Why we are picky eaters

Post Reply New Topic

I think it's often because we have an enhanced awareness of cravings and just what we need from what we know so far in life. I mean, it's not like we all crave candy and have an IQ of 30. Some of us crave oranges, some of us crave fruitcake, some crave souvlaki, some crave English muffins, some always want canned spaghetti and meatballs, some won't eat anything but German food, some eat crusty bread with every meal or tomato soup every day or five tiny meals a day instead of one or two or three big ones. I think our cravings should be ALLOWED. We shouldn't have to conform, whether we're in school and still living under mommy and daddy's roof or what. I also noticed that lots of us find presentation and the way it's cooked important; lots of us probably like gourmet foods. Some people don't understand when they make some gross workhouse slop for their family and expect everyone to eat it out of politeness. There's also a reason I don't like canned food, so don't tell me to eat some canned food from the cupboard! That stuff is just for disasters and huge emergencies. It's not a crime to prefer fresh food and find canned food disgusting, is it? A lot of it really does NOT go well together besides (a dish of black beans, little corn things and tomato paste? I think NOT!) And I don't feel like eating just one thing, like black beans, little cobs of corn OR tomato paste, so NYAAAAH!


I have this problem. Because my parents were abused when they were kids, like actually beaten and stuff, they think I'm a spoiled brat because I wasn't. I'm not living with them anymore now. I thought I could just shake my upbringing and get their little voices screaming "Picky eater!" and "Spoiled brat!" out of my head. But I can't. I was so miserable for a while and many times over, not just one or two or three times, because I would see what we had, it was all either that canned stuff or gross sugary cereal or gross meat or gross sweet-tasting frozen Mexican dinners. And I would never tell anyone (I live with adverb at his mother's place that he lived in alone until his mother moved back in now and might be staying, and UtukXul who came after me, and me and Utuk don't have jobs but Utuk might get a check from Social Services), because I don't ever, ever want to be called a picky eater or a spoiled brat again. It jsut sounds so wrong. People who use those phrases are usually people who don't understand. I'm still hearing my father's voice in my head: "Eat what there IS, spoiled brat! I'd eat dead cat if I had to!" Now putting himself on a pedestal is fine, but why does he have to put me down too??? I can't get them out of my head. It's like they implanted little miniature versions of themselves in my head telling me to get used to it, I'd eventually like it, I was a spoiled brat and a picky eater, blahblahblah. Adverb told me literally about 20 or 30 times, after about 20 or 30 times of me trying to explain the above problem, that all I had to do was ask for what I wanted. But I just don't believe it. It's too good to be true. There must be a limit. And gradually I realize there isn't, but I'm still so, so scared I might eat too much. It bothers me day and night. "Spoiled brat, spoiled brat! Ha haaaa, spoiled brat! You should have lived in MY home when my parents were alive!" My father's voice, in my head, day and night. And then imaginary stuff, also with his voice: "You have to EARN your right to exist!" "You have to EARN your right to be happy rather than just getting by!" "This is the real world, you can't bum off people in the real world!" "Survival of the fittest! You snooze, you lose!" All this mean stuff said with pride, because he knows he's so on top of things, how he doesn't need food, how he can go without food for days, how he can eat anything, and I'm thousands of miles away and still hearing him in my head and I want him to leave me alone!


If someone calls me a spoiled brat or a picky eater one more time in my whole life I'll hurt them. So I really really don't want to be called that again. It's so humiliating and degrading and makes me feel so selfish.


And another thiong: Adverb said I wasn't a spoiled brat and that I was a bit of a picky eater but he didn't mind, but that being a pciky eater means I actually ahve to pick my stuff if I want what I want, and then later he said I wasn't a picky eater; he didn't know what to call it. So there.

heh wow
your dad sounds like a very ignorant guy.
so anyways... I think that you should learn to be a good cook. I decided to start to learn how to cook recently! this way you can make your own food and eat it how you like it without having to ask anybody for their help/input/opinion. Also, if they do accuse you of being a "picky eater" or a "spoiled brat", you can just realize that they don't know better, and that they are just being ignorant.

I dont know if this is the same.

But if i'm at home during the day, and i have to grab lunch, im extremely picky. Its not that i dont like most food, but i just have a need to eat some special food.

Usually its like this:

Me: Dad, can i take some nuddles(We have these spicey nuddles which are tasty)?
Dad: No!
Me: Why not?
Dad: Because i tell you so!
Me: Why not?
Dad: Because you should eat something else like ryebread(Its not that i dont like ryebread, i just rather want nuddles)

It often goes as far as me being extremely angry and i dont eat anything really.

