Picky eating and weird eating habits

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Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby cmsellers » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:28 pm

Something that I've noticed for awhile is that I'm weird about food. Most people have a fairly limited list of common foods that they don't like, if any and most of them will eat those things if they have to, though many people are also averse to trying foods that aren't part of their culture. Then there are genuine picky eaters, who eat a small handful of things and generally don't try new foods under any circumstances.

I have a long list of things that I won't eat, rather than a short list of things that I will. There's perhaps a dozen foods I don't eat because of taste and a much longer list of foods I won't eat because of texture, plus I won't eat anything that looks like a bug. However I'm generally willing to try anything I don't already know I won't like, even some things that many more normal eaters won't try, and often go out of my way to try such things.

Anywhere I go, there's something I will eat, and usually several things. However many of the foods that are typically considered safe for picky eaters (cheese pizza with tomato sauce, macaroni and cheese, soda) I won't touch. Unlike true picky eaters, I like a lot of strong flavors (I adore rye, for instance), just not the strong flavors I don't like. (And also some more subtle flavors I don't like.)

Most things I don't like I will still eat if it's either mixed in in a way I can't taste it, (I'd happily eat stuff made with cricket meal and I eat lahmacun despite it hating onions and tomatoes), or there's strong social pressure to do it. (For example, I hate cabbage, but when a Korean restaurant gave me a free plate of kimchi I forced myself to eat about half of it. Then I never ate out in Korea again.)

I've never met anyone who is close to as particular about food as I am, though I've met plenty of people who are way more particular. So I guess what I'm wondering is: does anyone know of other people like me: people who aren't true picky eaters but are still weirdly selective?
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Re: Picky eating

Postby CarrieVS » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:32 pm

*waves hand*

I don't have the same likes/dislikes list as you but in general terms, I think I'm pretty similar.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby pikajew » Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:50 pm

My other half is a very picky eater. He has a texture thing about anything jiggly (no fruit pies, jello, whipped cream [unless it has been fully incorporated into something else], merengues, custard, etc. but gummies are fine), hates tomatoes but loves certain tomato-based sauces, doesn't like anything with too much liquid (he likes oatmeal at a texture you could mold it like clay and won't eat soup at all). He doesn't like any sort of condiment except ranch and I suppose sauerkraut. He hates most vegetables and fruit is a case-to-case thing with the exception of loving all berries, but he won't eat fresh blueberries. He loves coffee, but only a very specific way. He does not drink anything "watery" like tea or VitaminWater, but Gatorade/Powerade is fine. He can't handle any amount of spice heat, but likes lots of herby spices. He's not very adventurous about new kinds of food, but very adventurous about variety in foods he already likes. I have a handful of of tried and true things to make for him and I just cycle through them. If he ever changes what he wants (like one time he ordered curly fries instead of normal fries) I assume he made a mistake and correct him.

His brother is very similar, but his pickiness even applies to cuts of meat. Bro-bro loves burgers but will not touch steak. He eats chicken, but breasts and thighs can't be on the bone and wings and legs can't be off the bone. Neither of them like their food touching and there's an infamous story about the two of them going into hysterics when their mother bought frozen mixed vegetables and both ended up crying until they puked.

I'm often mistaken for a picky eater because I'm a vegetarian that's lactose-intolerant and I have a severe fish/shellfish/everything aquatic allergy. My fear of cross-contamination makes people who don't know me very well think that I'm picky when I'm really just too cheap to risk going to the emergency room. Also, I don't really tell people that I'm a vegetarian because everyone seems to think it's acceptable to complain about vegetarians and question me about my diet, so I don't really talk about food unless I can't avoid the conversation. That also leads people to believe I'm picky. But realistically, if it isn't meat or aquatic, I'll eat anything.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby cmsellers » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:20 am

You partner sounds like a cannonical picky eater, PJ, since from what you say it sounds like the list of foods he will eat is quite limited, it mostly sounds like the list of foods a child likes, and eating foods he doesn't like makes him vomit. (I can't think of any foods that make me vomit to eat, but I gag on cruciferous vegetables and I think I'd probably gag if I ate anything with an exoskeleton, such as crickets, crayfish, or shrimp tails.)

