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I am a very picky eater. And if you think it's difficult cooking for a picky eater, try being one. I always feel it's better to decline dinner invitations than risk offending someone because I don't want to eat their food. I can't get "plain" anything anywhere because, ironically, it's just too difficult apparently.
It's not necessarily a choice. Most foods simply do not taste good to me when they are dressed up and seasoned so well that you can't tell what the base ingredient is by taste.
Do you want to eat foods that don't taste good to you? Probably not.
Maybe...but you have to come to terms for why you don't like certain foods - is it truly because of past experience, psychology, how you think they would be (maybe the idea of eating a food grossed you out and you refuse to try it), or an allergy. The picky eater that I know that isn't three years old hasn't tried most of the foods she claims that she doesn't like. So, I just have a hard time dealing with that. Don't knock something until you try it right? Unless you have an allergy, It is a choice as to whether to be picky or not. I was a bland eater until I met my dh - he likes going to fancy restaurants ands cooking and I did the whole I will try a bite at least to be nice and found that I really liked certain foods that would have been off limits before. I just hadn't been exposed to them, or had to worry about offending someone I loved.
I just don't want to eat foods that I have an allergy to. Those I definitely don't like!
The strangest thing is my son, he is a very picky eater, but the other three kids are not. He won't eat dairy products, sauces, he likes his food very plain, steak, potato, iceberg lettuce. He drove me crazy when he was little. I gave him the same food as the other kids, and he would not eat, so when I made him "taste" it, he would, then would get sick and throw it up. At age 3! I don't know what it is? I ended up cooking more plainly to accomodate him, then was afraid the other kids would be like that, so I just let him eat the dinner I made, go hungry, or have a peanut butter sandwich. He is still a picky eater, but the other kids are normal. So it is not a home environment that makes them that way.
I grew up an extremely picky eater. Along about the time I met my husband (who will eat ANYTHING on the planet except seaweed & eggplant stew and, oddly enough, hominy, which I would always eat with pleasure), when I was 20, I started getting over it. He got me eating Mexican food and BBQ (yes, I grew up in Texas and had never eaten either because I just KNEW I wouldn't like them!). Got me hooked on them, in fact.
I was as confirmed a picky eater as you can imagine, and now I am just as confirmed a foodie and every so often bash myself over the head at how much I missed just because I was afraid to try anything new.
My children were raised, as a result, with the two-bite rule. The first bite is to get over the shock of a new flavor. The second bite is to find out what it actually tastes like and do you like it. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat any more, but you're not getting a special dish prepared for you, there's plenty of other dishes at dinner to eat.
Interestingly enough, they both grew up to be foodies (one a gourmet) and excellent cooks. And I can't remember anything that they didn't like after the second bite. Heck, they'll eat more things than I will!
From having been on both sides, picky eating is all about control - of what you eat, and of other people when you try to get them to cater to your dietary whims.
I think the reason we have picky eaters is because their parents allowed them to be picky eaters when they were little and they got away with it . thus causing them to be picky eaters when grown up . I detest picky eaters .
You know what I detest? People who criticize other people's eating habits, and/or try to force us to eat what YOU like. Yes, I'm picky, but how is that any of your business? I live alone, buy & prepare my own food, so it's really nobody's business but my own... and if you (hypothetically) ever cook for me, I will be as polite as possible & eat what appeals to me. Big whoop. I also have some cultural barriers with food, and again I detest people who are insensitive to that.
You know what I detest? People who criticize other people's eating habits, and/or try to force us to eat what YOU like. Yes, I'm picky, but how is that any of your business? I live alone, buy & prepare my own food, so it's really nobody's business but my own... and if you (hypothetically) ever cook for me, I will be as polite as possible & eat what appeals to me. Big whoop.
Who is forcing you to eat anything?
I've seen plenty of threads here started by picky eaters, sheesh.
One would think someone was force-feeding you.
You know what I detest? People who criticize other people's eating habits, and/or try to force us to eat what YOU like. Yes, I'm picky, but how is that any of your business? I live alone, buy & prepare my own food, so it's really nobody's business but my own... and if you (hypothetically) ever cook for me, I will be as polite as possible & eat what appeals to me. Big whoop. I also have some cultural barriers with food, and again I detest people who are insensitive to that.
You're right, you should eat what you like
I am not a picky eater... I'll try anything at least once but each to their own.
Who is forcing you to eat anything?
I've seen plenty of threads here started by picky eaters, sheesh.
One would think someone was force-feeding you.
I was responding to the attitude on this thread, which is "how do you DEAL with picky eaters?" and "how do you get them to eat what you prepare?" Again, that is none of your business! If I choose to go hungry instead of eating something I detest, that is my problem... I have a small appetite anyway, so it's no big deal if I skip a meal here & there. And yes, people HAVE tried to force me to eat things - "C'mon, just try it!! It won't kill you!!" I hate that.
If we're talking about your children, yes you have the right to make them try different foods... but I'm 34 years old, so I really don't need people attempting to make me try new things. I'm pretty sure I know what I like or dislike by now!
I've encountered some really picky eaters lately. It makes it hard to make a meal for them because I'm concerned they won't like it. I tend to not cook meals for picky guest but rather just order pizza to save myself the grief.
Maybe the picky eaters I know are bit extreme but how do you deal with these people? I always thought it was rude to refuse food without even taking a bite? Am I wrong?
I have to say I have little patience for picky eaters.
I tend to think of it as something sort of childish so when I find it in an adult, its not something I understand.
While I was a picky eater as a child, my parents taught me that when you are a guest at someone's home, you eat what you are given.
As an adult, I eat a wide variety of things and I expect my daughter to do the same.
She actually will eat more things then I did at her age so I am doing something right. She eats even raw fish when we eat Sushi. She prefers her salmon raw but also likes it cooked.
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Unless you have an allergy, It is a choice as to whether to be picky or not. I was a bland eater until I met my dh - he likes going to fancy restaurants ands cooking and I did the whole I will try a bite at least to be nice and found that I really liked certain foods that would have been off limits before. I just hadn't been exposed to them, or had to worry about offending someone I loved. 
Those I definitely don't like!
Yes, I'm picky, but how is that any of your business? I live alone, buy & prepare my own food, so it's really nobody's business but my own... and if you (hypothetically) ever cook for me, I will be as polite as possible & eat what appeals to me. Big whoop. I also have some cultural barriers with food, and again I detest people who are insensitive to that.
