to think dh is, infact, a fussy eater?

[bibbitybobbityhat]

DH and the dcs have been away for a few days at the ILs (fanfare, trumpets, balloons etc, although lovely to have them back of course) and so for two days I have been eating things dh does not like. Whilst he maintains that he is not a fussy eater, and very grateful for all I cook for him, I think he is, actually, really rather fussy given the list of foods he will not eat:

All fish, including all shellfish.

Aubergines

Blue cheese

Pork chops

Lamb in any shape or form

Chicken that is not breast

I think that makes him quite fussy.

Otoh, the only foods I cannot eat are cucumber, oysters and natural yogurt. So am very easy to accommodate, yes?

I do find this subject fascinating.

Logically, if fussy eating is controlled by sensory input, then conversely, un-fussy eating must also be controlled by sensory input.

My view is that we are 'wired' uniquely; it is widely understood that as individuals, we all see the world differently and in a similar way, we all undoubtedly hear the world differently - evidence people's differing tastes in music (excuse the pun).

So why should we imagine that we all 'taste' the world as one?

I think that being fussy is not something to celebrate, and most of the reasons given for not eating (whatever) are not that much different from small childrens reluctance to try things. Many foods you don't like the first time - most children dislike the taste of spicy foods, alcohol coffee etc, but over time grow accustomed and then mostly start enjoying them. Whether you are willing to try things is a personality trait, but most people can learn to enjoy a wide range of foods. People tend to restrict their food for psychological not physical reasons. Gagging for example is generally not because the food really makes you sick but because you don't want to eat it so much that you make yourself gag.

That test seemed bizarre to me. I come out as a super taster because I like smaller quieter places by choice because I am an introvert and I do enjoy really good food. But I really do enjoy most foods including all the ones on that list. Surely most chefs and food critics are also likely to be supertasters too? My view is that a lot is down to your relationship with food and your experience during childhood. If you are not exposed to lots of different food you can be wary of new things, it's one of the reasons to wean children using a variety of foods, rather than bland sweet pureed baby food.

But then when I was growing up the words "I don't like that" were banned because they annoyed my mother too much. My siblings and I all started off fussy and now eat a wide range of things. I really think that people who restrict their diets are missing out on many delicious things.

LOL, oh I am well aware, as a life-long fussy-eater, of other people's scorn at my eating preferences. But it works both ways because I struggle to understand how some people can bear to eat food that I consider to be hideous.

I have improved as I've got older, I now eat a wider range of vegetables than I did when I was younger (brought about by curiosity and liking the smell of something, rather than being forced to eat it) but there are still foods that are in the no-go category - many of which I have tried and rejected.

I am still puzzled as to why our culture attempts to make us all taste the world as one. And I have yet to hear anyone suggest that not liking opera, punk, heavy metal, classical music or is psychological, yet the sense of taste is fair game (excuse the pun). Why is that?!

So bibitty you don't have fresh onion, garlic, cucumber and plain yoghurt in the house?? That's odd as far as I'm concerned. Don't you do any cooking at all? 'cos they are basics.

Cyclops Hurray!! Some sense at last. Have you heard of the Blood type way of eating which actually gives proper scientific reasons for us all liking different foods, some foods actually make people ill So to call someone fussy for not eating tomatoes (which give them eczema)is unfair.

ppeatfruit thanks! Yes, I am vaguely familiar with the blood group diet theory but I'm not aware of any of the details. There's also the genetic link to fussy eating...some info here:

www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/302/5645/561d

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0404/01-ask.html

I think in ancestral times, there was (within populations), a much smaller and more consistent range of available foods. People probably all ate much the same, generation after generation. Even in recent times in the UK (so early 19th century onwards), the diet was much blander and narrower than it is today. My grandad (in his 80s at the time) simply could not get his head around the concept (or smell) of a doner kebab!!!

it's nice to talk to someone with an open mind. also with a different perspective!!

The Blood type thing is fascinating actually I'm not au fait with the technology but the man's name Is Dr. Peter D'damo and you can buy the books in good book shops and prb. on Amazon.

I am not fussy
I am discerning

of course I have foods that I would rather not eat
(swede, baked beans, liver, plenty more besides)

I honestly find it odd that some people just shovel down everything.

I think what makes 'fussy eating' unacceptable in our culture is the fact that some of the fussy eaters have been that way since childhood -- it's an indication of some sort of rigidity of personality.

Also, fine to be fussy when you're doing your own shopping and cooking, but when someone else has gone to the trouble of cooking something for you, I think there's more than just offputting taste or texture or sight or smell of the food involved in the dynamic of having it handed to you on a plate and refusing to eat it.

I eat everything (reasonable portions of course) and will try anything once. I definitely don't 'shovel' it down. Wonder why the opposite of picky is assumed to be less-than-decorous eating?

Yes I've been a lifelong fussy eater but I have expanded my range of foods as I've grown older. But some foods just taste revolting to me. Once, on a business trip to Atlanta, I went out for pizza with two colleagues. We ordered the food. I was very hungry. The food came and I ate the first piece, thinking it was regular cheese, tomato, mushroom, etc, pizza. Within seconds of this food being in my mouth, I was gagging and had to force it down (as a courtesy to my colleagues, whom I'd only met that day). I didn't say anything (again, out of courtesy) but proceeded to eat the crust, avoiding the puzzling topping. Turns out it was goat's cheese.