I sort of relate to the liquids rule and sort of to the no condiments rule, though. I also won't eat any soup for textural reasons (and won't consume the broth in stews) and like my oatmeal really thick. Plus I won't eat anything mashed which is savory and starchy (mashed potatoes, yams, squash), though I like sweet/sour mashed things such as applesauce, jam, and homemade cranberry sauce. I will eat any spices and most herbs (except dill and cilantro, though I like coriander, go figure), but I'm very particular about sauces.

The only sauces I like enough to put on my food on my own are herb or pepper-paste-based sauces: pesto, chimichurri, sriracha, gochugjang/chogochujang, and a Mexican pepper sauce I think is called Tarascan sauce. I'll somewhat grudgingly eat stuff with most BBQ sauces and moles. OTOH, I sometimes use apricot, cranberry, blueberry, or lingonberry jam in the same way most people use BBQ sauce, putting it on burgers and brisket sandwiches and even eggplant sandwiches, usually with sliced peppers. I think gravy is gross. And if food it has mayo or mustard on it, I will excise the while area those abominations touched. Mustard tastes bad and I think mayo is the single most disgusting thing about American cuisine.

I think probably the weirdest thing about my eating habits is that I love aniseseed and star anise both, but I hate black licorice. (It's not a texture thing, it's very much a flavor thing.)

ETA: Have you considered telling people that you're a pescetarian who won't eat fish or shellfish?
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby pikajew » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:49 am

Sellers, he also loves anise. He'll eat it raw and I've even caught him sucking on dried star anise from the cupboard. He says he doesn't like black licorice, but he'll eat it.

He doesn't vomit from foods he doesn't like. The crying til he puked story was from when he was 4. His parents just told me the story so I can tease him about how his food habits haven't changed since he was a child. The exception is that the smell of banana chips will make him gag, because his mother made over 300 lbs of banana chips one year when she was given a dehydrator and presumably either lost her mind of developed the "too much" gene and decide to horde doomsday levels of banana chips in their attic.

He has a phobia of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because when his little brother was a toddler, Bro-bro shoved a pb&j in the VCR and my weirdo couldn't watch tapes of Wheel of Fortune for a few weeks. At nearly 32 years old, he still hasn't forgiven the sandwich.

He also has a crippling fear of pineapple. He believes that if he eats pineapple, he will never taste anything else ever again. However, if he doesn't know it's pineapple, he loves it; he was obsessed with Dole Whips until he found out they were pineapple.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby cmsellers » Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:37 am

See, I don't like anise that much. It's great in sausages, mulled cider, and baked goods, and I'll sometimes eat a few of those Jordan aniseseeds they have at Indian restaurants, but the only spices I eat plain are cinnamon and cassia sticks, and I don't do that often anymore. I also won't eat black licorice unless someone (typically my father, who loves it) is pressuring me into it.

Actually, the PB&J thing is funny. I associate it with the YMCA summer camp which my parents made me go to as a kid, where they often packed me PB&J, but the main reason I won't eat it is because I don't eat any of the ingredients of the kind of PB&J my parents made anymore. Fluffy white bread and standard grape jelly are cloyingly sweet, and I refuse to eat any hydrogenated oils for health reasons (one of my precious few long-established healthy habits). Use a nice sourdough or rye bread, a low-sugar jam or jelly, and an unhydrogenated peanut butter, and PB&J actually sounds like it would be quite good.

I love banana chips, but they're so unhealthy and so addictive that I've resolved never to buy them again. Making them myself would eliminate all the added sugar and oil of commercial, and I do have a dehydrator, so that's a thought, though they probably wouldn't taste nearly as good if they're just dried bananas. I also love pineapple (even if it does make everything taste funny afterwards) but it's so hard to cut the pineapple at the right stage where it's ripe but not starting to rot that I rarely eat it.

