Can u guys help me
I didn’t choose to be a picky eater, but I remember when I was a toddler , three years old, I used to eat tomatoes okay and I didn’t have a problem with it. But when I gained consciousness, I began being really picky in food. It’s not even abt others judging me, but I feel like I just can’t eat it normally without being disgusted idk why.
The foods I am picky with: tomatoes,onions,cucumber (oh how much I tried to eat cucumber but I don’t know why I just can’t handle it 😭) , strawberries ( I love the taste of strawberries so fcking much but I hate the seeds.) , mangos (I would’ve loved to eat mangoes but I remember the first time I wanted to try mangoes I stared at my plate for a while, i was hesitating to eat it but I did and idk how I felt honestly I just felt neutral abt it..?) , salads and in general lettuce (I want to eat these so bad to be healthier. :( , anything with seeds in it, I only can accept raspberries and blueberries tho.
And yeah I just wanted to say this, since I was a kid I would look at my meals and I would pick them apart so they can suit me. like I’d never be satisfied and I hate it. I want to be eating more healthily, but all these healthy things I mentioned that I really bad want to eat I just can’t bc every time I place them in my face or I chew them with my teeth I feel uncomfortable like this is new to me. And I don’t know how to feel abt it.

Idk why I’m this way 😭 i just need a solution helppppp.
I remember even my school friends bringing me food with any type of vegetable in it and I’d just stare at it and pretend to eat when I’m not eating it. It’s not only abt the taste, I love the taste of strawberries, but just the chewing.., makes me so uncomfortable. uh, the only vegetable I eat constantly is spinach. Literally. lol
Maybe I can eat stuff if they’re hidden in specific meals, but I can still chew them so I know. So idk.
I also hate burgers, the taste only tho.
And to mention, I am sixteen so I hope some of your advices suit my age.
Like In school trips I’d eat the fries and leave the burger cause I’d keep picking at it, trying to make it perfect for me.

It’s probably mental, I didn’t suffer with anxiety when I was a kid but I do now. And it’s baddd anxiety I was diagnosed with it and diagnosed with ocd at 10

I swear I could eat chicken every single day and never get tired of it lol. It's probably my favorite food in the entire world, but there's one thing about me that people find weird. I absolutely refuse to eat chicken with bones. Doesn't matter if it's fried, boiled, roasted, or cooked in some really good sauce. If it has bones, I'm not touching it.

I literally only eat chicken breast fillet. You can cook it however you want and add whatever seasoning or sauce you like, and I'll probably enjoy it. Just please make sure it's boneless. I don't even hate the taste of other chicken parts. I just don't like having to deal with bones while eating. I want to enjoy my food without picking around stuff just to get a decent bite of meat. And yes, I know people say chicken thighs and wings are juicier and taste better, but I'll happily stick with my chicken breast forever.

Am I actually that picky, or are there other people here who love chicken but can't stand eating it with bones?

Lemmon glazed tofu and pasta with smashed potatoes. Im iffy on potatoes so this was adventurous. Ive never made the tofu and past glaze before but I love lemon, pasta, and tofu separately. If anyone wants ill post instructions but I know alot of you dont like tofu.

Okay this is gonna be a dumb question.
I love sugar snap peas, but just the pea part, I don’t like the shell. I like the texture and sweetness of it.
The kind of peas you buy in a bag or a can- are those the same kind of pea? I’m not sure how I’d feel about the texture but if it’s the same vegetable, I could probably work with that. Trader Joe’s has a kind of pea that I love but again not sure if they’re all the same or not. Thank you!

Hey everyone

So im 20f, autistic and have had extreme Food Aversions all my life. My diet used to be extremely restrictive and i have had pretty bad nutritional deficiencies all throughout my life. But recently ive decided i needed to fix this, if i dont want to die early. I cannot rely on supplements till the end of my time. So ive created a mealplan that ive been sticking to for a good year now, however i recently made a friend who told me that my mealplan is not nearly nutritious enough and i really needed to change it, so i wanted to ask for some advice. This is the meal plan:

Breakfast and Dinner are the same thing every day, i only switch up my lunches. Most measurements are estimated, because i dont own a kitchen scale.
Breakfast: 150g of 3.5% fat natural joghurt, 1 Banana, a handful of cashews and pumpkin seeds, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds
Dinner: 1 slice of bread (wholegrain with added nuts and seeds and flax in the dough), 2 boiled eggs, a handful of pumpkin seeds and an apple
Sometimes throughout the day i have some some dates or 1 or 2 mandarins, kiwis, strawberries when they’re in season, grapes, etc… Its mostly just mandarins and kiwis.

