Autism.

Textures & temperatures are problematic. I stay with what I know so minimise the chance of freaking out.

I'll eat my own cum but won't touch ranch dressing. Do with that what you will.

Disgust is an emotional response. No one can choose their emotions.

wHy LiMiT yOuRsElF

You think I want to live like this? That I’m choosing to? Bewildering.

Growing up, my family has always accused me of being a picky eater, and it comes up every time we're eating together. Every family get-together, it's always a big deal whether I'm going to eat the prepared meal or not. My sister especially likes to offer to make a separate meal just for me because I'm "sooo picky!"

I can't get it through their skulls that I'm less of a picky eater than they are - I'm just vocal about the very few specific foods I decided I don't like. Which happens to be in a lot of recipes my extended family makes.

I spent 20 years traveling the world with the US military and I made it a point to try local cuisine everywhere I went. I became a bit of a foodie, and some of my favorite foods are from foreign countries. Every time family members came to visit me in other countries, I'd spend half of their visit just introducing them to amazing cuisine in the local area.

We'd eat out practically every day to give them a taste of the local culture. And surprisingly, most of them didn't care for it. They wanted their "American food" instead. They weren't very adventurous when it came to trying new things. There's nothing worse than going to a ramen shop in Japan or a döner shop in Germany and having your family ask if we can go find a McDonald's instead.

But sure, I'm a picky eater because I've hated squash since I was a child, and that's apparently a staple of every family banquet.

I'm a picky eater, but it's mostly because of texture-related issues. (However, I am also picky about flavors.) Wrong textures make me want to gag. I don't actually gag, because I've learned to suppress it.

I have no problem trying new things. I just often immediately hate the new things. However, I will try it again after enough time had passed. Sometimes, it will be prepared differently enough to be appetizing. Other times, I will start to like a flavor that I once hated. I have never had my texture preferences change.

Which texture do I hate? I call it the "wrong kind of mushy." It's hard to explain, because I do like some mushy foods. Mashed, baked, or boiled potatoes? Almost always gag inducing. Oatmeal? Wonderful. Hiding small amount of wrong mushy foods among foods with a better texture sometimes helps, but only if I like the flavor despite the mush.

Edit to add: I hate onions with a burning passion. Every way except powdered. Onions induce the strongest gag reflex, and many people think I'm weird for hating onions. I've come to hate the flavor of (anything but powdered) onion by association, so I often can't eat foods that once had onion in them even after being completely removed.

I'm genuinely scared of eating eggs, don't know why I've always been like that even as a baby. The texture, the smell of plain eggs are just unbearable and if I eat a food that tastes eggy I might have a slight panic attack. Mushrooms as well, I hate them with a burning passion. Can't explain why.

If the texture/flavor triggers my gag reflex and I can't physically swallow, the question is not "why am I limiting myself?" but rather, "why would I attempt to abuse myself?"

Trying new food can be risky, its not cheap and if you cant eat it you just wasted your money and the food. Food also takes time to prepare which you may not have the time to make or order something else which then can snowball into larger issues. Not to mention the social pressure/judgment to finish a meal you wish you could force down your throat and getting accused of being dramatic and wasteful.

I like to try new foods here and there but I need to be able to get a small portion to avoid waste and know theres a back up I can eat to avoid skipping a meal altogether. It also needs to be with a crowd that I feel safe enough with not to get shat on if I cant eat it.

That being said I can only imagine making a blanket statement that I'd never try something if I already know it's very similar to something else that I can't eat.

For that example - I might go blind (or at least towards it) if I eat a rare steak. I keep having to send back burgers because they don't cook them through despite me requesting that.

I reject the tone of this question because I wasn't given a choice in my sensory issues and you turning it into a mortal judgement about me is fucked up.

Some foods taste like litteral dirt. It's a genetic quirk some people have. Beets, carrots, mushrooms, grapes, all taste like mud. I can't taste the "sweetness" at all. Nuts also have a chalky flavor, but I couldn't tell you why (strangely seeds, legumes, and beans are tasty af). Parsley tastes like soap. Licorice tastes like old socks. People like to attribute pickiness to the foods I don't like, but why should I force myself to eat dirt and soap? That doesn't stop me trying new things. Eel is delicious. Shrimp heads are meh. Dirty rice is great. Conch is fantastic. Lobster is bleh. Ostrich is gamey. Gator is good. Fennel heads fiddleheads are amazing. I'm always trying new foods, but when I turn my nose up at "normal" food with carrots, or nuts, or mushrooms I'm called "picky" because people are quick to throw out that word.