Have your partner's food habits really not changed since he was a child, or is that just a joke? Mine definitely have changed a lot.

As a kid, I really was a picky eater of the standard variety. I'd basically eat meat (including fish, but not canned tuna, which I still won't eat), most fruit (including dried and canned), chocolate, dairy products, bread/desserts made from wheat and/or rye (though not pasta, I've never liked pasta, and not bread pudding, which I'll eat now), oatmeal, popcorn, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, jello, ketchup, most candy, and most spices (but no herbs except rosemary and garlic). I believe that that list entirely circumscribes what I would eat without threat of punishment from my parents before I was fourteenish. And at any given time, I'd eat almost exactly the same meal patterns for months or even years on end.

There's also few things I ate as a kid that I won't eat now because I don't like them anymore. The ones I can think of are papaya, supermarket apples and pears, supermarket navel oranges, ketchup, bologna, pollock, and most processed foods with added sugar. Except for papayas and pollock, these are all things I'm probably letter off not eating anyways, though.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby CarrieVS » Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:23 am

When I was a very young child I was a classic picky eater. I would eat:
- Cheese and pickle sandwiches
- Crisps (potato chips)
- Bananas
- Spaghetti bolognaise
- Fish fingers, chips and peas
My parents consulted a doctor who advised them to just give me what I'd eat and not let me fill up on sweets or cake, until I grew out of it.

As long as I can actually remember, I've had a list of foods I'll refuse, because they make me gag and, if I keep eating, vomit. I also have plenty of foods I find unpleasant but can eat, and will if they're put in front of me. A few things are borderline - they make me want to gag but if I concentrate on not doing so I can get them down. Then there's foods that hurt to eat: I'll give them a go if they're put in front of me, but can only take so much.

Reasons I can't tolerate a food could be taste, texture, appearence, or "idea". But generally if I try and put any kind of category on what kinds of tastes, textures, etc I can't stomach, there'll be exceptions. It's not exactly rational.

For instance, I can't stand liquid or runny/creamy things with "bits." Larger "pieces" - things like soup or sauces with chunks in, are fine, but small bits make me gag. Things like fruit yoghurt - unless it's the completely smooth kind they make for kids, or smoothies - they might be called smooth but I've never had one that wasn't a slurry of little lumps and bits. Yet orange juice with pulp is fine - less pleasant than smooth juice, but ok. It didn't use to be though, when I was a child. Sharp "bits" are a problem in any surrounding texture: bones in fish, bits of peel or core in cooked apple, bits of stalk on raisins.

Other bad textures include fruit that's in any way mushy or pulpy - whether it's overripe, bruised, or (except apple and pear) cooked. Certain kinds of thick sauces that I would describe as "mushy" though I can't quite explain what gives it that quality. Breakfast cereals that have absorbed the milk (except shredded wheat and, up to a certain limit, weetabix.) Anything slimy - but mushrooms are not slimy. I used to refuse courgettes (zucchini) because they were too mushy, especially the seeds. As an adult I can eat them without difficulty, though if I'm cooking for myself I slice them lengthwise and cut the majority of the seeds out.

Tastes I can't stomach include bananas, blueberries, pumpkin, celeriac, peanuts, and alcohol. I can almost always guarantee, if it's in the food, and you say "but you can't taste it," I won't be able to taste much else. When I was a child I used to be unable to stay in the room with an opened banana; now I ususally can unless it's right under my nose, mashed (makes the smell spread), or I'm having a hypersensitive episode. I had to ask a guy at my D&D group to put his banana peels in the bin once, because I was having an episode and I couldn't stand it, and they won't stop teasing me about it. I have no memory of ever being able to stomach bananas, but they're on the list ofthings I'd eat as a toddler. I can only assume I ate them and was ill once, and formed an association.

