by cmsellers » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:14 pm
I wonder if I have the same problem as Dox, Kat, and Avi. I'm a very picky eater, but not nearly as selective as you three apparently are.
There's two things I hate the taste of enough to avoid completely: shrimp and cruciferous vegetables. There's some other things I hate the taste of enough to avoid when I can: tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and plain egg whites. There's a lot of things I avoid because of texture: I won't eat leafy vegetables, most root vegetables, pasta, or anything mashed that I wouldn't put on toast. I also dislike walnuts for textural reasons. I also refuse to any animal that didn't have a backbone, even though I'm pretty sure I've had crab and clams when I was really little and they were unobjectionable. But crustaceans look like bugs and shellfish are slimy.
I almost always need to ask a waiter at a restaurant to hold something (except with BBQ joints where you're getting pure meet), and it's probably easier to list the foods I do eat than those I don't: meat from animals with backbones, dairy, most fruit, most seeds (except beans and walnuts), bread, shamrocks, and raw carrots (reluctantly unless they're in carrot cakes).
However I've gotten less picky over the years. Turkey got me tolerating onions and tomatoes to some degree, and I will eat small amounts of greens if there's enough other stuff that I can't tell they're in there. Moreover, unlike you three I like strong flavors and love spices, love them in fact.
Also, I definitely have pica, which is the eating of things I shouldn't eat. I used to eat erasers and paper (especially kleenex); I still eat my own hair and nails. Of course all of those things are bland and flavorless, so it's not exactly contradictory if I do have A/RFID as well.