Its like if i dont get what i want, i get angry.

Again, its not that i dont like food, its just like sometimes i just cant take the taste.
If its fresh ryebread, which isnt dry, ill happily eat it really. But if its dry, i refuse to eat it. I simply cant take it.

Also, when i do eat dinner, its usually like this: First i eat the potatoes, then the meat, then whatever else there is.

My parents often tell me its not normal to do like that, and that i shouldnt just eat one thing, but i should mix it up.

ATC, I don't own any food and there is nothing to work with here! Ugh! I. Do. Not. Have. Anything. And I'm not about to ask for it. Even if I'm told over and over I can and should. Becuase that's how I was raised. To be humble and modest. And I hate it and how it's ruling my life. What's the matter with me? Why can't I just shake my upbringing?


Chadk, your father is an idiot.

yeah, i'll generally eat whatever is offered, but i just don't like red meats. the only meat i really like is chicken.

i was a lot pickier when i was younger.

whenever i eat my meal, i eat the side thing (salad or cookie or fruit or potatoes or whatever) then the main thing, then whatever's left, then drink, and i never move on unless i finish the piece i started on.

I hate it when they say "Oh there's still some spaghetti, how abut that?" So that's how you eat, eh? You eat six spaghetti meals in a row? Until you vomit? And only then do you go back to the grocery store?

I'm an extremely picky eater, like if i dont get the exact thing i want, i stop eating completely, thats where boost comes in haha, good ol boost lol. My latest food kick is papa johns pizza lol, its funny cuz i always repeat my kicks every now and then, and had this kick years ago, and the guy remembered me lol, and last night we picked it up brought it home, wasnt the right pizza, i freaked out, he called, the guy made another one for free, when my bf picked it up, the guy was like see u tommorrow lol. Oh well haha.

_________________
Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Ana54, there are lots of reason to be a picky eater. So many. Yours is one of it.

You smashed two things into one post.

Not every craving is healthy. I know a couple of a children on the spectrum only drink soda and eat cookies. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper - you can't live off soda and cookies.

That's not to say their parents should refuse them soda and cookies, but they ought to introduce their child to more food, they should trick young children into accepting one or two kind of veg and other drinks such as water, milk. It's necessary. Never forcefully, because a child might actually rather starve than eat any of that, but by trickery and training/therapy.

Also, not everybody can afford gourmet food. The goal is also to accept healthy non-gourmet food. But even with this, you can be creative. If the child/person can actively join in the cooking of gourmet food (I suppose most can, if they know what gourmet food is and what's not, really...), the child/person should help preparing the food. Simple tasks can be enough too, pouring water. Making the food look gourmet if if necessary. Showing that the local fish can be as tasty as the fish from... Alaska?

Not everybody's got that much time too though. It's all a matter of trying to fit it into schedule. If there's much else to do.


So, I'm a picky eater too. I learned to overcome some nasty issues with food - but I still have only one type of milk I drink. One brand of pepperoni. I know eat marmalade from one brand and they have four different flavours!

I don't demand the food. I'll eat the bread without anything on. I don't mind because I know I wouldn't starve any more.
But as a child, I sure would have starved. It was most necessary to get me eat other things than just five or ten foods.

It's another reason for being a picky eater. As I said, there are many.


But Ana54: Your father's voice, it has no right to remain in your head. He had no right to say it - because people just don't eat dead cat's these days in the Western world. They just... don't. You grew up in a day where people can get a variety of foods. Even for a low budget.

Your parents may have held onto how they grew up - that's natural. There are whole sociological theories about it even. But they're not up to date. That's the point. No need to try the dead cat argument, nobody's eating dead cats these days.

You're old enough to have every right to (figuratively) spit upon this/your parents idea that you're a picky eater and just eat what you want to! If you can afford it - but really, that's where creativity comes in. There is good food for low prices that can taste extraordinary. Cooking is the key.

If you ever come to eat with your parents again (?) or someone who says you can only eat food XYZ, because... 'that's luxury'! Drag them across the city, show them how cheap you can get excellent stuff and cook them an awesome dinner!

If anyone says that you're a picky eater again: Tell them you can.
It's 2008. Not... 1958. Makes a big difference.


We eat cheap and good and healthy whenever my mother and and me cook! It's really simple. Not expensive. We barely have money ourselves, but we carefully look into stuff.