Sounds like you're lucky enough to not have any sensory problems - you probably don't get overwhelmed by textures, flavours or smells. Not everyone is like that. You also don't seem to have any particular cultural or ethical concerns about your food choices. My family is vegan and very neurodivergent; none of us would ever consider steak or shrimp, for ethical reasons, and most of us have texture and flavour sensitivities that mean that certain foods are off limits for some of us. We generally buy within those parameters, but some of us really like things others really hate, so cooking can be a nightmare. In many cases, it's the texture of food that causes this - often borderline textures going from firm to soft, too granular, "wrong" like soft when should be crunchy etc.

But I bet you have some things you wouldn't try, based on cultural or texture preferences, which some people love. What about...

• Soft biscuits (cookies) - baked crunchy, but have gone damp and soft?
• Dry, stale bread - baked soft, but just dried out and stale?
• Witchetty grubs - moth larvae from Australia?
• Dog meat, eaten in some Asian countries?
• Fermented shark meat, stinky and rank, eaten in some Nordic states?
• Reindeer poo - traditional Finnish cuisine sometimes uses it?
• Natto - stringy, slimy soya beans fermented by a bacteria, very strong flavour, popular in Asia, especially Japan?
• Tempeh - soya beans colonised by a particular edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?
• Tofu - bean curd in various textures, but very little flavour, eaten widely by vegans and in Asia?
• Furry tofu - tofu colonised by another edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?

If I try to eat something I don't like, I'll throw up. It's a waste of money and food, and gross for anyone around me.

Some foods just make me gag. Don't know why. Of course my life would be fuller if I wasn't such a picky eater. And it did get much better with age. But some things I just cannot tolerate. I know that I'm allergic to shellfish. But that's just a small part of stuff I don't eat.

But I do like pineapple on pizza. Especially because uncooked pineapple likes to digest my mouth.

I was an extremely picky eater as a kid. The funny thing is how I became less picky after I went vegan (in my teens.) It tracks with how we lose taste sensitivity as we age - children have more taste buds than adults. It serves them because a lot of things that can be harmful are bitter (poisons are often bitter) or sour (spoiled food goes sour), and for a small child a small amount can be more dangerous than for an adult.

Anyway, as others have said, it's a combination of texture, smell, and taste. Being a "super taster" isn't as fun as it sounds - it means a smaller amount of flavor can seem stronger for you, and can easily become overwhelming. I still prefer bland foods sometimes for that reason. Light seasoning can go a long way. Texture can be awful or amazing, sometimes I crave a food not for its taste, but for its texture. As I noted in another comment, mushrooms have a texture that repels me. Eggplant also has a texture I struggle to tolerate, but I put up with it when somebody prepares something for me with it (occasionally people prepare vegan foods to help me feel included, but they don't usually know my texture issues and I don't want to be rude.) Hell, half of what drove me to veganism was texture, smell, and taste-based - a lot of animal products have textures, smells, and tastes that I couldn't tolerate when I was a kid and made to eat them.

Eggs smell awful, and the fat from meats have a texture that was too much for me. I remember sitting at the dinner table and cutting all the "fat" from my meats just to isolate a single square to eat... but my parents made me sit there and told me to eat the whole thing, even if we sat at the dinner table for hours. I never liked bacon, and I know the internet hates me for that (well, they already hate me for being vegan, but still), since it's pretty much all fat even if it's crispy. The smell does it no help, either. A lot of people enjoy the smell of cooking meat, but I never did. The closest thing would be chicken, but ever since I had pet birds, it became awful, too - ever smell a bird up close? They smell like warm chicken. Once that smell became associated with my pets, whom I lost too soon (they were only two years old, victims to teflon poisoning) I only think of them. Giving up meat was part of my closure after they died - it brought me a peace that I needed, and has continued giving it ever since.

Please be kind to so-called "picky eaters." Their sensory experiences are outside of their control. Don't do like my parents did and try to force it, as that helps nobody. If you want to introduce a picky kid to a new food, be gentle and start slow. That's how we do it at my job (working with autistic children, some which have extremely restricted diets that don't provide proper nutrition.) It starts with tolerating it being on their plate, then progresses over time to them touching it, then to putting it to their lips, and only after all that do we encourage them to try a piece. It can take months. But if it's something they absolutely won't tolerate near them, just try something else - there can be very valid reasons they don't want a particular food, but thankfully there are a lot of options out there.

