Hi. I am someone who was once an extremely picky eater but has now personally overcome this condition and has now added quite a few new foods to my palate. My goal in this post is to help others be able to do the same for themselves.

What I learned in my personal experience with picky eating was that what I deep down hated the most was not actually the food itself, but rather the whole "dinner table" experience that was thrust upon me as a child by my parents.  They are good parents overall, but they unforunately failed when it came to providing me with a stress-free and fun dinner table experience while growing up.  They didn't understand how scared I felt in those moments at the dinner table when there was "unsafe" food served to me, and it was always a lose-lose situation. If I wasn't completely opposed to the new food, they forced me to eat more of it than I was comfortable eating (to the point where I then formed a bad relationship with that particular food that I could've eventually liked eating had I been given the chance to slowly become accustomed to it on my own terms and comfort level). If I was completely opposed to the new food, they'd make negative comments about how small of a bite I took and made me feel like it was my fault that I didn't like the food. I then began giving an "it's alright" response to new foods in an attempt to avoid the two extreme before-mentioned responses, but then after a few times of that, they'd complain "you ALWAYS say that" and then I hated hearing that too, but it was the lesser of the "evils", so I kept going with that response, which eventually affected my ability to stand up for myself, voice my opinions, and etc. because that's how I began to deal with other life issues as well. I also had very little social life for twenty some years because of this condition. It's a cruel thing to go through, and like anything else, people who haven't gone through it for themselves simply don't understand how it feels and the effects that their "just eat it" (and similar) comments have on those people who are going through that.

I grew up thinking that this was my own fault, and was told that it was my own fault, so I could never overcome it because I felt like I was constantly failing at every turn. I had very low self esteem. The moment that I started overcoming my aversion to new foods was the moment that I realized that this condition was not my fault in any way, and realized that it manifested in me due to my parents' causing me to have a terrifying experience at the dinner table every time that I had no "safe" foods served to me and wasn't allowed to become accustomed to new foods at my own pace and comfort level. Since realizing this, I have now slowly added quite a bit of new foods to my palate. Still hardly any vegetables, but that's okay since I want to eat mainly a meat based diet anyway.

So, I then on my own (so there was no external pressures being placed upon me) started trying very very small amounts of new foods along with my "safe" foods. If I was completely opposed to them, I wouldn't try them again. If I was not completely opposed to them, but didn't enjoy them, I ate the small bit that I took and left it at that. Then, nice time, I'd take the same small bit of that same food again and eat it again. I'd repeat that process until I became more comfortable with the texture and taste of the food to where I would slowly take a slightly larger portion of it (again, at my own pace and comfort level) until I eventually began eating it like anyone else who liked it would eat it. Then once I'd "master" one food, I'd do that with the next food and so on. It is easiest to do this when sticking to very similar foods, such as changing from French fries to hashbrowns, or from fries to mashed potatoes. This allows for particular textures to become more palatable, then one can move on to other foods with similar textures, such as from mashed potatoes to applesauce, or from hamburger to pulled pork.

It really comes down to being an intense fear that needs to be identified and alleviated in a slow and safe way, as I have explained.

Hope this helps people who are going through this "hell on Earth".