Do you know a picky eater? Whether they be your kid(s), spouse, or a friend that you know? If it’s someone in your house, do you find planning meal times to be challenging, excess work, and leaving you frustrated?
As a health coach, I often work with or witness many selective eaters. The common theme that I notice: they’re only picky with healthy foods that are natural, whole foods grown from the earth, like fruits, vegetables, and even water. Processed and packaged foods, like burgers, fries, chicken fingers, cookies, and soda don’t seem to be an issue for their taste buds.
This started to make me wonder 1. Why I have been so open-minded and receptive to trying different foods and 2. What are some of the factors causing picky eating habits and how to overcome these?
The way we eat and our reception to foods is partly based on our environment. We tend to be receptive and select the foods that we’ve been exposed to as children.
For example, if you’ve been fed broccoli, eggplant, lentils, and apples as a toddler, and enjoyed these foods, then you wouldn’t react with disdain in the presence of broccoli as an adult because it’s a familiar food. The opposite applies too. If you’ve only been exposed to juice, chicken fingers, and ice cream as a toddler, then those are going to be your main food preferences. Keep in mind that processed and packaged foods have been chemically altered so that large corporations have success at making the taste, smell, and look of these foods appealing to young children (and adults) so they are hooked onto these foods from a young age.
Let’s think about Fruit Loops. They’re colourful, filled with sugar to taste good, and have the perfect texture. This is the perfect formula to appeal to the taste buds of kids. However, if Fruit Loops aren’t available in the household and the child eats full-fat plain Greek yogurt with strawberries, chia seeds, and raw honey for breakfast, then they will be receptive and open-minded to the healthier foods because they don’t know any different and those are the foods they’ve been exposed to.
The same principle applies to cultural foods. If you grew up in a house eating the staples of your cultural foods, you’ve adapted to those foods (whether you’re a fan of them or not) and they become familiar to you, therefore you won’t react in outrage at the thought of eating it. For example, like eating:
Shepherd’s pie because your family is North American,
Tabbouleh because your family is Middle Eastern,
Curries because your family is South Asian or West Indian,
Ackee and saltfish because your family is Caribbean,
Bok choy because your family is Asian
But ask yourself, did your parents only eat the same foods, and were you limited to only the cultural foods that you grew up with? Or did you grow up in an environment where your parents encouraged and exposed you to new foods from different cultures?
Growing up with an East Indian culture, I was exposed to spicy foods, curries, and lots of vegetables and legumes, which is why I have no issue eating these foods now. However, I also like to attribute my mother’s own adventurous ways of trying new cultural foods as to why I’ve also been receptive to trying foods that are both fruits and vegetables I’ve never tried before, all the way to new foods from different cultures.
It was no perfect situation though. I didn’t like blueberries as a kid. Or fish (the closest I came to eating fish was fish fingers out of a blue box from the freezer!). Now, as an adult, I include these foods like raw blueberries and fresh fish into my diet.
So how you do overcome this obstacle with picky eaters when it comes to eating healthy foods, whether they be children or adults? Constant and repetitive exposure to the same food at least 10 times. Try the same food on 10 different occasions. Only then can you decide for certain if you have adapted and can enjoy this food or if you absolutely hate it (makes you nauseous, feel like gagging, etc.). With adults in particular, a lot of it is in the mindset. Go into the situation of trying a new food or food “you hated as a kid” with a positive and open-minded mindset, without the expectation of a negative outcome.
Do take note though that some individuals do have a certain gene that makes them sensitive to compounds in foods. For example, some people have a gene that makes them detect a compound in herbs, like cilantro, which makes it taste and smell like soap. There are ways to overcome this, such as how the food is prepared or seasoned but if someone ever does claim that they hate cilantro because it tastes like soap, then now you know why!
Including fruits, vegetables, and whole foods into our diet is extremely important for all aspects of good health! The majority of North Americans are extremely undernourished.
Whether you have a picky eater at home (or are the picky eater), we’re sharing with you
a free download, your Picky-Eater Approved Healthy Recipes booklet, which includes nine recipes (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts) that everyone can enjoy!
These recipes are kid-friendly and pack nutrition into every meal. For March Break this year, try some these recipes out with your kids or spouse!
Click HERE for your free download (PDF format - no sign up is required).