My girlfriend is really picky, a lot of it is the texture of foods making her uncomfy. Its really subconscious, and that impacts what you try because you already know what textures you don't like

I will actually skip a meal, or leave an event to buy my own food, instead of eating food that I don't like.

When the alternative is actually and literally fighting against revulsion and gag reflex and nausea, or getting my hands and face dirty with food that can't be eaten cleanly, why would I subject myself to that if I'm not literally starving?

Best example I can think of is a work trip last year for which I marked myself "vegan" instead of "vegetarian" for meal restrictions. One outing had a bunch of pizzas ordered. The only meatless pizza had mushrooms. I hate mushrooms on pizza and the act of picking ingredients off of pizza is so degrading and so disgusting, not to mention they still leave their tastes behind anyways, so I just went out of pocket and got food somewhere else after I left.

Always been like this. Arguably I've put a ton of effort into trying new foods and I've been lucky to have traveled to a lot of foreign countries - I've had live grilled abalone (which I regret every part of), century eggs (tasty as fuck, would eat again), have developed a decent spice tolerance too (not easy growing up in the midwest USA :P). But some stuff still just is forever gross to me.

Also, fuck sandwiches and burgers that fall apart in your hands or have things fall or slide out or liquids or sauces drip stuff while you bite down. I am so repulsed and irritated by this that I feel actual rage.

Why would I force myself to eat something I will not enjoy. I will try a bit but I am not lrdering stuff I don't like the sound of.

Sometimes the smell which often relates to taste is the first indicator of something tasting not to my liking but if I know I don't like something (eg mushrooms, I hate those, both taste and texture) I am not willing to try anything involving large quantitiey of said foodstuff

Every now and then I'll eat food that I didn't like the last time I tried them. I still don't like pickles, mustard, eggplant, etc. and might never like them. There are other foods I don't like the texture of, e.g. seafood with rubbery textures. There are other foods I don't try because they just sound fucking gross, e.g. chicken feet. I understand the arguments for trying chicken feet, but it's a psychological thing preventing me from trying them. My brain just doesn't want a fucking chicken foot in my mouth. There are other foods that I've tried and might have even enjoyed, but I don't want to create more demand for that food for one reason or another. I'm fond of ducks. Ducks taste good, but I want ducks to live. I'm increasingly fond of cows, which are delicious, so I rarely eat beef now. I've had foie gras and I will never have it again. Geese are assholes but they don't deserve what humans do to them in order to make foie gras.

I tried a lot of stuff, and a lot of it ended with me throwing up, or coming close.. there's just certain textures I can't handle and certain flavours don't enjoy, so seeing anything that is similar to something I know I won't like makes me less willing to try it, especially because trying new food usually entails either spending money on it, which then makes me feel horrible for throwing it out if I can't handle it, or makes me feel like I have to force it down; or it involves someone buying/making the food for me, in which case I have a similar situation where I don't want to offend them, so it's easier just to say I don't want to try something or im not hungry etc. and avoid it in the first place

I dunno if this counts, but I have a lot of medical problems, that react badly to food. Stuff like prediabetes, fat malabsorption, salt sensitivity, carb sensitivity, actual allergies, etc, the list goes on. I genuinely cannot remember all the specific rules on what I'm allowed to eat, I have to consult a spreadsheet on my phone. Even then, sometimes I make a mistake and eat something I shouldn't because it has this one ingredient I didn't consider.

Basically, if I eat anything, there's a pretty good chance it will fuck me up and I'll have a really bad time. So I just don't eat anything new and stick to trusted foods only. It's terrifying to try new things when it often ends badly, and for what? Just a bit of fun? No thanks, hospital retroactively cancels out any fun.

I'm a picky eater, but I will try things and do like a lot of different foods, but once I try something and don't like it, it gets added to the "nah" list, and there's a bunch on that list and some is "normal" stuff. For example, fuck green bell peppers, red bell gang all day.

There is plenty of food that I like, so I don't really see a reason to eat something I don't enjoy or try something that doesn't seem appealing.

For me it’s autism, I hate that I’m a picky eater, but I also know that I will visibly wretch from so many textures. I can’t control it and have tried very hard to overcome it.

