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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Autism.

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

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.