How to overcome picky eating habits as an adult?
How to overcome picky eating habits as an adult?
Not sure how the situation is for you, but I bet you have foods you struggle with and don't enjoy eating.
This is the same for me and my partner. We enjoy teasing each other about foods one of us dislikes, but the other person enjoys.
He has no problem eating corned (canned) beef, which for me, resembles canned cat or dog food too much to even want to try eating it.
Oat porridge just looks like vomit or sludge to me, and I won't try it, despite knowing it's a decent slow carb for breakfast.
Likewise I abhor eating soft-boiled or runny eggs while he loves eating those.
Vice versa, he abhors using various condiments which I adore, such as sriracha (hot sauce) which I tend to use on almost anything that may be spiced up, piccalilli for fries. Nor is he crazy about eating fish or chicken that you need to pick clean yourself out of fear to choke on a hidden bone, while it gives me childish joy to eat with my bare hands.
Frankly, my partner has or used to have a rather limited range of foods he enjoys. This is probably an inherited trait as his biological father was known for being an extremely picky eater. So much so, that it probably contributed to his early death in his late twenties.
One of the foods my partner didn't even want to touch that I love, is good old Dutch 'erwtensoep' (pea soup), something we claim to be so quintessentially Dutch that I could barely believe he really didn't want to eat it. Apparently, for him, the green slimy sludgy look of the soup was enough to turn him off, just like how oat porridge never was appealing to me.
Lo and behold the surprise when all of a sudden, he made a U-turn on this. What had happened? He had been helping out a friend of us, who decided to treat him to .. pea soup after a few hard hours of work. Since her house is out in the boonies and he was both too polite to say no and quite hungry, he dug in.. and to his surprise quite liked eating the soup he had always deemed to be disgusting. Of course, we now regularly eat pea soup, especially in winter, as well as many more legume recipes.
After this experience, we have started being more adventurous about the foods we eat, especially when we are eating outdoors or see some exciting new item available in either our regular or ethnic supermarket. It's wonderful when you can add a new staple to your menu to keep it varied.
However, also due to lack of time, we eat from a rather limited range of recipes.
Judging from all the cook books and cooking magazines that are being published yearly as well as the amount of recipes available online one would assume, that most people like variety. After all, variety is the spice of life and.. brings us joy.
Truth be told, nothing could be further from the truth.. we also notice this for the flavour preferences our customers have for protein powders we sell.
Almost to my own disappointment, we rarely need to stock up more than just a few different flavour, never mind how few people dare to try out new types of protein powder.
Unless people follow a vegan lifestyle, they stick to the well known and tested whey protein powder, with casein protein as a runner-up while egg protein powder gets even less love than plant-based proteins, which used to be very difficult to obtain in the past.
Plant-based protein powders are only for a very limited public: most athletes are not vegan by choice and most vegans have no idea how important protein intake is for their health, especially when they have an athletic lifestyle.
After having sold a great variety of different plant protein powders by Jarrow (soy, rice, hemp, and pumpkin) Jarrow entirely ditched all of the different plant proteins, so we are down to only two different vegan protein powders: pea protein and Vegi-Feel which is a 4-component plant protein powder.
Considering the current crazy surge in price hikes we've seen for dairy protein powder, we foresee a future in which choosing dairy-based protein powders will only be able when you have enough cash available. Currently both are still about equally priced, but that may soon be a sweet dream of the past.
For now we still may offer a wide variety in differently flavoured protein powders, of which we are currently enjoying the peach-apricot yoghurt flavour after having tried s'mores earlier, which is a yummy American invention: graham crackers with melted marshmallows.
Perhaps you are secretly wishing you'd have fewer problems trying new intrigueing foods? You are not alone, many of us are picky eaters.
What is picky eating?
You probably picture a stubborn toddler refusing to eat broccoli. But adults can struggle with it, too. They usually have a very limited set of favourite foods, made a certain way. They don't like to try new foods and might even pass on something familiar if it looks, smells, or tastes different than usual.
The worst offenders
A survey of nearly 500 picky-eating adults found that bitter and sour foods are especially unpopular. So are slippery or slimy foods, like eggs. Picky eaters tend to skip vegetables. They're also not fans of foods with "lumps," like stew. And they don't like it when foods get mixed together (peas and carrots, for example) or even touch each other on the plate.
What *do* picky eaters eat?
For the most part, picky eaters stick to bland comfort foods like French fries, grilled cheese, toast, and crackers. They usually do OK with salty and sweet foods.
Picky kids become picky adults
In many cases, picky eaters grew up with parents who put pressure on eating and made mealtimes stressful. They may have had a negative experience with food, like choking.
One theory is that picky eaters are oversensitive to the smells, textures, and flavours of food. But there's only very limited research done on this specific topic, so that theory hasn't been confirmed yet.
Picky eaters can get anxious about meals, especially if it's a social occasion. When they're invited to dinner at someone's home or go out to a restaurant, they worry that there won't be anything for them to eat. They often feel ashamed of their picky eating habits and threatened when you push food on them.
Best approach is copying advice for children.
Maybe your eating habits are causing tension in your relationships, or you want to set a better example for your kids. Research has found that when you think about how your behaviour affects other people, you're much more likely to make changes that stick.
There's no one-size-fits-all advice for overcoming picky eating, and there's not much research on it when it comes to adults. Since it's more common in children, you may want to follow some of the advice given to parents of picky eaters, like scaling back on snacks and drinks so you're more hungry at mealtimes and keeping track of your progress.
A dinner party probably isn't the best time to branch out. Putting pressure on yourself to eat (or being pressured by someone else) can make it worse because that makes eating less enjoyable. Keep meals as stress-free and pleasant as possible. Try a new food when you're by yourself or with someone who's supportive and non-judgmental.
Don't overwhelm yourself with a plate full of new foods. Instead, serve familiar favourites along with one new food you're ready to try. Commit to just a few bites. If you don't like the new food, you'll still have something to eat.
Make a new food more appetizing by pairing it with something you enjoy. Top new foods with well-liked sauces or seasonings to help them seem less strange and unusual. For example, put breadcrumbs or bacon on Brussels sprouts. [personally I adore Brussel sprouts, especially with shredded coconut and sambal/sriracha sauce]
Different cooking methods bring out different flavors. If you can't stand raw carrots, you could steam, sauté, or grill them instead. Roasting veggies, especially squash and roots like beets, parsnips, and onions, often makes them softer and sweeter.
Keep trying
If parents keep offering an unfamiliar food, most kids will take a bite ... eventually (it can take eight or more tries).
As adults, we're not much different. Studies have shown that the more times we try a food, the more we may like it. Think of new foods as something you don't eat, yet. Build up familiarity. Watch others eat it first. Cook with it. Place a bite in your mouth and take it out. You don't have to chew or swallow right away.
Don't be afraid to ask for help
If you're really struggling with certain textures or are prone to gagging, occupational therapy could be a solution. The therapist will help you chew and swallow more effectively and can suggest ways to get more comfortable with different types of food.
Run-of-the-mill picky eating doesn't usually cause major health problems. But a more serious form, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) or selective eating disorder (SED), is considered a mental disorder.
People with it avoid food to the point that they don't get enough nutrients. They face severe weight loss, vitamin deficiencies, and other issues.
Our tip
If you'd like to listen to a more in-depth psychological explanation, go here :Speaking of Psychology: Why we like the foods we like
There you will find an embedded podcast, but the same podcast can also be read on the same page.
For those who suspect they or their loved one suffers from ARFID, the more severe form of picky eating, you may find information here: National Eating Disorders Organization: ARFID or Eating Recovery Center: ARFID.
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