Picky eaters

You'll never get me drunk enough to try rattlesnake. I've never tried gar balls but have made and eaten croquets made with king mackerel. I had to develop a taste for mustard greens when I was growing up. Vinegar helped me with greens. Is it the taste or the idea that keeps you from eating some foods, rejecting foods as a guest at someone's dinner table, or professing distaste on social media?

Taste, but there are times I will eat things I do not like. It is not going to kill you to eat something you just do not like the taste of. Now if real food allergy that is something totally different.

Fruitcake, Beets and Hominy are a no go for me along with grits. It's because I don't like the taste period. Guest or not those will never be on my plate.

Smell and taste has a lot to do with what I'll eat. I'm like you Bill in that I will never eat rattlesnake. They stink so it's a no go for me. I have acquired a taste for some things over the years. Couldn't stand brussel sprouts as a kid, but love them now. The same with wheat bread. I think our tastes evolve somewhat, but smell influences me the most.

Smell and texture are turnoffs for me.

I would have to say both. I am a very picky eater which is why I prefer to do almost all of our cooking at home and disappointed with a lot of foods at restaurants or someone`s dinner table. You will almost never see me eat at a potluck at work.

Same here, and there are a few foods I just cant stand the taste of. I never could understand people purposely eating things they didn't like when the same nutritional value could come from another food you do like.

If you’re hungry you will eat....

Yep. I tell people that all the time. You truly get hungry, that rat won’t sound bad.

Though my son would still hold out for pizza rolls after a week of no food. I swear it

It was simple with me. That was the only thing availed when I was growing up.. We would fight over a little piece of pork skin in a pot of beans. Crumbled cornbread on pot likker and pretend it was corn flakes.

I can identify with both of these songs.

I assume we all know the difference between not liking the taste of a food and being a picky eater.

With that said, I have observed that several (NOT ALL) people that I know that are self professed picky eaters were an only child. Coincidence??? IDK Curious to know how many of you picky eaters are an only child????

http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ClayTroesken.pdf


No other nutrition-related disease in American history caused as many deaths as pellagra. The by-product of insufficient niacin consumption, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the American South, killing roughly 7,000 Southerners annually at its peak in 1928. We document the rise and fall of pellagra in the American South and present three main findings. First, pellagra resulted, in part, from Southern agriculture’s heavy emphasis on cotton, which displaced local food production and effectively raised the price of niacin consumption. Evidence for this proposition derives in part from the arrival of the boll weevil. Although the boll weevil reduced Southern incomes and cotton production, it was also associated with increases in local food production and sharp reductions in pellagra. Second, pellagra was largely eliminated thr

I consider myself a picky eater and I had 3 brothers and a sister(plus 2,1/2 brothers and a 1/2 sister), so I can`t help support your theory. I don`t know if I am as picky as much as I just do not like food that is not prepared well. My mother was an excellent cook and I do not remember not liking anything she cooked other than giblets and gravy at Thanksgiving.

We were made to clean our plates, no matter what was on it. Or you would sit there at the table until you did. I learned early that lots of butter and salt would mask flavors I didn’t care for. I wasn’t an only child. My brother tested the punishment of sitting there until he ate it. I don’t recall what food it was, but he won. Around 10-11 pm my parents told him to go bed. He probably got a whoopin also. As an adult I just don’t have to eat anything I don’t care for. If I was at somebody’s home and was offered food I didn't care for, I’d politely say no thank you and leave it at that.

Same at our house....I tried that once. I sat there until I was told to go to bed, when I got up the next morning it was still waiting for me for breakfast while everyone else got pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

We had the same rule, but there wasn’t anything made that I didn’t like or couldn’t stomach. Not the case with my older brother. If I wanted to play, I finished his plate for him and we went outside.

Onions...smell, texture, etc. I do not like onions.

My worst nightmare consists of being stranded somewhere with nothing to eat but onions.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

I was probably a typical kid till the age of 6 or 7 as far as what I ate. I like chicken nuggets French fires hamburgers etc. and wasn't really willing to venture out of my comfort zone.