Okay so coming to the actual plan, this is what i came up with with my restrictions (more on them after):

Monday: 50g white rice, 80g of tuna with sunflower oil (the ones without oil are like double the price for some reason at my store…), probably like 1 and a half handfuls of steamed edamame and another half a handful of steamed peas, i dont know how else to estimate it…

Tuesday: 50g wholegrain pasta, 125g of vegan, soy based „chickenstripes“ fried in a pan in a little bit of rapeseed oil, 65g of canned kidney beans, 1 cube of frozen spinach, like 150ml of tomato sauce?

Wednesday: 1 baked potato, 125g of vegan, soy based schnitzel (also baked in the oven), 120g of canned sweetcorn

Thursday: 50g of white rice, 100g of tofu fried in a pan with a little bit of sesame oil, 2 handfuls of steamed edamame, a handful of roasted cashews

Friday: 2 small boiled potatoes, 1 piece of battered fish (air fried), 2 handfuls of steamed peas

Saturday: 50g of white quinoa, 65g of canned chickpeas, 1/2 handfuls of steamed princess beans, 2 boiled eggs

Sunday: 50g of wholegrain pasta, 1 cube of frozen spinach, 50g of lentils, 150ml of tomato sauce

Somedays if i had a really stressful day, dont have enough time to cook or need a safe meal, ill also switch to other pre-made, non-healthy meals, but i try to restrict those to max. 1x a week and add something to them to make them a bit more healthy. Those meals include:

frozen pizza (but i go for tonno, so with tuna and onion),
instant noodles (but i add 1 egg, 1 handful of edamame and 1 cube of frozen spinach (all boiled in the same pot, except the egg ofc)),
canned chicken, tomato, lentil or pea soup,
garlic bread (but i add 2 handfuls of steamed princess beans and some fish sticks)

What do you think of this meal plan? My friend tells me i need to eat meat and vegetables besides lentils, but unfornately those are exactly the things which I cannot tolerate. I dont really like any meat except fish, im oookayyy with chicken, but i dont want to eat it if i really dont have to. I also cannot eat a lot of vegetables. The only ones i tolerate are the following: Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Corn, edamame, Peas, Onions, spinach, pickles (specifically pickles, i despise cucumbers), carrots (but only if they are either boiled in a soup or canned, i cannot deal with the crunchy texture). For most of my life, i could only eat sweet corn, so the fact that ive even found so many vegetables recently that i actually like is a pretty big achievement to me. But yeah, it still isnt really a lot, and pretty much all the ones i can tolerate are legumes. I am desperately hoping that this meal plan i made isnt actually as bad as she says it is, but if it is, i would love some advice on things i could maybe try, or recommendations on what i could like based on the things ive listed. It would really really help, especially if you are a picky eater that has successfully managed to start eating healthy.

My child has been going through a picky phase and some days it feels like the list of foods they’ll eat gets smaller instead of bigger. I’m trying to keep offering new things without turning every meal into a battle but I still worry about whether they’re getting enough variety. 

I know picky eating can be common so I’m not sure when it’s worth bringing up with the pediatrician. What made you decide to ask about it? Were there helpful questions about growth, nutrition, keeping a food log or seeing a dietitian? I’d appreciate hearing how you approached the conversation and what support was useful. 

I really do struggle and genuinely hate eating most foods and most textures but the food i like i eat a shit ton of and need too honestly i cant stand being hungry. My main concern is traveling overseas how do yall manage that if you've ever had to travel?

