The Grown-up Picky Eaters Club
Kids may palm off veggies to the dog, but some adults are still just as finicky.
The parts I relate to:
“Pelchat has found that certain textures are an even bigger turn-off than tastes for many picky eaters.”
“Others cringe at “inclusions,” such as nuts or raisins embedded in muffins—even if they enjoy eating such snacks in their pure form.”
“The adult picky eater was almost always a choosy child”
“And those who harshly punish non-plate-cleaning children … exacerbate the situation.”
Though the guy in the article is waaaaaaaay more extreme, I have none of the problems mentioned in on his site pickyeatingadults.com. I’m not at all bothered by or ashamed of my pickiness, and don’t care at all about others being surprised or annoyed. Plus I can almost always find something that I’ll eat at any event or restaurant. I know what I like and what I don’t, and why (taste and/or texture) and I see no reason to suffer by eating things I don’t like.
A related article:
Food: The Science of Scrumptious
Why do we loathe lumpy food, pick at our plates, and believe that chocolate will cure all ills? They say there’s no accounting for taste, but science is giving it a try.
“In short, we’re all weird about food. An anthropological analysis found that more than a third of us reject slippery food like oysters and okra. Twenty percent of us don’t like our foods to touch on the plate. The next time you wander a grocery-store aisle packed with jars of pickled jalapeños and boxes of instant scalloped potatoes, consider this: One-fifth of us eat from a palate of just 10 or fewer foods.
The rich blend of instincts and habits that shape our eating patterns has baffled biologists. Although, new knowledge of the neurological highways that connect gut and brain, combined with psychophysical studies probing the perception of flavor, has shed light on the gourmand within. The study of “hedonics”—the pleasure of eating—has determined that we are hardwired to prefer sweet and avoid bitter and that the love of fat seems to be an acquired taste. The flavors we sample while we’re still in the womb stay with us into infancy and perhaps well beyond. And, as anyone who has heard the call of a cream puff at 3 a.m. will not be surprised to hear, eating beloved foods stimulates some of the same neural pathways as addictive drugs like cocaine. Other research suggests that our stomachs may literally be thinking for us: A separate sensory system located in the gut sends subliminal messages to the brain about what’s good to eat and what’s not.”