One Friday night as was usual my mom and dad stopped and got my brother and I a burger from mcdonalds and then stopped at their favorite Chinese place across the street and picked up take out. I don't know how but somehow my mom convinced me to try her lemon chicken... it was greate! A few moments later I tried dads Mongolian beef, carefully avoiding the peppers… and again... it was good. Pretty much from then on I decided I should probably try things before I decided to not like them. It opened up a world of good food.

I haven't eaten too much food I didn't like. Curry is one thing I do not care for. I ate some of it, I tried it, gave it every opportunity I could and I do not like it. I finally tried menudo for the first time over the holidays. Its not bad but it wasn't anything special to me.

I put onions in nearly everything I eat. Growing up I ate none (I knew of lol) till my epiphany then I started eating cooked ones, these days I could almost happily eat a mild sweet onion like an apple and if I don't have raw onion on a salad burger sandwich or bowl of chili it is missed.

You won't catch me eating liver, gonads, tripe, etc unless I'm absolutely starving to death.

There are people starving in Africa ... if we put it on our plate, we were expected to eat it. There are very few things I have found that I don't like ... some better than others, but very few things that I will not eat, at least that I have found.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house growing up. Rode the bus to their house after school and usually ate dinner with them before my parents came to get us. If you didn't like what was being prepared you had options, but if you put it on your plate you ate it, period.

Fortunately my omie was a wonderful cook and the only thing I had to worry about was when my eyes were bigger than my stomach... and I was a fat kid, so lets get real I didn't have much to worry about lol.

Did anyone else nibble break/biscuit doe off their mom/grandmothers fingers/hands after needing/mixing?

Never even crossed my mind.....

Nope they washed their hands......

If it smells good then I will eat it

I am with you on the above items. My mother made the best liver and onions according to my brother and father. I still can't stand the smell or taste of it, thankfully my mother did not like it either and I got a free pass on eating it.

about the only time by brother and I caught a break, my grandmother (mother's mother) was having medical issues and moved in with us in her late 80s for a while to recover. One evening, she prepared a ham and potato dish from one of my mother's recipes. I loved that stuff. upon loading up my plate, getting settled and prayer was done, I took a big bite and almost threw up back in my plate ... I got a death stare from both my parents ... about that time my brother did the same thing, their focus shifted to him. Then my dad took a bite and the look on his face was priceless , so mom's attention went to him. He looked at her with a WTHeck look, picked up his napkin and proceeded to politely dispense with the food in him mouth into the napkin. He immediately looked over at the kitchen counter to see a small container of Comet sitting beside the pepper shaker. My brother and I followed suite by ridding the food in our mouths into a napkin. We tossed the whole dish in the trash and my grandmother felt really bad ...

Just about everything except Rattle Snake, Beets and Cucumbers.

Wait you don't like the beautiful dirty earthy red blob that has to be pickled to even be eaten?

I used to be really picky growing up (had a sister) but being broke and in college cured me of being really picky. There are somethings I won't eat, but I'll usually try anything once.

You are the first person I've ever known of who would not eat fried onion rings. Heard about chili without beans but never without onions.

My Dad said that to me one time at the table. I popped off and said lets box it up and ship it to them. After his back hand swung I don't remember anything but waking up on the floor with my the back of the chair under me on the ground.

I had one or two of those backhands. They were lightning quick, never saw it coming. Always after a smart a** remark.

I've never been told that I had to eat anything in my life. We either ate it or went or go hungry.

My granddad would rap you on the head with a fork.

Yup...only took a time or two...or three....maybe four...

Same here. We had the option of eating or going hungry.

I could see that

I experienced the same as many of you. You ate what was prepared or went hungry. I hated liver and Lima beans more than anything. Enough mayo would help. Now those two are one of my favorites. No mayo now.
As I grew and traveled I became obsessed with trying strange and weird foods. I have eaten stuff from street carts in Mexico that I still do not know what they were. Now, smell and texture play a big part. I no longer eat fermented sea life. I can’t do the ammonia smell now. I will still try most things once. Most people would who have processed a conk would never eat it, but man is it a delicious.

Fresh cucumbers or pickles also?

Beets! No amount of butter and salt can mask the flavor for me.

I don't ever remember being asked what I wanted to eat when I was growing up. We ate what was prepared for us. I've spent a lot of time in other countries and have tried many dishes that others turned their noses up at but then again I'm adventurous when it comes to new things.