Legitimately it really sucks because most people just think it’s closed minded immaturity or something. It’s not a choice

Imo the modern picky eater is a byproduct of food abundance. Acquired tastes were pretty necessary for survival until fairly recently. That said for the life of me I cannot make natto palatable no matter how hard I try

I wouldn't call myself a "picky" eater per se, but my peanut/tree nut allergy makes me apprehensive to try new food. Especially if there aren't clear labels for things like peanut oil and cross contamination.

For the same reason I wouldn't willingly get stung by most stinging insects. It's an unpleasant and unnecessary sensation.

Why do some people feel a need to pressure people to do things that make them uncomfortable? Who am I hurting by choosing what I eat?

The pickiest eater I know is a super taster. I can understand why they would be more picky. I have read that it may be a survival adaption. That is, if you have one super taster in every community, they may be the first to realize the food supply is poisoned or tainted somehow and warn everyone else.

I know people who are sort of the opposite extreme. Some like spicy food because everything else tastes like nothing. My dad, who lived to 100, said towards the end that the only thing he could still taste well was orange juice.

I think bring picky is about food types, not being about if it's cooked enough or not.

Why limit yourself? It seems like such a closed-minded way to view food. Help me understand?

I don't think there's much of a choice to it. When my brain rejects a food (usually based only on smell) there literally isn't anything I can do about it. Even if I do push through and take a bite, it will always taste horrible.

My own picky eating is also in large part fuelled by some sort of authorexia tbh. This definitely isn't the norm for picky eaters though. It's just when I was a kid I was slightly averse to fish but my parents snuck some into my food anyways. When I realized I had a meltdown so large that I still can't even eat anything that even remotely smells like fish. Not even seaweed or vegan fish replacements. But it's even more that I can't allow anyone to have any control over what I eat. So I'm pretty particular about enforcing that I don't want olives, or mayonnaise, or other mundane stuff just to make sure I actually have a say in what I eat.

Going vegan was actually really awesome for that reason. I get constant assurance that my food choices are respected, and it's a ruleset that people are more willing to respect.

Counter-point, I'm a picky eater but love trying new things. I often don't enjoy them, but I'm still happy for having tried them.

So I don't think I'm limiting myself. I'm genuinely excited and curious and want to find more things I like. I don't feel like the biological sense of taste I have no control over is my fault.

I wouldn't eat coconut for years because when I was 7 I was eating a bag of coconut shavings and my dad and uncle convinced me they were toenail clippings.

I already found the foods i like and im perfectly happy eating those. Also I dont like the thought of putting something in my mouth that has the wrong texture or taste.

I'm not a picky eater. The 5 second rule is replaced with "if I get it before the dog does" and I'll eat just about everything except olives.

Having spent time with several picky eaters it's generally because they have through trial and error found out that they for some reason (texture being as common as flavour) don't like most foods and are quite good at predicting what they will like.

In case of flavour being the reason it's usually because they find some hint of a taste that you and I can detect if we think about it but it becomes front and center of the experience for them.

I will eat literally anything that can be considered food/edible.

I just overheard a coworker saying “Oh, I would never try that in my life!”, in a discussion of food. (This was about consuming a steak cooked less than medium well). It made me wonder what life is like for those who refuse to try new food, especially those who refuse to try mundane things like fried shrimp.

I mean, they might be concerned about health risks. Cooking is part of our process for making a lot of food safe to eat.

I mean, I wouldn't worry about a medium steak, but I wouldn't eat steak tartare. It isn't because I'm worried about the taste or texture, but because I don't want to pick up parasites or similar.

Brussels sprouts. "If you cook them ri" shut the fuck up right now. I've tried every single persons "right way" and they're fucking disgusting. I'm never trying them again. Dog shit wrapped in bacon and dipped in bbq sauce is more likely to enter my mouth than another Brussels sprout ever again.

Also asparagus... But that's for a different reason. When I was a kid my stepdad at the time told me of a dream he had where he saw an asparagus growing out of his thigh so he flicked it and rubbed it around and started pulling on it and it kept going and going. Never touched the stuff since.

For me, personally, ADHD plays a part in my food. I crave routine.

Twofold answer, if I learned one thing in my high school culinary classes it's that you're more likely to get food poisoning from the produce on your plate than the protein. Generally it's pretty easy to tell if your burger is cold in the center, but it's much harder to know that the lettuce and tomatoes have been washed and stored properly. (I may also be slightly traumatized from the assignment where we had to pull the heath inspection records for local restaurants).