My mum used to make a vegetable soup with celeriac in, and I have a vivid memory of sitting at the table with a bowl of soup in front of me, eating one mouthful at a time and then fighting to control my retching, which got worse each time, so I could eat another. My mum's always told us how she never makes us eat anything we really don't want to because she used to be forced to eat stuff and forbidden to leave the table until she'd finished it. But I guess she forgot about that that day. She didn't make me finish it, I guess, but she did insist I ate more of it before she'd let me stop, even though I was clearly on the verge of vomiting.

Passion fruit flavoured things are delicious. But passion fruit itself is unacceptable in appearence if there's a lot of it (it's yellow. And aside from the colour it looks like frogspawn. With the colour it looks like diseased frogspawn.) A few individual seeds sprinkled on something don't provoke that reaction but they're borderline for texture: it's kind of slimy around the seed and I can't swallow the seed without gagging so I crunch it and then it has sharp little bits. But I can take a bit of it, because it tastes so good.

I won't eat sauces or thick liquids that are yellow - except custard which is fine.

I can't eat any kind of animal whole, like sardines, or molluscs. Except prawns. Which I usually don't eat these days because I'm mostly vegetarian. The idea of eating something's insides just causes so much revulsion. Other "idea" issues include apples where the bottom bit is open - I can't avoid thinking that something unpleasant might have gotten in.

My list of objections has changed and generally got shorter as I've grown up - there are only one or two things I won't eat that I used to, but a fair few I will eat that I didn't use to, although many of those I still dislike or at least don't enjoy.

I'm also more tolerant of hot spices than I used to be. The limit of my tolerance for the pain is still set at what most people would consider very mild, but in certain circumstances I can eat extremely mild spices without losing all enjoyment in the food. This is generally the case with things like nachos and fajitas/burritos: I think it's the bread and cheese combination that takes a lot of the fire out. Things like chilli are still an ordeal. Pineapple, unless cooked or dried, is not so painful as hot spices, but still uncomfortable, because of the enzymes. I find fizzy drinks easier than when I was a child but I still have to take small sips or else it hurts. Ice cream and other frozen foods are also fine, so long as I take them slowly, but painful to eat quickly: this isn't brain-freeze or tooth sensitivity, but just the sensation of extreme cold on my mouth. Similarly, everyone can find excessively hot (temperature not spice) food painful, but I seem to have a lower threshold than most.

I'm also very afraid of unfamiliar or unidentifiable foods. If I'm not sure what something is I have to get someone else to find out first. If there's an ingredient I've never had before like a new fruit or vegetable, or an unfamiliar flavouring/seasoning, I will usually try it but very cautiously, and I'll have to touch it or poke it and try and find out the texture before I put it in my mouth. If it's something with multiple components, like a sauce with different vegetable, and they're hard to identify separately, I have to pick through and try and make sense of each bit. Things that are an unknown mixture and not separable, are really hard to bring myself to try.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby Absentia » Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:30 pm

When I was a kid I had a long list of things I absolutely wouldn't eat (and also quite a few food allergies). As an adult I've whittled the list down to shellfish, mushrooms, any member of the squash family, and my longtime nemesis: onions.

In a soup/stew/slow cooker situation where they've been cooked way down, onions are okay, but the smell of raw onions makes me nauseous and one errant onion fragment can ruin half of a pizza. And restaurants love to sneak onions into all kinds of dishes, usually without even mentioning it on the menu. The worst are those goddamn diced onions that fast food places put on their hamburgers, because it's impossible to remove them without getting knuckle-deep in ketchup and melted cheese and even then I'm always going to miss one and gag when I bite into it. I think that choking on all those Happy Meal onions as a kid is why I can't eat McDonald's burgers anymore.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby cmsellers » Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:13 pm

CarrieVS" wrote:Tastes I can't stomach include bananas, blueberries, pumpkin, celeriac, peanuts, and alcohol.

Oh, I forgot that celery powder is another herb I dislike, in fact I hate it more than cilantro or dill. Don't think I've had celeriac but many root vegetables I've tried have had various sorts of off tastes that I haven't liked, namely parsnips, radishes, turnips, and Jerusualem artichokes/sunchokes.

