Are you a fussy eater?

[Bimgy85]

I can't comprehend adults being fussy eaters. Fussy is for children surely, and at that, children aged up to 14/15

I truly don't understand fussy adults eating habits, I work with a woman who's 26 and she won't eat anything out of the ordinary. Ham sandwich for lunch and crisps, she cringed when I mentioned I was going for sushi for dinner, or even a basic Chinese buffet with vegetables noodles etc.

Are you a fussy eater, and why?

I understood everybody grew out of that

@northern don't you get it? Some of us would love to have a more varied diet. I just can't ....trying new things causes me so much distress both physically and mentally.

3 kids all raised by me (who hates cheese/cream and any pulses or mashed food), 1 is picky, 1 eats absolutely everything and the other is a little in between.

You don't get whole families of fusspots, it's completely individual.

I eat spices, olives, mushrooms, peppers, rice, pasta, all bread, onions and all meat. People don't know I'm fussy as luckily diets seem to have shifted towards a more Mediterranean style which works for me. The majority of food I dislike is deemed unhealthy (cheese, cream, butter) with the exception of fish (I eat tuna though). People tend to think I'm just making healthier choices when I eat out. Those pulse/mashed foods make me gag, I can't help it.

Just to add, years of being forced to eat mash potato and other food that sickened me is, according to my therapist, the root cause of my long-term bulimia.

IME it’s the people who think of themselves as non fussy who are awkward and difficult to please

Eg I have friends who will ONLY organise dinners out at spicy restaurants.

That’s so restrictive.

A European restaurant is so much better for a group meal. If the spicy people want that most places do a Thai curry or chilli con carbs etc. But there’s also the meat and 2 veg meals for British people who like British food.

Traditional meals are much healthier anyway and there was less obesity when people ate plainer food than all these takeaways.

I'm not from britain but in general where I come from fussy eating is embarrassing as a nation.

@NorthernSpirit they're only tasty if you like them. I can try something that tastes like complete shit to me to please others (but I'm the selfish one?) but it won't change the fact it tastes like shit. It doesn't change texture,smell or taste just because someone is jumping in front of me like an over excited chihuahua on crack shouting "try it!try it!just try it!".

@bimgy85 😂 that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. What do my individual eating habits have to do with anyone else? Never mind an entire nation? Bizarre

I think sushi is disgusting, but I wouldn't call not liking raw fish particularly fussy. I don't eat much meat because I used to be vegetarian. That was originally on principled grounds, so not really fussiness. I don't eat spicy food because it doesn't agree with me, which isn't really fussiness either. Can't eat very hard food as I don't have all my teeth...
I did walk past some plums today and realised I can't eat them because of their texture, consistency, mess they make. Same with nectarines. I think that's squeamishness rather than fussiness.

Fussiness is nature not nurture (i’m a food scientist) we’re a product of our upbringing.

Rubbish. In some case it is that, and in others it isn't. My mum did everything she could to get me to eat healthier and a wider variety of foods. I was weaned healthy but even as a baby I would spit out lots of foods and gag. It is not my mum's fault I am the way I am, as evidenced by my siblings.

I think you meant it is nurture not nature though?

The amount of vitriol for fussy eaters on MN is insane. I understand getting annoyed with a fussy eater who is rude with it, but most of us just try to keep it as unnoticed as possible. I am not childish. I can't help it. I am not immature because I am fussy. If that was the case I would grow the fuck up so I can enjoy even more food, because I love eating.

^IME it’s the people who think of themselves as non fussy who are awkward and difficult to please

Eg I have friends who will ONLY organise dinners out at spicy restaurants^

IME 'spicy' restaurants always do non spiced food and a range of European dishes like chicken and chips or omelette and chips. They will also adapt menus if you ask.

Maybe they prefer 'spicy' restaurants because that sort of food, as well as being nicer/more interesting, can be difficult to cook at home because you need lots of different spices, high temperature woks, and lots of chopping of vegetables.

Whereas 'meat and two veg' is a lot simpler, so a bit of a waste to pay restaurant prices for really. Like a poster said upthread, if I'm paying someone to cook for me, I want it to be something that I can't make quickly and easily at home myself.

Gwen sushi is rice, it doesn't have to have raw fish in it, and sadly not enough of it does. My heart sinks every time I see sushi packets boasting about not including raw fish, but happily Waitrose now have in store sushi counters that sell decent freshly made sushi with an interesting range of toppings including raw tuna amongst other things.

"IME 'spicy' restaurants always do non spiced food and a range of European dishes like chicken and chips or omelette and chips. They will also adapt menus if you ask."

Nope. One Indian near me the only non-spicy food is bread. I once went to a Chinese having been told I could at least get chips. I could, but no sauce of any kind to put on them. They also don't really adapt menus because one person's mild is another's spicy. I've eaten so-called mild food that I had to drench in yogurt and still suffered the next morning.

Maybe we could replace the cliche of saying ‘there’s children in Africa who would love to get the food you’re refusing’ we could start saying ‘you’re an embarrassment to the nation’ when faced with fussy children’. ‘Chew that and think of England!’

