Hey,
I am currently 21 years old and I have never met any one with a similar diet to me. Reading the stories and watching the videos on this website make me feel like I'm finally not alone. My diet consists of mainly french fries, and peanut butter toast and that's mainly what I've lived on since infancy. I've dealt with bullying and people alienating me for pretty much my whole life, so reading these stories is a refreshing change of pace. Social eating or even anything that could link me to ordering 'just a side order of fries' scares the heck outta me and I avoid it like the plaque, it's humiliating and at times opens me up to even more people asking questions , or belittling me to just being a spoiled brat. Before seeing the TV specials and reading these stories and often believed I really was just a spoiled brat and was making ti all up, and I was just a freak who wouldn't. I was told relentlessly as a child I would grow out of it...until I just didn't. I want to change but as of now I can't.
Thank you to everyone who shares their stories on here. It gives people like me something to hold on to , to know I am not a freak.

So I'm not alone! Good to know, people always are shocked when I tell them I can't stand Milk, even as a child, ice cream, & yogurt all make me gag! I'm good with most cheeses though. I can't stand anything that comes out of the ocean, no fish of any kind. No stinky cheeses for me, blue cheese, and even truffle oil are a no from me. I don't eat Pork, except for bacon and pepperoni. I can't stand White beans, and Avocados! Yuck! I can stand to make guacomole for people, just don't ask me to try it first. I know I'm better off than most on here, I love burgers, pizza, pastas with red or Alfredo sauce (No Pesto, and NO Chimichurri sauce) I don't know what the big fad is with chimichurri sauce is with restaurants now a days! I love fruit & vegetables, except chickpeas, hummus, White beans, Papaya, Mangoes, blueberries, honeydew (but I do love cantaloupe). I am affectionately known in the house to have a nose like a blood hound. If there is an open can of tuna, or an open bag of corn nuts I will leave the house or office for at least 24 hours. My family knows that those 2 items are banned from our house. When I was younger, my food could not touch or I would not eat it! I've gotten better in my 35 yrs. Also if we are having something like chicken fried steak the gravy can not be on top of anything, I will slice a piece and dip it in the gravy because I cannot eat soggy fried foods. Gross! Needless to say this condition or whatever it is has been passed on to my 17 year old son, needless to say he is now a full on Vegan, with one exception.... Crab Rangoons, and that is my one exception for not liking anything from the sea. I'm rambling, but it feels nice to know there are strange eaters out there like me! 🙂

I think the worst thing about being a 'fussy' eater is eating out - So many times people have invited my partner and I out for a meal, only to have to turn down the invitation because there is literally nothing on the menu that I can work with - I've gotten to the point where I'm completely unfazed by asking for things plain, or with the sauce on the side, or without this or that... My friends say that sometimes they are embarrassed to eat out with me because I'm the 'awkward' one, but I've learned to laugh it off. Textures, smells, and not knowing the ingredients are my problem - I'm always suspicious of sauces, and never have them - except ketchup, which is my go to 'helper' when I order something that *should* be ok but actually isn't - Smothering in ketchup and trying not to chew more than necessary can usually leave me having eaten a halfway decent portion. I understand that I'm better off than some - I can eat a small handful of veg, chicken, cod or haddock, and rice, and plain food (like cheese and tomato pizza, no tomato chunks) but I wish dearly that I could eat 'normally' - I wish I liked pasta, or cold/reheated food (even if I've cooked it, it's not happening.) I wish that I liked red meat, if only so that I could eat *something* different than the same 7 or 8 meals, day in, day out. I've improved a lot since I was a kid - can recall a 3 hour standoff with my mum over a tea spoonful of baked beans (I won that one) but recently was able to try a spoonful when cooking for my nephew (hoping for a new go to meal - It was not successful, too mushy,) and when a friend invited me round for tea then served pie, I managed to eat some, where a year ago I'd have just pushed it around. Eating it involved much scraping of gravy, and dissecting the pastry until there was no soggy and only crispy pastry, but I still count that as progress. Still, it would be nice to go out for a meal, and go to any restaurant others wanted, instead of having to analyse the menu for chicken or fish dishes that I can tailor to my ‘fussiness.’ I’d love to pre-prepare my lunches instead of sticking to sandwiches or toast – because I can make those in work. In fact, I’d love to be able to bring pasta salad or and actual salad for lunch. People think that you’re being fussy, or a bit odd, and are sometimes somewhat resentful of how difficult it is to feed you, or to find somewhere for you to eat, without considering that you have to deal with this, day in, day out; and it’s exhausting.

