As I grew older, I eventually found more things I could eat, but I never strayed beyond being very picky. At some point I discovered I could indeed eat and very much enjoy pizza with cheese - up to about 10 or 11 years old, I would only eat the bread, believe it or not, having scraped off the thick, chewy cheese layer and every last speckle of red sauce I could get to, leaving me with, essentially, slightly saucy bread. I could eat spaghetti with sauce and not just a helping of butter (which is still a more than enjoyable taste experience, and I've proven this a couple of times by convincing "normal" friends to try it - and they still eat it like this occasionally to this day.) But I didn't stray too far from my plain tastes, and meals out continue to be a chore to this day.
Eventually, I found out there were others like me, such as my lovely wife Alissa who proves that someone or something must be watching over us if two equally picky eaters could find each other - what are the odds, really? After some research I found out that it's much more than just being "picky" it's actually genetic! Yes, that's right, the years of torture at the dinner table, where my mom was convinced I'd love whatever she put on my plate simply because I'd never given it a chance before, those were years wasted. It turns out that I, along with Alissa, am what's known as a "supertaster". We have tongues that are much more densely packed with tastebuds, making our sense of taste, especially of very strong flavors, especially bitter ones like green vegetables, so sensitive that many foods are simply inedible. While it's very common among children it's not so common among adults. There's a reason why.
After reading this, it all made sense. Some researchers believe that infants and very young children, usually under 5, will eat anything and everything because it's been provided by their parents. After that age, however, nature takes over, using logic learned from long ago when we lived in caves and jungles to turn up our sense of taste - by that age, young humans are able to get up and around and go investigating. They lack knowledge of what's safe and what's not, and a huge danger to children could be hidden in delicious looking leaves and berries they might find. So mother nature made children picky in order to prevent them from eating dangerous, bitter-tasting things. The problem is that for some children it goes out of control and nature forgets to turn off this safety mechanism. I'm one of those kids, now very much an adult, still very much picky. There's nothing I can do about it, unfortunately - time may dull my senses a bit, making more bitter foods more edible to me, but I can't convince myself to eat what physically disgusts me.
Article comments
1 - Kurt Nordstrom
See, I'll be honest. If I go and get, say, a Big Mac, it isn't the same thing without the sauce and condiments and whatnot. Man was not meant to consume it without these things. That might be squirrel instead of cow between the layers, but hey, the entire package sure tastes good.
2 - Eric Olsen
Tom, eat your vegetables.
3 - boomcrashbaby
In N Out burgers is due to their sauces and condiments, not the meat. Eaten plain as I do, their burgers are very bland, dry, and unremarkable. They have nothing on Whataburger, let me tell you.
I don't know what the fascination with In N Out is, out here in Ca. They're good, but don't really stand out more than any other burger in the fast food world.
I have to agree with you on Whataburger, though. I've only seen those in the midwest, and haven't been to one in about 14 years, but even after all this time, every now and then I crave one of their burgers. They REALLY salt their ground beef, probably as a preservative, but remarkably it worked, it was salty and juicy. They are my favorite fast food of all time.
4 - Jim Carruthers
I used to work as an institutional cook, and picky eaters just pissed me off. Then I had a girlfriend who would only eat at MacDonald's, whereas I refuse to eat that crap.
I've been to the street night market stalls in Hong Kong (as one person said to me as I struggled with an all-Cantonese menu, it doesn't matter if I you can read or speak, you know how to use chop-sticks, you'll be alright - though I draw the line at stinky tofu).
I love food, and I love a challenge. Restricting yourself to pablum seems rather sad.
Like Chow-Yun Fat tells Mark Wahlberg in The Corrupter: "You wanna be Chinese, you gotta eat the nasty stuff". When you go for dim sum, you will eventually face the dreaded chicken foot (but the sauce is really good) or tripe.
I guess you're not a sushi or fugu fan?
5 - Tom Johnson
Restricting yourself to pablum seems rather sad.
Did you actually read this, Jim, or did you just read the words "picky eater" and decide to go off? I explained in pretty good detail, including a link, why someone would "choose" (hint: there's no choice involved here) to be picky.
6 - Jim Carruthers
No, I didn't go off, I just call bullshit on the suspect background of the whole "supertaster" scam. Just because some guy in a lab coat says something, doesn't make it valid.
It's like fat, lazy people who say they have "big bones" or "glands". Prove it. The link doesn't, it is anecdotal at best.
Mere Proustian madelaines, but turned sinister.
Since Principal Skinner learned to like the taste of fermented fish sauce while in a tiger cage, I'm convinced picky eaters just exist to piss me off.
7 - Jim Carruthers
After re-reading all your picky-eater posts, what really shocks me is that you are being picky about crap food.
Really. Being picky about degrees of fast food is like debating who is dreamier, Jimmy Osmond or the winner of Norwegian Idol?
Now, excuse me, I have to decide between a hot Italian veal sandwich with peppers and eggplant, a delicate and robust bowl of pho or some slow-smoked ribs with extra hot sauce. Hmm, or maybe check out that new roti place up on Bloor?
8 - Tom Johnson
Jim, you can file this one in your cabinet under "just don't get it." You're so concerned with being superior that you can't actually understand something pretty simple: the food you talk about would make me sick, physically sick, ill, vomiting. How much more simple can it get than that? I shouldn't be surprised - this is typically the kind of response I get from food-snobs - they simply cannot understand that it's more than just what they perceive as "unrefined tastes" that prevents people from enjoying clams or whatever crap is under discussion at the time.
Just because some guy in a lab coat says something, doesn't make it valid.