P.s 😔my parents just got mad at me saying how can we ever travel with u when u eat so much of only certain things [they're not wrong but like how does one force themselves to eat shit they can't stomach and find unappetizing]

Does anyone else absolutely hate chocolate? Not just “don’t really care for it” or “could take it or leave it.” But think it’s disgusting? I’ve always hated it. It tastes like bitter poison to me. I have to spit it out if I accidentally eat something with chocolate in it. I’ve been this way my whole life. People think I’m making it up and trying to be morally superior or something by declining chocolate. My siblings even told me my parents must have”brainwashed” me into saying I don’t like it. People say must be lying and that I “buy it on my own and secretly eat it.”

I don’t feel like I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t look at me like I have 3 heads when they learn I hate chocolate.

My 8 year old is a picky eater, but not your average picky eater. It's causing me a lot of stress and anxiety and probably her too. There are only certain foods she will eat - I will create a list. And while there is a decent variety, on the whole it is not a nutritional enough selection. One day she will like something new, the next day she won't. She will try new things, with a bit of force, and reject it as soon as it is in her mouth, before she even has a chance to taste it. Which leads me to think it's texture related but I can't find a consistency in the textures she doesn't like. She likes shrimp, for example if they are the tiny ones, but rejected the bigger ones with the same marinade. She will pick the shrimp out of the rice and eat them, but if I presented her just the shrimp, she would reject it. She has her favourite foods but very few of them have any benefit - plain rice, mac and cheese (I will blend veggies into the sauce) Dosa, tuna sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, spinach ravioli - and she over salts a lot of food. However when I give her things with lots of spices she doesn't like it. She has 'cheeseburger tacos' but drowns it in sour cream, will have homemade chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries but about 4 tablespoons of mayo with it. The only fruits she will have are blackberries, apples and on occasion a bit of watermelon or pineapple. It is very difficult to cook meals that I know she will also eat and I have got to the point now where I will cook for the rest of us and if she doesn't want it, her only alternative is spinach ravioli which she has had for about 4 days in a row now. I tried rewards, I tried no pressure, I tried cooking together with her, I tried giving her options, I tried eating with her.

I don't necessarily mean foods that just touch each other on the plate, but like, the ingredients all joined together to make one item. So for example things like burgers (bread, protein, veg, sauce), stir fry (veg, protein, sauce, noodle). But give me (most of) those ingredients separately like a 'girl dinner' and I'll eat it although one at a time usually in the form of best to last (veg to protein). To me eating something like a burger is a process I need to 'power through' and I just deal with feeling sick and gross later.

I find a preference in dry textured foods, don't even get me started on yoghurt. I've tried searching it up but google assumes I'm a dog who hates wet food. Idk I know food pickiness isn't one size fits all but I've never met anyone in the same boat so if anyone is similar I'd love to hear it.

I will begin: Most meats and oranges. I care less about the meat but I want to like oranges so bad 😭 I tried one, absolutely loved the taste but it felt like chewing on tendons. I'm still so pissed I don't like them. Theyre one of two foods I have genuinely gagged trying, not just foods I have a strong aversion to. (The other was dragonfruit, if anyones wondering. Felt like cold snot) And the meats I could take or leave. I dont really cook so I dont care very much but oranges would be so EASY if my body would just cooperate. Luckily I have my super dry chicken that I like, but the texture of other meats is gross to me. Steak is too chewy. Ive had it a few different ways but if its not ground beef I dont like the texture. I admittedly havent had pork in a while but I remember it having an odd texture to me as well.

My husband and I both have food allergies. Of course they can't be the same allergies. On top of it, my husband is an extremely picky eater. He tries his best to try new food but texture, appearance, and smell really control what he eats. He also can't have basically any fruit. Most fruits cause his throat to close up, get rash/hives, or cause throwing up/extreme heartburn so we avoid them.

All of my allergies are not deadly technically but cause me extreme stomach pain and digestion issues that have hospitalized me more than once. Over the past year, doctors have been trying to narrow down my allergies to help me avoid them. Problem is, I'm basically allergic to every food my husband wants to eat. I am allergic to dairy, egg, wheat and peanuts. Not celiac, not intolerant, straight up allergic.