I have been a picky Eater since childhood, and it seems the older I get, the less food I like. Food I actually use to like as a kid, repulse me now. The hardest thing for me is that I have never liked the taste, texture, or smell of cheese. I come from an Italian family where almost everything is covered in cheese. It's hard living like this, I very rarely enjoy eating anymore.

Oh my gosh I never knew there was a name for it. I'm in my 50's and always have said I eat like a 2 yr old. I gag on food so much. It's a real bad adversion to texture, in my mouth. I have always wondered how people eat certain foods and no think they are gross. I guess I never thought of it as an allement on my part. Salad is the worst for me. I can eat most veggies but they have to be cooked and cooked to falling apart. Salad taste dirty and salad dressing is just wrong in my opinion. Funny thing is I'm fat. My acceptable foods are all high sugar and high fats. God now I feel like a total loser....

Hello,
My name is Edward, I’m 21 and have been a picky eater for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t always a picky eater, when I was a baby I apparently loved all food, my favourite being liver, something I cannot even fathom eating now. I have a very selected diet, where I will eat pizza for lunch and dinner (cheese or pepperoni, that’s it) and have had that as those two meals almost every day since about grade nine. I will also eat bacon, bread (White or Rye bread only), ham (if made by my family only), hot dogs (only if BBQ, made by my family, and is a certain brand), almost all fruit (the only things I actually enjoy eating, citrus is my favourite due to its sourness, but I won’t eat the fruit if its soft or bruised). With those foods I also eat fries or chips with lunch or dinner, every time, but they have to be plain. It’s funny, people who love food ask how I can eat the same thing every day for years and not hate it, but when you have so little things to eat kind of hard to throw away something you can eat. Even the things I like still make me gag sometimes though, so there is that anyways.
Now being this way has led to many things in my life, first of all trying to explain to your parents why you don’t want to eat is just ridiculous as a child and even now, my parents and everyone before them weren’t picky so they just assumed as a child I was fussy and can be taught out of it. It bugged them and tried many tricks to get me to eat, but as you can see, it didn’t work. I am the youngest of four, and my oldest sister was picky as a child (when she was a teen went into a coma, awoke one day and began to eat, I think it’s because she was fed without knowing her surroundings and it got built into her that food was okay, interesting way to lose being a picky eater but jealous that she isn’t anymore), but my youngest sister is also a very picky eater and then there’s me. Now everyone I know becomes a doctor when they learn this about me and tries to tell me why I’m this way, whether I’m a coward for not eating “how do you know you don’t like it if you don’t try it?”… Maybe because I don’t like gagging and throwing up…. Maybe it’s because you saw your sisters as picky eater and that built it into your brain, maybe it’s a mental disorder and I should get help, pretty well everything you can try to explain why I am this way I have heard. And I tell them all, I would love to not be picky eater, I hate this, food is the worst thing, everything revolves around it and you become an outsider. I would love for a pill to swallow to make sure I’m healthy (actually am pretty healthy all things considered about my diet, and am very active, but doctors don’t believe me when I say my diet because of this, almost like you need to show problems for it to become a problem to them). Really if I could remove food though, I would in a heartbeat. Or better yet to be able to eat and join in when people eat.
it is the most difficult thing going to someone’s house because they always insist you have food, and it’s hard to avoid eating but not have to go home because ‘I’m sick’ or some other stupid excuse so they don’t force me to eat with them because then automatically you become judged and have to answer a million questions. My friends caught on fast though, so I lost invites to anything that will have food when I was young (it’s better now for that). Then as I grew up I went into programs where you would go away, it is the most difficult thing being a picky eater on a trip where you don’t decide where you go to eat, thank god everywhere has bread or id be dead. Or when I go on a field training exercise for cadets, living on juice for a weekend with some candy I snuck in. The hardest thing is avoiding the people running the trip from seeing you not eat, or an officer for cadets, because they will try everything in their power to get you to eat, to the extent of force feeding.
The biggest problem I’m finding now is a relationship, everything always comes back to food. As I’ve read some of your stories I realize it’s a support group, but it actually discouraged me to realize how many relationships have crumbled over something we can’t really control. Now right now I have a girlfriend who is trying to be supportive of this, but I can see that she hates it and doesn’t understand, and I’d hate to lose her just because of food. I would love to be able to eat, and if anyone has a solution for fixing this I’d love to hear it, I would love to eat dinner with her and her family, with my own family, go to a wedding and not have to just sit there while everyone eats and laughs and you’re just trying not to make things awkward, it’s almost like we’re missing out on a whole experience of life.
Sorry that the post is very long, and choppy, it’s a whole lifetime of it, and with food being the evil thing that so many people love you get a lot of stories from it that flash up as I write this. Hope you all find a way to be okay with your eating habits, or if you’re not, and if you’re like me and trying to find a way to get over this I hope you find it, I’ll be sure to write back if I find that unicorn so it can help others in the same boat. Thanks everyone!