I don't necessarily mind trying something once or twice, but the part where I get really picky that there are certain foods that I just can't do the texture of. Tomatoes are probably the biggest one, something about the wet squishy crunch; I just can't (plus the acid tends not to sit so well with my stomach). Lettuce is the other, similar wet crunch to tomatoes, but with the added bonus that chewing/ swallowing a wad of wet plant mass sets off a gag reflex. Plus, it's my belief that lettuce as a vegetable is kind of pointless, I'd much rather sub in any other greens that pack more flavor/ nutrients, like spinach or arugula (still can't take a massive bite of just leaf, but decently proportioned it's fine).

“Oh, I would never try that in my life!”, in a discussion of food. (This was about consuming a steak cooked less than medium well).

This is a more specific and understandable case. He's probably afraid of disease, it being too hard to chew, or simply having an upset stomach from eating it.

There's no accounting for taste and there's no explaination for strong taste preferences.

Disgust is a strange thing though. It varies a lot between people. There's an overwhelming psychological component along with your past experience. My wife remembers seeing cow parts hanging in a butchers as a teenager and the smell of raw meat, and it has snowballed from there. She reacts really badly to the smell of red meat now. Will never touch red meat. Eats some chicken, but is going off that as well. She then became health obsessed as an adult and has slowly developed an aversion to seeing oil (whether from deep frying or naturally released from food). She also hates the smell of eggs and will only eat them if imperceptibly cooked into something. Interestingly she will still binge on sugar and salt. There's a strong body type preference on top of that. She's not anorexic, but I can see the steps a person might go through to get to anorexia.

I'm the opposite. I'll try anything. Cooked insects. Horse/camel/ostrich meat. Exotic fruit. I'll give anything a shot. I actually try to sample as many things as possible.

The human brain is a strange thing 🤷‍♂️

Because things I don't like I have tried before and guess what? I didn't like it.
Wine tastes like rotten fruit regardless of the smell and origin.
Mayonnaise based products taste like acid,and not the fun kind of acid.
Sparkling water taste like sea water.

I think it just comes from our tastes, our experiences, our associations, and our mindsets. My general rule though is that the nicer the restaurant the more willing I am to try new things. I generally don't like sea urchin at all, but if it was offered in a 3 Michelin star restaurant I'd be much more likely to try it. If it's offered in just a regular sushi restaurant I won't eat it.

I'm a somewhat picky eater, not to the extreme that some are but I do limit myself to foods I am sure I will like.

I'm autistic and have sensory issues. I also have a tendency to throw up a lot. I need to choose safe food that I know won't make me gag and that I'm sure I can physically eat

I'm not a picky eater, I think. I'll eat insects, weird sausages, odd fruits etc... But there's just some things that I know I don't even want to try. Like my mums cabbage casserole. It smells like farts. Why would I want to eat fart smell? Sure, my dad likes and good for him, I'll let him enjoy the whole thing. I can go a couple of days without eating. Luckily I'm not 15 anymore and don't have to rely on mum for food.

Anyway, there's other stuff that I wont eat, not because I think I wont like it, but because I have no interest in trying it. And add to that those people who just will not let go, "come on, try it! You'll like it!" fuck you, I don't care, leave me alone lol. The more someone pushes things on me, the more I will not try them.

Slimey vegetables make me gag.

I thought a picky eater was someone who, as an example, is at a restaurant ordering a burger that comes with several things inside/on top. They go one by one of saying “no onions” yes lettuce” but “can I have the tomato above the lettuce and mustard and ketchup on the bottom bun only and the patty medium rare”. I thought being nitpicky is the same as a picky eater.

I don't eat seafood because I have a weird hypersensitivity to it. Normally I can't taste anything subtle, but even the slightest bit of seaweed sets off my receptors in an unpleasant way. The smell of seafood alone makes my stomach turn. It's like the feeling when you realize what you just ate was spoiled.

My wife accuses me of being a picky eater, but I don’t think I am; I try to avoid eating mammals as much as possible (but if I’m at a party and that’s what’s being served or if there’s leftover that will just go in the trash, it’s fair game) and don’t like anything with ricotta cheese in it. I’m also a bit weary of mozzarella unless it’s cold or on pizza. That’s about it tho. She’s a pescatarian, but doesn’t like fish(so really just shrimp and plant based proteins provided they don’t taste like meat) and is watching her cholesterol, so trying to avoid foods that are high in saturated fat. That generally narrows down our food choices on its own, so when she asks me what I want for a meal, I try to take that into consideration first and then try to figure out what I’m in the mood for out of what’s left, so I guess that makes it seem like I’m the picky one.