Then what exactly would? If you can't take the word of someone who lives the life of a supertaster, and you can't take actual, certified experts who have actually studied the phenomena, exactly whose word would you trust?
Jim, I invite you to do some simple, second-hand research on supertasters, please. Here, I'll make it easy for you: clicky. How about some proof from Yale? Is Yale good enough for you? They might be wearing white lab coats, so I'm not sure if this qualifies for you or not. Here's a little quote from it anyway, "So what are some of the differences between nontasters and supertasters? The tongue's anatomy is such that there are clusters of pain fibers associated with each taste bud. With a higher-than-average number of taste buds, supertasters are also super-perceivers of oral pain, such as the burning sensation of capsaicin and ethanol." (emphasis mine) But please do read the whole article - it's short, and it might actually open your mind a little bit. Just try and get past that distrust of reasearchers . . . or anyone, for that matter, since it appears no one and nothing can convince you that something is real unless you yourself experience it.
And here's the report on a symposium about taste, which focuses on supertasters. Still think this is fake?
9 - Jim Carruthers
So what you're saying is you're disabled. You just need a wheelchair for your tongue. I'm sorry.
It's really too bad you won't ever be able to enjoy food, flavours, and scents (since almost all of taste is actually scent).
In almost all of my experience with picky eaters, it has actually turned out to be mostly sheer, willful ignorance, fear and negative reinforcement, since almost all taste is acquired, not inherent unlike allergies which are linked to protein reactions.
And from your account, it sounds like a lot of conditioning, which is too bad, because you seem to be missing a lot, just like people who say, that's not music, that's just noise, and I have sensitive ears.
10 - Lee
I'm sorry Jim, but I hate to say you are wrong. I used to think all my life that I was a picky eater. I used to think that it was just my own scewed perception. But I grew up in an Italian family, and have always been taught that all food is wonderful and delicious.
Then why can I only eat carrots in what to others is a sickeningly sweet cake format?
I am a supertaster, (the word does sound kind of fad-ish to me. But I don't follow most fads anyway, so I'll use whatever is being used to describe it) and have to add sugar or salt to everything I eat in order to enjoy it.
Its not because I force myself to hate things. On the contrary, I desperately want to love all foods. In my Italian family I had access to a large palette of flavours and experiences, was fed quite a few different foods, and taught that food is a gift not to be ignored.
But I was still always picky. Carrots made me vomit, I couldn't go near pizza until I was in my teens, when I was finally able to stomach sauce and pepperoni. To this day I can't so much as taste or even smell onions without feeling faint or vomiting. Its serious and its true. I should love onions, since its the #1 loved food amongst my family (they put it in everything) but I can't even smell an onion without feeling ill.
And its not just foods either. Certain chemical smells that other people are ignorant to cause me to flee in disgust: methane, gas, alcohol, cigarette smoke or household cleaners. 9.9
I firmly beleive I'm a supertaster, and I don't want this as an excuse not to eat vetables. If people are willing to admit this exists, then maybe more research will be done into finding a way to help supertasters be able enjoy foods that normally they couldn't.
Tom, congrats to you and Alissa, it really must be nice to have somebody not only understand you, but lives the same life that you do. :)
Lee
11 - clelba
wow! thank you! someone like me!
i'm not alone!
you've made me happy...
i am a supertaster!
now i shall go and tell my mum ;-)
^. .^
= ' =
12 - Karen
These stories sounds exactly like mine! If I eat something I don't like I gag and just can't swollow. Almost everyday of my childhood involved sitting at the table after everyone else left, chewing and chewing without being able to swallow. I cant stand veggies, but I try to force them down with little success. I really want to like all the food everyone else loves, but its just impossible to me. For me - being invited to dinner is a nightmare. Believe me, this is something I really dont want to live with, but I (and now i realise, others too!) am born this way.
13 - notthislittleblackduck
I too am a lifelong picky eater - though I was like that even as a toddler. My mother should be grateful I'm not as picky as some of the commentators above - at least I ate carrots & cheese! But I too was the same way - some stuff like brussel sprouts just repulsed me so much I'd have to swallow them whole if I was to eat them at all.
As for scientific validity - the tongues of supertasters are visibly different from those of others.
I too can smell things no one else can - certain chemicals I find overwhelming while others have no idea what I'm talking about. I still do hate most veggies and beer, some wines taste like turpentine to me, though oddly, I love spicy food.
14 - Beatrice
I started to laugh when I started reading because this sounds like several of my 6 children not to mention their father. Thanks for helping me see that my hubby & kids aren't picky by choice. Now we can stop the dinner time war trying to get them to eat things they really can't stomach.
15 - Susan
Hi Tom -
We have just discovered that our 9 year old daughter is a supertaster. We have been battling these food issues since she was an infant and just thought she was the pickiest eater around. However, since I have been doing the research on supertasters, everything I've read is absolutely her! My question is this: I know what my daughter will not eat. What do supertasters eat? Right now (today), she will eat peanut butter, strawberry jelly (not jam), on white bread, no crust, grapes and pretzels for lunch. Breakfast is Grape nuts with organic milk and her vitamins. Dinner is always a toss up. I always try to make a chicken dish of some sort. However, she is very particular about that too. Even if I make the same chicken dish from one week to the next, she may eat it one week, but not the next time. She drowns all her meat in Ranch dressing or she won't eat it. She has never been on the growth chart for her age and height. She is extremely thin, which I have no problem with if I know she is healthy and strong. I would truly appreciate your thoughts on this topic. Any ideas on what I can feed her or at least have her try would be welcomed! Thank you so much, Susan