Aspies and unusual eating habits

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So I've been lurking around, and I was wondering how many here have "odd" or selective eating habits. I'm not sure if this is an autism related thing, but a few people here seem to have these odd habits. If you have odd eating habits, what are they? For me, I cannot stand vegetables almost all forms (if for example, some lettuce is in my hamburger, I'd experience a gag reflect, and feel like I'll vomit). Because of this, my primary source of food is in the meat food group (even with meat, I tend to prefer it "plain", so nothing else on it, as "mixing" foods tends to also produce this gag reflex). Pizza was and still is my favorite food, and in high school, I would eat it every day for lunch when I got home. Interestingly, I'm not fat either, and I was in fact under weight in high school (now that I've graduated college, I'm finally within the normal weight range for my age). I personally did not consider this too strange until I started eating lunch with my coworkers, and they quickly noticed this fact (and ridiculed it)(although, before I started working, I never really ate lunch with anyone, so no one would have really noticed I suppose). Anyone else like this or have similar experiences?

I can't handle orange vegetables - Carrots, Pumpkin or Sweet Potato. - Gag Reflex.

I can't even look at or smell sultanas, raisins, dates (even just writing this I'm about to be sick).

I don't do this with anything except nuts and it's not to that extreme. It's only when they're actually put in my mouth that I start gagging and feel like I'm going to vomit.

But, my two year old autistic son does this pretty often. He's also thrown up when he couldn't handle a certain texture.

Edit- Actually, I remember throwing up at around 3 when my mom gave me a Hershey's kiss with some kind of nut in it. I've avioded nuts since, because they make me feel like I'm going to vomit the second they touch my tounge.

I tend to eat the same foods over and over until i am sick of it then i find something else to eat.

I can't handle celery in any form, not even in drinks like V8 juice. Makes me gag. I also can't eat any type of meat. Instant gag reflex. I have no problem with others eating it though. I eat the same foods over and over again, and sometimes ill get sick of them and move on to something else, but not usually.

As a kid, I went through a picky-eating phase. I hated certain fruits, bread other than white bread, and cold meats. Nothing to the extreme of gagging, though; it was just some kind of irrational aversion. Fortunately, I grew out of that.

Today, I will eat mostly anything. Things like eggs and milk are fine as long as I don't think about where they came from. Bananas taste all right, but their shape and texture makes me think that I'm eating a turd. If I chop them up and put them in cereal or something, then no problem.

After survival training, I am not too picky about what I eat. It's just fuel, after all.

I hated milk, growing up. I found it disgusting the way it would leave a slimy residue on the glass. I also hated runny eggs, gag reflex immediately. I do get onto certain foods, and eat them continuously until I tire of them. For weeks, it can be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or pasta, or waffles, or something else. And then I switch to something else. Lately, because of health issues, I have been forcing myself to eat green veggies.

I have weird food phobias. If something comes across as weird, or funny tasting, or particularly strong tasting, into the garbage it goes.

If a texture suddenly reminds me of something disgusting, into the garbage it goes.

If I leave something out, even for just a couple of hours, into the garbage it goes.

If vegetable aren't fresh, out.

Reason doesn't have anything to do with it, and I know it. I've made gallons of soup, and because the texture is off, I dump it. Friends have come to my rescue, because I felt so bad about wasting food. I do good soup. They now take it if I can't keep it.

I clearly remember as a kid that mushrooms were the most disgusting thing in the world to me. My mother tried feeding me mushroom soup one day and I barfed pretty bad.
However, after avoiding it for so long I've now recently been able to endure the texture/taste now.

Also, I can't finish my food without my anchoring one of my legs onto an object. Ever since I could remember, I would eat dinner with one foot on the seat of my chair. I still do it to this day. Or if I were to eat in public I would cross my feet underneath my chair.

I hate mushrooms for some reason also. Can't quite articulate why.

I am a "disassemble" eater. I often eat one part of a meal at a time, even if it's something "combined" like a sandwich. In that case I would pull the bread apart and eat (either with fork or with my hands, depending) each inside part separately, then the bread last.

I am obese and trying to loose weight. During lunch time from work, I will go to a Chinese Restaurant nearby and have a big plate of the vegetables and bean curd(tofu) with a difference. The meal is not fried it is totally steamed with the sauce on the side. It really fills me up. They have to be steamed and crunchy as only a Chinese restaurant can fix them. I have that with a small bowl of hot and sour soup. It fills me up and is low calorie and I can eat it day after day.

Fixing them at home by boiling does not work because they come out soggy. I love mushrooms when they are stuffed, or fried on top of a hamburger. I also have a fondness for pizza and I don't mean the institutional crap they have in colleges.

When I get up in the morning and decide to have breakfast, a satisfying meal was a bowl of Cream of Mushroom soup with chopped onions and Parmesian Cheese sprinkled on top.

What I don't like:

I don't like bread or rolls that have been heated in the microwave on a plate or bowl. They come out soggy and to me they taste terrible.

We used to have a stray cat which my mother was attached to. We kept the litter box in the bathroom which I would have to clean every so often. I accepted it because my parents are elderly and the cat was a one person kind of cat that was very attached to my mother.