That was an interesting 'blind taste test' for me but I knew straight away that I couldn't eat whatever it was that tasted so disgusting. Nothing to do with having a rigid personality!

"So bibitty you don't have fresh onion, garlic, cucumber and plain yoghurt in the house?? That's odd as far as I'm concerned. Don't you do any cooking at all? 'cos they are basics".

Eh ?

Eh ??

Eh ???

Who are you ppeatfruit?

Can you not read??

Are you infact very very spectacularly dim? Don't you read what other people post at all? 'cos that is the basics ...

I am sure all of us have foods we would rather not eat. I for example don't like celery or hotdogs, and I'm not very keen on kidneys. Overcooked roast dinners are pretty horrible too. Raw onions give me indigestion. Given the choice I wouldn't eat them. But I can eat them, and if I'm given them I will eat them (I won't ask for seconds though, I think that borders on masochism). I think food is very interesting, and I don't think that we all experience it in the same way, but I do suspect that very few people have any physical reason why they can't eat a whole range of food stuffs. Of course there are people who have found that certain things don't agree with them (caffeine seems to affect my mother's arthritis, our old nanny found chocolate and cheese seemed to trigger migraines, oats gives my dh terrible wind etc). And then there are a small group of people with allergies, which of course should be taken very seriously.

Maybe I've just met too many people who go on and on about what they won't eat, and then complain about what they end up with and it's made me intolerant. Perhaps particularly so because I have a couple of friends who have severe allergies/Coeliac and they are very quiet about it.

Oh, my mother tried that blood group thing in one of her many attempts to control her arthritis, and it is total quackery I am afraid.

Cyclops, your reaction to the goat's cheese (gagging) was quite strong. I don't particularly care for goat's cheese myself, but I've eaten some thinking it was feta and swallowed it down without gagging (haven't gone back for seconds though). I wonder where the gagging comes from? I wonder why I don't gag because of a taste I don't like?

I am very sensitive to how things smell, especially raw meats or fish. I have thrown packets of raw met out and have had to rethink dinner quite a few times because I thought the smell was a bit iffy. I tend to trust my judgement on this score too. While pg, I couldn't go near the meat counter of any supermarket without wanting to hurl, and there was one shop I stopped going to altogether because of the smell. I am always the first to smell gas leaks.

A slight over reaction to my not rude; possibly a bit irrelevant i agree; but not rude well not as rude as yours what's up bibbitty ??

'I wonder where the gagging comes from? I wonder why I don't gag because of a taste I don't like?'

Well the obvious answer to this is probably something to do with the fact that you and I are separate individuals! For example, it's likely that your taste in music is completely different to mine. Your perception on the finer details of life is probably different to mine. You might enjoy skiing, whereas I don't. I enjoy ice-skating, whereas you might not. And so on.

I don't spend time questioning such differences though because we are all individuals with concomitant sets of preferences, including taste preferences.

I still don't understand why we should all taste the world as one or why it is expected that we should all have cookie-cutter tongues.

I tend to gag from smells I don't like, particularly while pregnant. Course we're not all alike, nor should we be. I think I was focusing on the gag response itself, not why we don't all gag. (Gagging as opposed to uniformity of response) Clearly, I have gagged, but in response to smell, not taste, and I am curious about what makes people gag.

LOL, well in my case, food that tastes hideous to me!

Food is obviously an external entity which can be seen, touched, smelled and discussed, whereas taste is wholly internal and can neither be seen, touched nor smelled...however it can be discussed! We only have each other's word on how it actually is for each of us.

Nooka maybe yr mum could try eating fruit on an empty stomach. my sis. who laughs at my weird way of eating nevertheless told me she felt a load better (she has bad arthritis) when she tried the fruit thing.
Also removing high acid foods like vinegar,pork, spirits etc. i don't have any aches and i certainly did before following the above advice. SOME FOODS CAN POISON SOME PEOPLE.

My poor mum is in extreme pain most of the time now. Messing around with her food just made her miserable (and one of the diets she tried made her lose a lot of weight and look just awful). The trouble with arthritis is that it is a relapsing/remitting disease, so it is very difficult to know whether something helps or not. Also my mother has never dieted in her life, is a bit of a food fascist, and loves her food (she is an excellent cook) so I think it was particularly painful for her to eat oddly.

Watching my mother try a whole range of alternative therapies (alongside having joints replaced and a variety of unpleasant and now quite experimental drugs) has just made me think even more that they should be regulated and much much more research should be required before any claims are made, because of the perils of raising people's hopes with no foundation. I know that some people do find that some food is associated for them with particular outcomes, but I really wonder how much of that is physical (and therefore probably repeatable/generalizable) and how much psychological (although no less real for that individual at that time).

Nooka, your poor mum .

All I can say is that the foods I dislike could be wrapped up in the finest chocolate and I still wouldn't eat them. Repeat at your leisure. My mum tried all the usual tricks when I was a kid but without success because she forgot about the sense of smell that comes into play when we eat/about to eat!

Here is a slight concession to the 'it must be psychological' theory of fussy eaters:

Once in Zimbabwe, I sat down to dinner with about twenty other Westerners with some local guys. Out come a few bowls of 'starters'. Cooked, blackened, large, fat grubs/maggots.

Er, no. From memory, very, very few Westerers tried that particular starter. Not difficult to understand why in that case.

Luckily, the main course was a wonderful selection of meat (crocodile, kudu, ostrich, etc). No goat though