It also occurred to me that there are at least two foods—lobster and asparagus—which the smell alone keeps me from ever eating. I mean lobster also looks like a giant bug, but my aversion to the smell is such that I won't even eat monkfish, because I've heard it tastes like lobster and I can't stand lobster smell. Weirdly, I'm pretty sure that I'd at least try durian if I ever got the chance.

I also can't stand alcohol, but I think of it as a texture thing rather than a flavor thing. I hate the bubbles you get in beer and champagne (same reason I don't drink soda), and I really hate the way that alcohol burns my tongue your throat. However I love rum as a flavoring, and also like amaretto, grand marnier, and some other hard liquors for the same purpose. I also like wine as a marinade for red meat.

Absentia wrote:In a soup/stew/slow cooker situation where they've been cooked way down, onions are okay, but the smell of raw onions makes me nauseous and one errant onion fragment can ruin half of a pizza. And restaurants love to sneak onions into all kinds of dishes, usually without even mentioning it on the menu. The worst are those goddamn diced onions that fast food places put on their hamburgers, because it's impossible to remove them without getting knuckle-deep in ketchup and melted cheese and even then I'm always going to miss one and gag when I bite into it. I think that choking on all those Happy Meal onions as a kid is why I can't eat McDonald's burgers anymore.

I also hate onions, and surprise onions piss me off enough that I made a thread about it.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby mancityfooty » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:09 pm

the first ex wife, she got upset because I wouldn't just eat anything.
this was a problem.
I went to a hypnotist and problem solved.
but, only for a bit.
if you get out of practice, then you have to listen to the tapes again.
I'm well overdue for that.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby sunglasses » Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:23 am

I vomited when my mom fed me salami once when I was a child. I kept seeing the black spots in it and panicked thinking it was bugs.

I cannot handle the texture of mushrooms. There are several other foods that I literally will only take one bite of and immediately spit it out. I feel compelled not to swallow. The textures are just wrong. Shumai is one of those things.

I really dislike fresh green peppers. I cannot stand their smell. Anything that seems "slimy" I will not eat.

I cannot stand to touch raw chicken. The feeling makes me ill. It's the closest in feeling to human tissue so that has a lot to do with it. Certain cuts of pork and beef look the closest to it and I had a strong aversion against meat of any kind after having a necrotizing faciitis patient who required skinning.

My mother shared tales of how I would only eat any type of meat if it was mixed with mashed potatoes as a child. I had a strong preference towards salt and several times she had to hide the salt shaker and parmesan cheese from me. I cannot have walnuts in large amounts in my house, since I was a child I would binge eat them until I felt ill. I just...crave them. They're perfect.
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:16 am

I can only stand raw maguro, hamachi, and unagi as far as fish is concerned. I can't stand that piscine bitterness.Any other type of seafood I am on top of, though. I loves me some calamari. I also can't stand bananas, unless it's mixed in with other flavors as part of, like, a smoothie or something. Artificial grape flavoring makes me produce excess saliva. Other than that that I'm quite an adventurous eater, and will happily down an offal dish. I don't really understand you seriously picky eater types. I mean, have you not seen haute americain cuisine? It's the tits, yo!
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby JamishT » Wed Jun 20, 2018 4:25 am

Deathclaw_Puncher wrote: I also can't stand bananas, unless it's mixed in with other flavors as part of, like, a smoothie or something.


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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby Piter Lauchy » Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:48 pm

I'm the opposite of a picky eater. There's some stuff that I don't like the taste of, but other than those, I pretty much treat everything the same. There's almost no difference to me between a McDonald's burger and a 50€ steak. I simply like both.

Also, sunny, walnuts are obviously and objectively literally the worst nuts. You've got problems, Lady.
Plus, they look like brains. Shouldn't your aversion to stuff that looks like human biology make you dislike them?
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Re: Picky eating and weird eating habits

Postby iMURDAu » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:39 pm

Piter Lauchy wrote:There's almost no difference to me between a McDonald's burger and a 50€ steak. I simply like both.


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