Everybody is... horrible with routines that change. The NTs just hide it well. They ate dead cat 50 years ago - they have trouble adjusting to the fact that you don't eat dead cat these days in 2008.

Age, you make me feel better. I think we'll be really good friends one day when we get to know each other more. I notice a lot about you and me that's alike.


Sora, I'm a bum. I have no right to complain about anything. I'm living off my bf who knew full well and insisted and insisted he loves me and he wants to support me. He's going to the store right now and he always asks what I want, and I always say hardly anything or nothing or just one thing like milk or something, because I am a bum after all and don't want to push it, and this huge fear of mine is to have someone tell me I'm pushing it. I mean, I was even told on this board once that I was pushing it, and I never did anything but post in a thread I shouldn't have posted in! When he told me Utuk cost him 3 times more than I did because he wanted to go on long drives to places and that and gas is expensive, and he ate his own food but also adverb's and his mother's food, I felt better. I'm so evil and nasty! I was sure to make sure Utuk/Rich ate some of the leftovers they brought back from a restaurant, and he and I were both so nervous and scared of eating most of it or all of it or too much! But it was only leftovers and they might have forgotten about it anyway and thrown it out eventually, so I ate a fair share and he ate a bit, and at least I was able to do that. I think adverb repeating and repeating that he wants me to eat properly (not necessarily what others got and left there for themselves, not for me, but that some people might feel obligated to eat themselves) helped me not feel guilty and is still helping me.



Also, Sora, will those kids like drink Boost or stuff like Age said? Hmm, they could probably sneak some vegetable juice into various things too, or just give them vitamins...

I go on what my mom used to call "food kicks" (wanting the same thing day after day). Right now it's egg salad (thanks to Easter, there's no shortage of hard-boiled eggs). Then I'll want Ramen Noodles. Then it'll be popcorn and nothing else. Of course, at my age I make it be something else, but in terms of want, nothing's changed. In one area, my obsession with certain foods or beverages seems completely normal. Everyday I hit the Starbucks drive-thru, mixed in with all the NTs who are willing to feed the beast at $5 a pop.

My son, who's autistic, loves Cheeto's (crunchy kind only), Hi-C (orange only), and grapes. For a while it was peas (he'll eat canned, fresh, frozen--he doesn't seem to care). He has no interest in cake or dessert stuff, and the only candy he likes are these little dime-sized chocolates Cadbury makes called Buttons (we have to go to a little English tea shop in town to get them, but he's worth it).

I still can't stand to see any red on meat. My in-laws, sadly, can't stand to see any brown , so after 10+ years of quasi-politeness I announced not only did I not plan to eat the most recent meal they prepared for us, but I really, really hated the one from the week before. That, and pie was disgusting. They always had pie. It just came pouring out.

Also, the feeling of tapioca pudding is thoroughly unacceptable on all levels. Raspberries, too.

I'm a picky eater too. It seems to be slowly going away, though.

Sorry about your evil nagging parents.

I used to be pickier, but I'm not picky nowadays.

I am bit of a picky eater, but mainly with the traditional food in my province (Newfoundland) I just don't like fish and all the other stuff we have. Much of the foods I like are stuff my parents think are very exotic, like Asian foods and Italian.

I'm pretty picky. I also get stuck on things. It drives my husband crazy that when I get it in my head that I want a certain/specific thing and nothing else will do. I also have lots of allergies, which is not helpful. He's sometimes not very understanding about my allergies. He's okay when it's just us, but when other people are involved, it sometimes turns into a "you're so weird" thing. But at least it doesn't change. I NEVER like mayonnaise (so salad sandwiches are out). I NEVER eat things that don't look okay to me. I NEVER eat green candy. I NEVER eat anything cold that was originally served warm. I NEVER eat dips or sour cream, or cottage cheese. I NEVER eat eggs. It doesn't vary. I don't change my mind from day to day.

Am I picky? Yeah. I tell them to get over it. I have lots of allergies, so I'm often able to brush off stuff I don't like as allergies. It's a convenient excuse and people get that. I use it alot. Too bad if they don't like it.

I get what i call picky phases. For two months I ate nothing but shrip flavorered ramen, then for three nothing more than ravioli and orange juice. and thats pretty much how I eat. or I get into sandwiches or only want cheese. for a week I wanted nothing but boston baked beans (its a candy) my gf put her foot down

Though I'm still a very picky eater, I try new things every once in a while. I found out recently that I love vegetable soup!