Eating Habits

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Ok, just first off... I'm not sure if this is linked to Autism/Aspergers and I guess this is me trying to find out.
I've always been pegged as a 'fussy eater' but lately (well I'm not sure if I'm just noticing it more or not) my eating habits have been dreadful. I have a select range of foods I will eat and I tend to eat them continuously, like if I fancy a pot noodle I'll have pot noodles daily. My tastes change daily as well (its terrible when I am forced to make a list for food shopping), so I will want something like a pot noodle one day but the next even the thought of having a pot noodle will repulse me.
It has gotten rather bad lately (although my family aren't really food shopping as often as they used to so that might be why) and I've ended up not eating several times because I can't eat anything that is in the house, even if I know I don't mind it, the thought of eating it makes me feel sick.
It's driving me crazy, and ok, I will be leaving this house and shopping almost daily in several months but I want to know if this is one of my 'Aspergers' traits making itself more known to me. (that sounds bad, it's just I'm becoming slightly more aware and I know no one else that has this problem with how they eat).
I also cannot eat in front of strangers, or people I'm not used to eating in front of. I will try to eat if they are eating but it takes a lot of effort and concentration to eat.
Do any of you have this? Or something like this?

I haven't experienced exactly what you're describing, but I definitely have a narrow range of foods, and tend to eat the exact same things every day. (I never seem to get sick of them though?)

Maybe it would help if you try not to eat the same food twice in one day? For example I have one thing I eat every day for breakfast, and another for lunch, and another for dinner. That way way it's a comforting and predictable schedule, and enough variety so I don't get tired of it.

I'm a terribly picker eater (probably the worst), and I tend to eat the same thing everyday as well.
There have been sometimes that there was nothing in the house I'd eat, so I didn't eat anything at all.

My tastes definitely don't change daily, though; I'd say they've hardly changed at all during my lifetime. The only example I can think of, is as a kid, I ate Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup everyday or every other day, at least. I did this probably from age 2 up until age 14 or 15. Then I just stopped liking it. About a year or so ago, I started eating it again.

All of what you are describing sounds very typical in autism.
Experience it myself and know others who do as well.
Does not apply to all with autism, but definitely some.

Last edited by EzraS on 21 Feb 2014, 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have certain habbits, but they are not 100% fixed. So as example for lunch I normally eat some veggies (usually cucumber, tomatoe, carrots) and fruits (usually apple or kiwi/banana) as well as one-two breads with branch and an plain yoghurt.

I do change the branch regularly, as well that I have some variation in the veggies/fruits from now and then. So one day instead of the tomatoe I have an bellpepper or an turnip cabbage, the other day its instead of the kiwi some berries/orange or similar. Or a piece of cheese instead of the yoghurt.

Breakfast is mostly always the same. During week I dont like to do unusual stuff for dinner, depending on the season its mostly soups with veggies, or veggies and/or flesh from the wok with asian sauce, or schnitzel/sausage with green beans/cabbage/veggies. So stuff that can be done rather fast. On one day on weekend, my partner and I try regularly to cook something new or more complicated, to practice cooking. (And if whatever we produced, cant be eaten, there is frozen pizza for emergency. XD)

So I do have my routines, but can change them to some amounts.

Last edited by Schneekugel on 21 Feb 2014, 7:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think it is typical

there are foods I refuse and it was a massive problem as a child (not diagnosed until adult)

I will actually even find a thing I like and eat it at times for weeks or even months, would seem to drive most people crazy.

This sounds a lot like me. I have always been a very picky eater. When I was younger I would go without eating if there was nothing in the house I wanted. That rarely happens now because I do my own shopping and get whatever I want. So now I eat too much because I get in the habit of eating certain things every day.

Sometimes it is hard to predict what I will want to eat though. I can eat the same thing every day for weeks, and then suddenly stop wanting it. I don't think it is random, I think there is always a reason because if I make myself eat something I don't really want it doesn't digest well. Physically I feel better when I eat a very limited range of foods. I'm starting to think I may have a malabsorption problem.

