of one thing at a time.
mostly, i can force myself to ignore this in public, but my friends and family don't notice anymore.
i had a lot more rituals re: food as a kid, but grew out of most of them. this one just stuck, mainly becasue indulging in it isn't a total sin.
<3 sectional plates.

miles and miles away, my biological sister (who i didn't know about and who thought i died in childbirth), had similar food issues. our biological mom had to prep her food with napkins to avoid touching it with her fingers (this, thankfully, was NOT one of my issues).

I noticed in your post that you said:

"Hot foods cannot be touching cold foods, cold foods can touch hot foods". If cold foods are touching hot foods... doesn't that mix the 2 and when that happens, doesn't the hot food get "contaminated" at the same time? If you don't mind me saying so, I think That might fall a bit under the "obsessive-compulsive" disorder..

I remember my little sister once screaming and crying full blast because some lima beans ended up in her mashed potatoes...

I'm not THAT bad!! ha But there was a time when I didn't want any foods mixed...

Actually, over the years, I've gotten less picky about that.. to the point where it doesn't matter that much at all.. I used to eat each thing separately and not want food mixed at all, now at 45 years of age, it doesn't matter so much I guess..

I'm all like that.

What I know as hot foods must stay hot, cold must stay cold. This can't mix. Looks fine, tastes gross.

I also can't mix foods that I grew up with as separated foods. Tastes gross also.

I won't shallow it, no chance. The perfect emetic.

Foods on my dish may not touch. I sure as hell won't eat that. I don't care for it mixing in my stomach, but seriously, that cannot happen in my mouth. Where I can still taste my food.


What I think is definitely OCD concerning my food-attitude:

I can eat food touched by my friends now. Or drink from the same glass. That's a new development. All my friends share their food all the time and interesting enough, it was quite easy to adjust.

But I still won't share food with strangers, not even biscuits or cookies. Eww.

I used to have this pretty bad (in fact I just mentioned it in the thread on picky eaters). When I was little I loved green beans, and I loved mashed potatoes. But if any of the green bean "juice" leaked into the mashed potatoes, I'd have to only eat the "pure" parts of both foods. The idea of eating the bit that mixed was... gross. Nauseating. My parents noticed, but I think they assumed it was a phase I'd grow out of. The truth is that it still bothers me when different foods mix, but I force myself to ignore it. I just eat the mixed part without looking at it.

I do have a related "thing", too. Certain foods are okay to mix, but they must be mixed right. I love peanut butter and honey sandwiches (never liked jelly, though). I put the peanut butter on the bread, and I put the honey on the peanut butter. My wife made me a sandwich like this once, and she put the honey directly on the bread. Even though it was the EXACT SAME SANDWICH, I had to struggle to eat it, because I knew the honey was in the "wrong" place.

I also hate condiments on my burgers, hot dogs or sandwiches. Never saw the point in them (other than salt and pepper) and haven't enjoyed them at all on the rare occasions when I've tried them. I think it's because I know the food is getting mixed up, and it's vaguely sickening to think about.

I can handle foods touching only in sandwiches really. And yeah no condiments at all, absolutely can't eat anything with mayo/ketchup/mustard/etc

why right now I'm eating a turkey sandwich that is just a bunch of free range, no salt added turkey and wheat bread. Sometimes the bread gets dry and I have to drink water between bites ha

Heh. I'm the complete opposite. When I go to a buffet, I make sure I get every kind of food available in one helping even if it means piling it all up on the plate.

I have a tendency to eat each food separately--- that is, finish one food before moving onto the other. If I have a plate of potatoes, corn and chicken I'll eat all the corn, then all the potatoes and then all the chicken... but not a bite of one thing and then the other. I've gotten better about it, but I still tend to do this. I don't think it really matters as long as it goes down.

only thing i cant stand is when people mix peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and jelly together before slathering it on a sandwich. why would you ruin two perfectly good separate textures with mixing them together to make one unpleasant texture? I prefer a small layer of peanut butter on both slices of bread with jelly sandwiched in between. It adds much better dimension, texture and taste to the overall sandwich structure, better moisture distribution and a better tooth feel. and make it crunchy peanut butter if i have a choice.

I have a thing with liquids touching other things. For example, I like ketchup, but if the liquid drips out when its first opened, I'm repulsed. So I rarely eat ketchup, even though if the liquid is mixed in its no different than when its separated. Anything that shouldn't be soggy or that separates into a liquid and solid repulses me. I can't eat canned soup because the contents sit in a liquid on the shelf. What's weird though is my roommate has food anxiety - she is terrified of certain foods and has never had most basic foods. She freaks out about it all the time and is in therapy - but even under pressure, she CANT eat these things. See, with all my quirks, as overwhelming as they are, if I'm in public and I have a choice between looking odd or skipping a meal and just forcing myself to get over it, I just get over it . This goes for non-food quirks too. Any of my weird issues can be overcome if I really want to. Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like she's not trying - if she just ordered something simliar to waht she likes and forced herself to eat a bit, it wouldn't be an issue. But she can't get past the anxiety. My mom wasn't very accepting of my quirks, so as a kid I learned to just work past them, to forge through the anxiety until I became more comfortable. I'm glad, bcause I feel like if I totally gave into my quirks all the time I'd have no life - when I really need to do something, I just do it. But the anxiety is overwhelming sometimes.

I HATE for foods to be touching each other on the plate. I also eat one type of food at a time like others have mentioned. My wife always noticed it when we were first married. Others in my family have always asked me about it too.

They can touch, but I won't ever mix them up, or eat a few things at once. Like when people stab a carrot, then a bean, then get some meat or potato on the end, and THEN eat it all at once. Noooo no no no no. No. I also don't mash things up, that's another no-no. Also, if I have mashed potatoes I eat that first and then eat whatever's left after that, even though I know they're meant to be mixed with whatever else is on the plate.

I also tend to eat one thing, then the next, then the next. No switching between foods for me.

Cold foods have to be cold... I'll eat them if they're sort of room temperature and it's a hot day, that's ok, but if they're warm or cooked then that's just gross. And I can't really handle anything hot - if it's hot I tend to leave it until it's lukewarm - same with tea or coffee. Which makes me a slow eater.

I never really thought about it though!!

Yeah... Mum doesn't exactly know about it.



I can eat the hot food if it's touched the cold, unless the cold is moist, but can't eat the cold. Half the reason is that heat from the hot moves to the cold, the other half is that it's just... Not right.



People touching my food was never an issue for me. I've never minded it.


See, if it's mixed together, mashed up, blended and what not enough then it just becomes one food. I can deal with that. But if each food is it's own food, yet touching another, only the pure part can be eaten.


I do this as well. Usually in a certain order, but that's flexible and can be changed if I feel like it or need to.

I used to make sure my foods stayed separate and eat one till it was gone before eating another. I started mixing up the order of bites at about age10 when i really noticed that the adults ate that way.

If I mix things together they have to be super super super mashed for me to eat them... like almost one colour. It takes me about 5 minutes to sufficiently mash things together!!

I also cannot drink from a drink someone else has drank from. I think in part this was just paranoia about meningitis growing up, which has kept on because I refused the meningitis vaccine, and partially because someone told me once that by the time you've had a drink, the last 12% is backwash. Ew. I don't have such big problems though if it's my immediate family or my boyfriend, as I figure we probably share enough germs anyway through living together (and kissing etc with the boyfriend) that it shouldn't make much difference.