Hey there, my name's Danny and I am almost 30. I was born with this eating curse haha, I always knew I couldn't be the only one (I've only met one other person in my life, at my current work place and that was 3yrs ago). For me the "triggers" are a bit of everything but smell and taste are the main ones but texture definitely comes into it at times, for me it has to be plain foods mostly, I won't eat any kind of sauce (which seems to be on EVERYTHING), I've tried a couple of times to introduce plain tomato sauce with hot chips, I just can't do it = the whole gagging thing..

Growing up I lived on mostly certain frozen foods, my favorite was hot chips (didn't matter what kind, fries, fatter chips, wedges etc), chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, plain sausage rolls, junk food snacks (crisps/chips are my favorite and I still eat a lot today). I got use to not eating much at all, I remember doing a marathon run (think it was about 10km) when I was in grade 4 or so, all I had was a chocolate donut before hand. I was a very active child which meant I was very thin and I'm also naturally tall.

Like everyone else I dreaded going to friends sleep overs and social events involving food (which I started early at 4yrs old), what I'm thankful for is that I still forced myself to go to these things (don't ask me how), it was anxiety inducing and varying results always happened (normally negative) I remember the feeling of intense relief after the dinner ordeal was finally finished.

My mum was understanding and I only remember her trying to force me to eat when I was very young (4-5yrs old) after that she gave up I suppose, my parents separated when I was 5, so I'd go to my dads house every fortnight for the weekend, he didn't get it so much but eventually accepted it.

I'm lucky in the way that as an adult the foods I can eat are varied enough that it doesn't impact my health, I can eat plain pasta, plain rice, plain bread/toast (I haven't eaten a sandwich since I was in grade 2 or 3 and that was peanut butter, I didn't like it at the time but I could tolerate it). Meat wise I will only eat chicken and bacon (which seem to be common ones among us), I will actually eat sausages on bread (plain of course, no onions or anything) and some seafood is OK (e.g. some types of fish and crumbed calamari). And Protein shakes are good.

I do actually like almost all fruits but there's an hilarious twist, I believe I also have what's called Oral allergy syndrome (had all my life as well, it's gotten worse as I've aged, which is common), what basically happens is most fruits will make my throat irritated for the rest of the day until I basically sleep it off, the more citrus the fruit the worse it is, luckily I've found one type of healthy/natural juice which is OK and I live on that stuff.