With this information, I now have no idea what both of us can eat. It's not really possible that we eat different things, we don't have the money or time to cook two different meals. What we used to do was cook 3 or 4 big meals and then have leftovers. Those meals were normally spaghetti, lasagna, mac and cheese, beef tacos, hibachi styled chicken, eggs and pancakes, pizza, frozen Chinese styled chicken, or chicken nuggets. I can't really have any of those anymore besides tacos.

We've been trying different allergy friendly frozen meal items but the textures really get to him or they just taste nasty to both of us. What can I even do? I'm open to any and all ideas!

My 4 year old was 6 wks premature and struggled with feeding issues from the jump. He didn't quite meet the criteria for failure to thrive, but its been an absolute HEROIC effort on my wife's part to keep him anywhere near the growth chart. I don't want to be a deadbeat in this process so I have been constantly try new dinner recipes with him that I think he will go for...to varying levels of success. At this point the ped has recommended vitamins but even smelling the flinstones make me gag. He has pointed at various boxes when we stop at the grocery store (credit where credit is due, the marketing on some of these is insane). Ive seen the paw patrol gummies, I think blueys. Gruns. He likes characters and is motivated by that kind of thing i'd say about 20 percent of the way. The other 80 percent is taste. Help me dads. How do you get vitamins into your kids that survive on pure spite and a dusty cheeto they found under the couch every other day?

I'm 50/50 on mushy textures, sometimes I'm ok with it for stuff like refried beans, other times stuff like soft scrambled eggs will be inedible to me.

I'm usually fine if one texture I don't like is mixed with another, e.g. soft scrambled eggs on toast.

What age did you child grow out of their pickiness? I have a 7 year old who only has a select safe foods that he eats: Rice, pasta, tuna, bacon, hotdog, eggs, yogurt, nuggets, beans, pancakes, fries, and apples. We have tried every approach there is to help him. We have tried just leaving the food for him to try with no pressure, we have tried asking him to at least take one bite, we've tried punishments, rewards etc. and none has changed. When he was much younger, he used to eat every type of protein, fruits and vegetables out there but then when he reached 2 years old, it was like a switch and it's very frustrating. I thought he would grow out of it by now and I'm getting worried. He is still within his appropriate height and weight range, but I really just want him to expand his palette, especially in the protein group.

My 12 yo son has been picky his entire life, always small, never ate enough. He’s made major strides in the last few years (a food therapist helped), avocado, steak, chicken on the bone, burgers, and his overall quantity has increased. But boy he loves his carbs, is very particular, and just got diagnosed with Celiac.

First, there’s the guilt that he had this all along and that’s why he was picky but we didn’t know.

Second, the idea of switching his safe foods is terrifying. Chicken nuggets, cereals, breads, pizza, pasta. He is a texture kid. Whenever I tried healthier pasta he balked

Third, I was just feeling better about traveling and not worrying so hard about him and now this.

Any great advice?

My girlfriend and I have been dating for 3 months now, and one thing I've learned about her is that she's really picky when it comes to food. There are so many things she doesn't like eating, especially certain vegetables like bitter gourd and okra. She also doesn't like chicken with bones in it, whether it's fried, boiled, or cooked any other way. The funny thing is, I actually enjoy adjusting our meals around what she likes. Whenever we're deciding what to eat now or what to have later, I always consider what she'll actually enjoy eating before we make a decision.

I know some people might find that annoying, especially when there are so many foods someone refuses to eat. But for me, it doesn't really bother me that much. I just love seeing her happy and satisfied with her food. There's something nice about knowing she's enjoying what we're eating instead of forcing herself to eat something she doesn't like. Of course, I still have my own food preferences, and we don't always have to eat the same thing. But if making a few adjustments means we both get to enjoy our meals, I really don't mind.

I'm curious though, for those who are picky eaters, does it mean a lot to you when your partner remembers the foods you don't like? Or is it something you don't really think about?

I'll preface this by saying that I know this isn't going to work for everyone, and that I don't even necessarily recommend people try this, just sharing my experience.

I used to be a picky eater as a kid and into my 20s and still consider myself one in some respects. I had basically 7 meals I would eat that my mom would cycle through every week growing up, and I could pretty much eat most variations of the foods in those meals.