I have ARFID. Lots of tastes and textures are the same as torture for me. It sucks.

no rawish shellfish, or some fishes. the textures is to gagging.

Not picky. allergies. But it is the real assholes sure love to treat those with allergies like we're just picky.

either way: what i chose to eat and like is none of all your damned business.

Our boss got us Vietnamese food for lunch last week and one of the AP people was just going around the table saying "oh, no, I don't like tofu, oh no I don't like the noodles oh no I don't like those buns oh no I don't like those wraps" in a very judgemental sounding voice, I think they ended up with a plate of white rice.

Have never noticed what they eat for lunch but now I am wondering.

I do think a good palate is something you have to learn, and enjoying flavors and textures is something I taught my kids and something I value but:

Some people are supertasters and can't handle anything strong - it's like living with a bunch of hard of hearing people who yell so they can hear each other, but it hurts your ears.

And some people did not get exposed to new textures and flavors at the right time when they were young, that's the fault of their parents.

And I don't think anyone likes everything, if they do I would wonder if they even liked food or just didn't care. But I'm trying to think of something I wouldn't at least try? I guess if it smelled bad or looked extremely unappetizing I'd pass. I can imagine rare steak falling into "unappetizing looking" for someone. Not me, but someone.

Also - I have a coworker who likes and is knowledgeable about wine but so picky and limited with food, he went to Japan and ate chicken tenders! So we had a challenge last year - I said I would try wines to find some I like if he would try new foods to find some he likes. I won but he did find several new vegetables that he had never eaten but likes now. So sure sometimes it is simply unfamiliarity.

I don't know why some kinds of flavour taste bad in my opinion. I wouldn't want to eat something that I've already tasted to taste bad, but I'm generally open to things I don't know (unless they sound disgusting, which is mostly reserved to mold (cheese) and bugs that weren't prepared abstractly enough, as opposed to shrimp for example.

I'm not interested in going out of my way to try new food cause I just view eating as something I have to do to survive, not something I enjoy doing. My anxiety prevents me from outright refusing food from someone, but often if it's one of the many things I know I don't like I'll just say I'm full and deal with it. I most likely ate enough the rest of the day to survive till tomorrow anyway.

I've always been a picky eater before meeting my husband, who has vastly opened me up to new foods.

I grew up in a household that could not cook. Pepper was too spicy, boiled frozen chicken breasts, potatoes, and carrots in water with no seasonings was a staple "soup". And of course my mom never taught me to cook, so if it didn't come in a package I didn't know how to make it. I was also poor, which limited my ability to be adventurous in my food. If I got something and I didn't like it, I'd be out of food for a period of time.

So I played it safe, and it became the norm. But being poor I also couldn't resist free food, so my husband lured me out of my comfort zone by giving me food he made for himself. He also sneaked a lot of things into my food, like pepper, because he knew I wasn't allergic, just picky. Over time I got better about it.

But there are some foods I still cannot stand. Fruit for one. I literally don't even bother trying fruit, because every single fruit I eat makes me gag, it feels like rotten sweet goop and makes me want to throw up. People called me picky and dramatic, it wasn't until I was 33 that I was diagnosed with OCD and food texture issues specifically around feeling of rot are a common manifestation of that.

I'm better than I used to be, and I try to eat a bite of something at least twice before deciding I don't like it. But there is still a lot I don't like so I'm still pretty picky I guess.

I wouldnt say i a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination, but it is my mouth and gut so fuck anyone who has issue with my choices.

I think of myself as an adventurous eater and my tastes and grown less picky over the years. But the few last idiosyncrasies I have are just about texture and sweeteners which can ruin the experience of eating for me.

Sweeteners I won't know about until the food is in my mouth but if I can see something has the consistency of creamed corn, there just isn't going to be a flavor or aroma that saves it for me.

Almost 70. Seems I have had undiagnosed ADHD and some autism according to my doctor. It’s bad, I am so picky I piss myself off.