I don't have any problems eating in front of other people, but I don't really like it either (other than family members). People make too many annoying comments about what I'm eating, what I'm not eating, how much I'm eating, etc. The cumulative effect of this over the years has made me really sensitive to it.

Undiagonized but I can relate a lot to that. I was always super super picky as a kid and to this day flop back and forth from underweight. Most times I really don't feel "hungry" at all and I don't eat based on hunger, but based on cravings or on whether it's "lunchtime", "dinnertime", etc. I don't crave junk food but I usually crave something specific and if I can't find it/don't have it, I probably won't eat anything else. If I am eating because it's mealtime, I may have a craving or none at all, both of which make it really hard to find something appealing. Most everything is repulsive a lot of the time. I've been working at making sure I don't skip meals to try and get my weight up, but i still do sometimes when there is nothing I want to eat as I honestly just forget and miss the meal.

I cannot tolerate-

*raw sliced open tomatoes, that sickly seed-ridden quivering jelly makes me wanna rolf.
*olives of any kind, they are intolerably bitter and sour.
*cucumbers have a nasty minty/bitter taste and a nasty grunchy texture.
*caraway seeds have a nasty habit of getting stuck between my teeth, plus an off-putting minty/earthy taste.

I am like that, have food routines and a restricted range of foods.

I am very fussy and I have the same issue as some others here where if i cant think of / cant find anything i like, i just stop feeling hungry. I figure that I'll eventually want something, and then i can go and have that.

add to this another challenge.. if there is something i want and i try and get it but fail (for example, the restaurant i wanted has closed), then find it impossible to want anything else, and i skip the meal.

Food issues are probably the hardest for me as they are the hardest to hide from other people. Like, I have learnt that it is rude to always eat lunch on my own, so sometimes i have to go out for lunch with my co-workers and usually i cant eat anything. but then some people consider it rude to go out to lunch and not eat anything. just another daily challenge.

I hear ya on these. I have a few things like that...
- food where i dont know where bones / hard bits are that i might bite
- peas and like... kidney beans. its a texture thing
- things that get caught between teeth (mostly seeds)
- bread (texture related)

Same with me. I was always a picky eater.

I never liked meat because I gag whenever I bite down on fat, gristle, or a piece of bone. I like my hot food lukewarm and don't like different foods touching, so if I'm eating more than one thing at a meal, I cook and eat one thing, then start preparing the next.

I'll eat the same foods almost daily, with small variations. Right now it's toasted cheese sandwiches at lunch, Lucky Charms (dry) for a snack, white rice for dinner. Pizza three times a week, either at lunch or dinner. Right now I've been substituting eggplant Parmesan for dinner sometimes, and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. I'll buy already cooked meat sometimes -- fried or roasted chicken, usually. Salad sometimes too, green or potato.

I'll eat some foods daily for months, then go off them, maybe for years, and sometimes come back to them again. When I was a kid, it was mostly tuna fish sandwiches and potatoes and vegetables for dinner. I've gone off vegetables pretty much the past ten years, though I'll open a can sometimes.

Since I'm by myself, I can indulge my eating quirks. When I'm at a family gathering or out in a restaurant, I eat more normally now. I even let foods touch sometimes

Add me to the list of fussy eaters, in fact the list of foods I like is shorter than the stuff I hate. Visits out for a meal are a nightmare and a few weeks ago when we went to visit friends I refused the soup, just about managed a very small portion of the main course whilst suppressing the gag reflex, and ate thirds of dessert. I wonder how many of you would tackle the following:

Tomato and ginger soup

Salmon in parsley sauce with rice

Lemon sponge covered in some sort of yucky sauce

What is it with you and tomatoes, man?

I wish I didn't like to eat everything under the sun! I'd probably be a lot skinnier. The few things I won't eat are kiwis and fish. Oh and raisins which I love alone, but for some reason gross me out when mixed with anything.

Also can't eat gluten which is annoying because it restricts my diet in bad way (not that I would mind eating some bread or pasta if I could), and watermelon which I am also allergic to.

it is a textural and perceptive thing with the 'maters and me. I can eat processed tomato products, just not raw tomatoes. and i battle my weight also.