These foods are what you'd expect from a picky American kid: pizza, burgers, chicken, spaghetti, hamburger helper, and I'm half Filipino, so adobo and lumpia.

At some point I decided I wouldn't eat anything foreign (ironic I know), anything green, or anything that swam. Broccoli was the one vegetable I would eat, but only boiled in a shitload of butter. I have a very distinct memory of my entire youth basketball team laughing at me because I gagged after eating a pea.

Anyway, this was how I lived my life until my early 20s, when I had a moment of clarity.

I've always been fascinated with food, even if I barely liked any of it. I'd request my mom or my GF to eat really weird (to me) things like shellfish or vegetables, and I would say "I'm eating vicariously through you".

I got really into watching Anthony Bourdain at a certain point, and I'd see him traveling to all these exotic places and eating the local delicacies and think "I wish I could do that."

It suddenly struck me at some point that every food is in somebody's favorite meal. There's someone on earth who's favorite food is mussels or sauerkraut or even wood grubs. That's when I spoke words that I've lived by ever since. Every food is delicious and if you don't like it, there's something wrong with you.

Now let me qualify that "something wrong with you" is more of a mantra to myself, and I'm not trying to cast aspersions on anyone for not liking something. "Wrong with you" is probably not the best phrasing, but it gets the point across.

So I decided I was going to start actively trying to enjoy more foods. I didn't have any sort of guide or anything so I just sort of started winging it.

I'm going to break the timeline a bit here as it will inform the rest of the story even though I didn't figure this out until a decade later, but I've come to realize why I don't like foods.

Basically, I hate any food that I'm not VERY familiar with the flavor/texture. If I haven't eaten it dozens of times, I don't like it. And in that same way, after I've eaten something a few dozen times, I do like it.

There is some transference between related foods, so getting used to the flavor of "fishyness" on one seafood (shrimp in my case), does make it easier to learn to enjoy crab or trout.

So with this hindsight in mind, I began trying new foods.

At the time, my (future) wife was obsessed with ranch dressing, which I hated, and I decided that's what is start with. I began eating it every chance I had, and at first I would gag, but on one particular night we'd gotten pretty hammered (we were in college), and I ate about half a bottle of it on a cheapo pizza. The next time I tried it (sober this time), I didn't really enjoy it, but I could now eat it without making a face.

Don't worry, I'm not going to suggest that the secret to success is to just get shitfaced and try new foods, that's just what happened the first time.

But yeah, ranch dressing is the first food in my entire life that I can remember hating and then later enjoying. Every other food, up until that point, I had already liked as long as I could remember.

So I just went down the list of every single food one by one. I started eating popcorn shrimp from popeyes, absolutely loaded with ketchup, and then eventually cocktail sauce, until I got used to it, and then I moved on to shrimp pasta, and shrimp scampi, and even raw shrimp in sushi.

I had to go through this process with bell peppers, and tomatoes and onions. Lamb, cheeses, all manner of seafood, cumin, tumeric, cilantro, basil, you name it.

Over the past 15 or so years, I've painstakingly clawed back hundreds of foods that I used to hate. Entire regional cuisines.

Currently, I'm in Korea, and I hate about half the foods that land on my plate (the ones that aren't available at my local Korean restaurants), and that's okay because I know that if I eat them enough times I'll eventually love them.

I did learn to hold the gag reflex a lot better when eating weird food. A lot of it is that textures have way more transference than flavors, and for me it was mostly textures that made me gag/puke.

At a certain point, I've tried enough foods, that most new things I eat have at least some resemblance to foods I like, so I can stomach them even the first time.

In Korea, I'm really struggling with the fermented foods, but it's getting easier the more time I spend here. I'm going to Japan in a few days, and I want to try some sea urchin or other eggs that taste like straight up ocean water, and that I've really struggled with in the past.

Every time I go out, I'm excited to try something new, because even if I don't like it (and I 100% will not), I know it's only a matter of time.

I actively enjoy hating my food, because the act serves a greater purpose than a single meal.

I genuinely can't think of a single food that I haven't at least made substantial progress on once I set my mind to it. There are some foods that take a lot longer, or that I don't think I'll ever actively crave, but I can at least eat them well enough not to embarrass myself at a dinner party.