I simply don't like the taste of many things. I've never been officially tested, but I suspect I may have extra sensitivity to certain compounds, such that no matter how many other things are in a dish, I can still taste that one thing that I don't like. I also suspect that I am more sensitive to all tastes in general, as there are many foods that have been described to me as "mild" that I find are quite strong.

Now, I'll still try most things once. There are limits, mostly involving spiciness,, but I wouldn't want to be thought of as ungrateful or close-minded. It's just that I've disliked far more things than I've liked when trying new foods.

I also resent the common refrain of, "You just haven't had good [food in question] yet!" Actually, I probably have, and I still didn't like it. It has nothing to do with how it is prepared or what other ingredients are in the dish, that food still has its fundamental taste that I don't like.

It's not food, but I like using wine as an example. It doesn't matter whether it's the cheap boxed stuff from the supermarket or some expensive vintage at a fancy restaurant, because both taste like overripe grapes in addition to whatever other flavours present, and I don't like the taste of overripe grapes.

As a former picky eater a mixture of fear of change and fear of hating something so much I waste food.

You should look up autism.

In case of steak, I don't like raw meat, if I see pinkness in meat it feels raw and disgusting. And when well cooked it's hard. I like my red meat cooked in a pressure cooker so it's fully cooked and soft. Same with raw fish or any other food with raw meats.

For other foods, variety of reasons. I don't like some foods because growing up in a farm I always saw certain bugs in some plants so I have associated that plant's smell to that bug.

Some foods I don't like texture, some I don't like the taste enough that I feel like I'll vomit. Some foods I don't like but I can eat.

And some food I just got used to eating a certain way. I absolutely don't like raw or not well cooked beans or zucchini because it feels wrong. While some food I grew up eating raw so cooked version feels wrong like carrots

Reading through all the replies, I'm getting the sense that perhaps your coworker is a bit racist but you did a poor job explaining that in your post. Your post comes across as judgemental of all people who avoid certain foods because you did a bad job of explaining that you meant people who avoid foods because of cultural prejudice. I don't think you'll find many people on lemmy who are prejudice against other cultures. I'm not sure what answer you expected. There are some who are just racist, others who may not be racist but just don't trust food they aren't familiar with because they're unsure what's in it.

I think most people avoid certain foods because they either have a medical condition, ethical concerns, or sensory sensitivity. It sounds like you were looking for an answer from the few who are just racist and I'm not sure what explanation you were expecting for their prejudice.

I cook meals from other cultures a lot but I have to be sure I like all the ingredients first.

I consider myself a picky eater, although my tastes have evolved over the years. There are certain types of food that I have never liked (but will eat). I do not like extremely bland food, like cooked potatoes or certain cooked vegetables. What I also dislike is food that tastes processed, like store bought pasta sauce. I do try almost every food.

Your colleague just sounds narrow-minded. Their loss.

This is an interesting thread to me. I have a strong negative feeling about not liking foods, so if there's something on the menu I don't like, I usually order it on principle.

I used to have 5 things on my "will not eat" list now it's 3.

I don't consider myself a picky eater but there's stuff I don't like. I don't like the kinda sweet after taste of bell peppers so I avoid them if possible. Sea snails, it was an unpleasant texture and the taste was too bland to counter. Land snails, I'm in no rush to go to taste them, maybe one day if I get the chance, there are plenty of restaurants near me that have them on the menu.

Autism, at least for me. If my brain decides to reject it there's little I can do. I once ordered filet mignon in a fancy steak house, then couldn't eat a bite of it because my brain decided it's not good.

Its yucky.

My brother was always REALLY picky, and a lot of it came down to just over-analyzing vegetables. He would hold whatever it was right up to his face and inspect the hell out of it, and invariably find it wanting, almost no matter what it was. Particularly if it had a strong smell like cauliflower or asparagus

health problems

My only "picky" trait is that I don't want to eat any reheated food. Gotta eat food made the same day

I don't get that. I eat whatever's served, and I usually like it. When I was a kid, I ate horse poop because my friends said, "You don't dare." It tasted like hay, but I wouldn't eat it again.

I will not eat any animal products. It's gross and inhumane

Picky eaters have never been very close to being hungry or worse, starving. That is a boon to (former?) modern society food distribution.

hey. get off my ass.

They're probably babies imo who since as children have only eaten Kraft Mac and Cheese and were never forced to try different foods.

Fun fact, the main reason for nut allergies is because little children not being exposed to nuts so their immune system don't know how to handle it.