When we had dinner that night sometimes we would have this dish with these thick white meat pieces of pork with these little link sausages ........ . I never cared for pork fixed in this manner (neither did my father) and it turned me off to sausage.

in kindergarden I threw up on the teacher because she made me eat celery . Now I eat it every day.

I can eat just about anything. I even like my raw tomatoes unwashed because I like the earthy taste.

As A kid I used to suck mustard from the bottle like a baby and eat pickles like potaoe chips then drink the brine.

Things that gross me out are things like gummy bear candy shaped like Cheeseburgers. I mean what is that stuff even MADE of?

Also I HATE meat on pizza.

Probably not what you meant, but here goes:

I used to have a really weird way of eating sandwiches. I usually would bite right in the center of the front edge (the top of the loaf) and keep on going through, sometimes until the sandwich split into two. Then I would eat each remaining piece separately (alternatively, I would even the edge and then start again). My mom informed me that I didn't have to eat right from the middle and could in fact eat from the edges. Well, I knew that. That's what everybody else did. But it just didn't feel like the right thing for me to do. I did anyway because I knew my method bothered people. I continued adapting my sandwich-biting algorithm until I settled on a happy medium. I learned to eat them in such a way as to create protrusions that are easier to bite.

I don't worry much about how I eat my sandwiches anymore, but I sometimes do a lot of thinking about where to take the next bite so as not to seem to weird.

Also, I sometimes used to put one or both feet on the table while eating when I was a kid. This was interesting because I was short, the table was tall, and it wasn't at all like reclining. My legs had to bend up awkwardly while I sat otherwise upright and ate normally, occasionally moving my feet down to the floor and back up to the table when I felt the need. Of course this was discouraged, so I didn't do it for very long.

I guess I'm a picky eater, I go through phases of liking something and eating it a lot then I'll hate it for a while and not be able to eat it. It's noticable when I go to my family's for dinner. They'll make something I've eaten many times before and think I'm being awkward when I say I don't like it anymore.

I've been told many times that my bread eating habits are strange. There are only certain types of bread I can eat without gagging. I like french bread but I have to pull all the middle bit out and just eat the crust, some diet bread is good too (weight watchers malted danish) but I have to buy it a week before I eat it. It doesn't go mouldy, just dries out a bit. I hate doughy textures. Pizzas are usually fine but only thin crust, deep pan is too doughy in the middle. If bread is wet in anyway I can't hack it so sandwiches, even with the nice bread have to be eaten straight away. I can't put them in a lunch box because the filling will soak into the bread and make it soggy. In fact, lunch boxes are out of the question anyway because I hate the smell of them.

Other things that bother me:

Food in white sauce, especially if it has peas in it
Bananas - rarely is the texture tolerable so I avoid them totally unless they're cooked
Eggs with soggy white bit (but I think this is universal, not just me)

How is this for a UN-answer.

I can see aspergers/autism having sensory issues that cause pople to limit food choices and eat a particular ways.

But there can be other things going on also and it shouldn't be ignored.

Picky people can also have allergys and food sensitivies. Look into Doris Rapp is this your child. My nieces were picky eaters as children. Use to get sick by getting vax'ed...they are allergic to eggs. Once eggs were eliminated from recipies they eat anything. My mom developed adverssion from eating out or prepackages fruits/veggies (cut up type). Come to find out she is allergic to come cleaners and perservitives that are used in the modern packaging. She complained they had an odd flavor and/or texture left her mouth feeling funny. When you look into allergies you have to dig deep because there can be co-allergies. If you are allergic to latex your are more likely to be allergic to bananna and advocatoes. Always gagging by nuts can be your body saying you are allergic to it, having nothing to do with sensory/autism issues.

Some times it can be bad habits established by adults in children's life: Lack of verity early on. food battles. panicking that a child isn't eating enough, to much, et, Deciding if the child said no once it means no always. Still over foods just don't make them eat it. Don't say things you don't like xyz. Many times it is how it is prepared not the food item itself. My husbands family is a prime example of this. My dh didn't eat a lot as a child. It worried my mil. So she gave him sweets to just get him to eat.

There are other medical issues that can be hidden that cause dislikes of foods. My daughter has reflux. She loves certain foods they don't always love her. Not respecting or understanding reflux could have lead to pickiness. I can on the spectrum people not getting help for this issue because they could find quirky was to eliminate the pain. My mom teases me about growing up and having to deal with my food phases. As an adult I realise why I had phases....sinus drainage. I would eat and be peculura about foods, like having an order to eat in bread, veggies, then meat (the order help prevent upset tummies). Since snot wasn't coming out of my noise she didn't realize what was going on.

I am not on the spectrum nor is my daughter we have eating quirks. My aspie son doesn't really but we did have to work with him on not over eating after his one and only visit to his bio-dad. They were big on clean your plate. So he obeyed Even if there was to much food on the play. But that was 10 years ago. I do think him being on the spectrum was why he did this. He had to follow the rules and at bio-dad's house it was clean your plate.