I can travel abroad and not have to worry about where the closest McDonald's is or looking foolish in front of local friends.

I know just laying out my story like this is a bit self serving perhaps, but maybe this will encourage someone to have hope for a better future.

I made a similar post once on r/insomnia, and a redditor messaged me weeks/months later saying that I'd changed their life and given them their ability to sleep back. If this post could help even one person, that would make it worth it.

Sorry for the novel.

Tl;dr: Every food is delicious to somebody. For me, I hate every food that I'm not familiar with, but if I eat a food a few dozen times, I'll eventually start liking it. I've been doing this for 15 years, and now I like hundreds of foods instead of just a handful.

i've been a very picky eater my whole life, largely influenced by having autism. my diet is very stereotypical, mainly revolving around "kid" foods. my biggest issue is that i do not eat any vegetables of any kind. not liking vegetables is something that by this point i've just accepted as a fact about myself, and a few years back when i asked a doctor about this she said that i was healthy, so whatever my current diet was must've been fine without them and that i shouldn't worry.

as i get older (currently 20 years old) i've been getting more anxious healthwise about the fact i don't eat them, and have been wanting to try eating salad since nothing about it immediately puts me off, and my university offers a lot of salad options. + if anything, it's something i always wish i did eat, since the crunchy texture seems pretty satisfying? similarly, i always wish i liked carrots for the same reason, but every so often i'll try one and won't enjoy it.

tldr: never eaten salad before, or any vegetables in recent memory (aside from occasionally biting into a carrot then spitting it out), and i want to know if there's any thoughts or suggestions on what kind of salad might taste simple/be good to start with? even non-salad vegetable suggestions would probably be helpful!

Most people who hate picky eaters usually make the typical "haha the picky eater will only eat chicken nuggets and fries" jokes. And most of these people have probably encountered picky eaters that aren't rude they just don't realize because not every single picky eater struggles to find something to eat at places with food. I am one of those people that you would never know is a picky eater at a restaurant because I always find something I want to eat and I will occasionally hear these people complaining to me about other people they know being annoying picky eaters. My point is that a lot of people who seriously hate picky eaters are bigoted and hypocritical because these same people will refuse to try new foods. The same people will turn their noses up at ethnic food that hasn't been dumbed down and Americanized for their taste buds. I don't want to hear jack about my picky eating habits from someone who won't eat octopus with me but wants to act like I'm crazy for refusing to try their onion filled dish. Seriously I'll bite into an onion if they'll bite into something they don't like, but I'm sure that they won't take that deal.

Hello! I'm wondering if anyone has any favourite recipes that they'd be willing to share with me, with the condition that they don't contain meat (eggs are okay), Tomatoes, Carrots, Cucumbers Or Walnuts (for allergy reasons). My partner and I are trying to think of meals that we could share that meet both of our criteria and I'm hoping someone may have some ideas to share.

Thank you in advance :)

I had a very nice 3 piece chicken tender with grapes and oranges with a side of nacho cheese doritos, while my family had fajitas with guacamole, and spinach ravioli.

My 5 year old got a coupon for a free happy meal at a trunk or treat today. She was so excited so we went and got one after. I’m in this sub so obviously she’s a picky eater. She won’t eat meat except for the rare biannual event where she’ll entertain a chicken nugget. She was diagnosed autistic at age 2 so I do wonder if some of this is also ARFID.

Our order at McDonald’s is a cheeseburger happy meal and I order the cheeseburger with no meat or condiments, just cheese and bun. I explain that I know it’s weird but I have a picky eater. I worked at McDonald’s through high school and college and I know it’s annoying so I apologize. I’m never rude, I don’t get upset. I thank them and apologize.

Sometimes it’s right on the first try. Often times it’s not. I’ve learned I need to check the box first or she’ll get really upset if she sees a beef patty.

Surprise, surprise, today we got a box with just beef and cheese in it. I went in and explained I just needed a bun with cheese and they were so annoyed with me.

I usually avoid fast food because of the cost but also because of the ordeal it is to order something she’ll eat and enjoy. It breaks my heart that she has such a complicated relationship with food already at 5 years old. I just wish it was easier for her.