@NorthernSpirit if we’re such a product of our upbringing then why in a very large family of food lovers, one of whom is a chef and constantly cooks different foods for my family, as I the only ‘fussy’ one?

@crazycatlady5 because you're spoilt and hate your country!

I remember my childhood well. A fussy child. The solution was to mash veg into potatoes, hold my head back and force feed me. To thank my mum and dad I’d spew it back out over the table. It was t really till I was in my first girls holiday when’s was 21 that I tried something different. It was the smell of the food. I’d try things now. But tentitvley. And a very small amount.

But OP, your attitude is bloody bizarre. Embarrassing for a nation 🙄. It’s none of your fucking business what other people eat. Your to over invested in other people’s lives. Get over yourself!

Bimgy85
I'm not from britain but in general where I come from fussy eating is embarrassing as a nation.

That is so ridiculous.

"IME 'spicy' restaurants always do non spiced food and a range of European dishes like chicken and chips or omelette and chips. They will also adapt menus if you ask."

Really, have you ever tried the non spiced food in an Indian restaurant? I bet you haven't. In my youth a friend and I would go nightclubbing once a week and then go for a meal - she had a passion for prawn curry - I loathed and detested the smell (still do). Every week we would go to the same Indian restaurant, she had her curry I had an omelette which was pretty much inedible.

I think my eating habits stem from being a child of the late 1940s/50s when food rationing was in place until 1954. My eating habits haven't really changed from what my DM cooked, roasts, stew, toad, chops, pies etc. The first time DM tried to make spag bol she was about to place three strands of spaghetti per person into the pot 'because it expands massively when cooked'. Fortunately I managed to convince her otherwise by showing her a cookbook. Maybe that meal put me off pasta for life

i always watch the food challenges on I’m a Celebrity and the lack of choice re meals and think “well if they can manage to swallow fish eyeballs despite the texture and taste then I’m sure most adults can suck up and try average normal foods that are delicious and nutritious to most other people.”

I tell this to my fussy DS12, who started watching it last year. It has actually helped him get over the fear of trying new things and he has discovered he likes things he previously would just refuse to try.

Really, have you ever tried the non spiced food in an Indian restaurant

I picked three local Indian restaurants at random. As well as bread and rice, with no spices, they sell omelettes, chicken and chips, scampi and other stuff that's not spiced. Here are their websites if you don't believe me.

Isheeshmahal.co.uk/menu/

www.aagrah.com/find-a-restaurant/leeds-centre/

www.table27morley.co.uk/menu.html

Flamingolass - if everyone was like you everything would be so much easier!

@manicinsomniac
My eating now I think is due to childhood. If I didn't finish dinner I would be there until bedtime with it congealing on the plate. I believe liver and bacon was the final standoff where I tried & puked on the plate. The plate then turned up the next evening. Complete with liver & puke!

I'm veggie & will happily fit in with others. People will say I'm fussy and try to choose stuff I may like, which is really kind, however I would prefer if I could just choose without bothering them.

If I end up with just rice or 2 starters instead of main that's ok. I'm there to spend time with my friends or family. What they expect out of the time I think is sometimes different to me. Food isn't the reason to be together, it's just some something to do together!

I also have issues with everything veggie trying to be a meat texture (don't like) or spicy (don't like).

I would be vegan if it wasn't for cheese!!!

Both me and my brother are fussy eaters, comes from being abused as kids and being force fed food we didn’t like as a punishment until we vomited. I try not to let it effect other people and will look at menus before we go out to eat to make sure there’s food I can eat. If my family want a meal I don’t like I have a jacket potatoe etc on occasion it effects them, friends etc certain foods make me feel like I’m going to have a panic attack. But luckily as an adult I get to choose what I want to eat and seeing as I’m the one paying for my shopping every week I couldn’t actually give a shit if anyone gets irritated because I don’t like ‘basic food staples’
Just a couple of things I don’t like are
Eggs
Peppers
Mushrooms
Curry
Any fish
Beef
Any shop brought sand which
Quiche
Sauces
Anything spiced
And a whole lot more 🤷‍♀️

I’m not fussy, but some regular things I don’t like - lots of fruits, it’s texture thing unfortunately.

What I can’t grasp is an adult who eats something, enjoys it, realises it’s something they ‘don’t like’ eg. Lamb, and never eat it ever again.

"I picked three local Indian restaurants at random."

Local to you so completely irrelevant to me or anyone else not living in your local area.

I was a very fussy child although am somewhat better as an adult. There is no good reason given that my mum cooked lots of interesting foods which everyone else ate. It's embarrassing and I wish I could eat everything like DP!

I can be 'adult' about it and eat things I don't really like when necessary, but certain things e.g. olives, lamb, tuna I just cannot stomach. Sometimes it's a taste thing; sometimes texture. I do like curries so it's not an aversion to all strong flavour/spice.

Tryagaintomorrow this is what SIL is like! Our wedding meal had a mushroom sauce and we didn't tell her, she said oh I loved it, it was so nice, and ate the whole thing. After we said it was a mushroom sauce, if we'd told her before she wouldn't have eaten it!