Vegetable wise, they need to be either raw or lightly steamed, I mostly live on Broccoli, I don't mind Carrots but never eat them, Cucumber is OK, Pea's I can tolerate but never eat, same with cauliflower that's about it.

I have a 6 year old daughter and she appears to also have the same eating "quirk", she has the same mannerisms around food (very cautious/serious, smells the food very intently, I bought her a regular plain Iced Cream cake for her 6th birthday and said to me "I'm not sure I like that" and smelt it, cautiously tried it and all good.. she mostly lives on grapes, watermelon, various frozen chicken snacks (chicken nuggets, chicken chips etc), broccoli. Her mother is not a picky eater and we ended our relationship about 9 months ago, I have my daughter every weekend and sometimes a night during the week and her eating has only gotten pickier so I don't believe it's a case of "the environment". I remember my thoughts as a child around food very clearly, this is definitely in-grained, it's not learned, it's just how we are.

I was in that relationship for 9-10years and she didn't care about my eating, naturally I'm a bit of a loner so because I had my partner and my daughter I didn't really have to deal with the socializing issue a whole lot as an adult so far (trust me there were still times but the picky eating thing basically didn't bother me anymore). But since being single again and also my career is really taking off (I'm going to India this year with 3 of my work colleagues for a month+ and I do NOT like any Indian food..), making new friends etc the same anxiety thoughts are coming in to my head again.

I deal with the issue a lot better now, and if anyone has an issue with it I basically put it back on them, "why do you can about what I put in my mouth so badly, I'm telling you not to eat", I mean it's not my fault society revolves around food, I don't, this is who I am and that's it, I'm upfront and honest and that's all I can do. I still wish I didn't have to deal with it at all though. I can't tell you how many times I've thought "if only there was a pill I could take so I didn't have to eat ANYTHING.

I have never come across a community like this one before. I really did not realise there were others like me. I am 20 years old and have been a picky eater since i was a child. I find it is a mental block that simply will not allow me to try new foods.

Thank you for making this community. I have followed on twitter, and have joined the facebook group.

Thanks again!

Hi, my name is Christy and I'm 37. I've been a picky eater my whole life too. I've had so many embarrassing and traumatizing experiences because of my inability to eat many foods. I've been ridiculed and picked on my whole life. I tried to change it but I couldn't. For me it's not just tastes and smells but textures as well. Sometimes I may like the taste of something but the texture will make me gag. I thought my mother was to blame...and then...I had a son. And I noticed that as a baby when he started eating baby food, he would reject all the same flavors of food that I didn't like. I kept trying and trying, hoping that I could get him used to things but to no avail. And as he got older, I noticed he had an issue with texture as well. For example, he would eat a hamburger, but wouldn't eat anything else with ground beef mixed in. After age 2 he primarily lived with his father who is not in the least interested in trying to understand anything out of what he considers normal. And many nights my son went to bed hungry. By the time he was about 10 I started to realize that my eating problem was not my mom's fault. Because I tried everything imaginable with my son. He is now 15 and his father has finally accepted his food issues (which, by the way, are worse than mine). I'm so happy to know I'm not alone. I can't wait to share this with him.

Hi I'm Anthony, I've also been a picky eater my whole life, it is so difficult to try new foods, I'm feel completely satisfied how I was till my career came in. I am a model and I struggle so much eating healthy since my diets has been mostly fries, nuggets,cheese pizza and pastas, I'm trying really hard to change but when I try new foods i gag slot. So one thing I've learning to do is eat a piece of vegetables little by little just to get my pallet use to it, it's not easy and very diffcult, but I will not give up, I've got into many arguments with family and friends and I want to change it so badly, I am happy to know I am not alone and that we can do this, I believe in us