I'm the pickiest eater you'd ever meet. Please help!

I've always been a very picky eater. I get that from my mom but she is no longer a picky eater. There is a lot of food I like but none of it is really good for you. I actually only eat junk!! I don't want to just eat junk food but there is nothing else I like. I'm not fat or chunky in any way but I don't want to just eat food thats bad for you. But I have a lot of food phobias.

I am allergic to onions and peanuts so onions especially, I'm always afraid that they would get into my food. I also feel like an ass when I eat dinner with people I hardly know and I have to ask what they're cooking before I agree to eat with them. They find it to be rude. One time I went to an easter dinner at a friends parents house and every dish that was made had onions in them. i couldn't eat anything but dinner rolls.

Aside from that, I also have a fear of seafood and Ranch dressing. I can't even look at seafood.

I don't eat any veggies. I like potatos and corn but that is it. I won't touch anything green. I've tried to so many times and I just can't bare the taste.

I'll eat most meat. But I don't like balogna, turkey or seafood.

As for salads, I've tried to eat them so many times. Its the lettuce that gets to me. I can't swallow it. I'll chew on it forever and I really don't think that lettuce tastes like much at all but I can't swallow it and just gag on it. lol.

I don't eat chinese or mexican. I don't eat anything spicy. I won't eat any kind of bean.

I'll eat fruit but I really don't eat it much. I don't like pineapple, pears, grapes or raspberry. Most of the time fruit is boring to me. But I LOVE fruit smoothies and yogurt, etc...

Knowing this, I'm pretty limited to junk food. I love take out but I don't do that much. I usually do steak and potatoes, chicken strips and fries (or mac n cheese) or some italian dish cause I love italian. Pizza is always good. I also make a lot of hamburger helper.

I want to start eating healthier and I want to be less picky. I've tried for many years to like stuff. Sometimes when I eat with people and everyone is eating steak with carots or peas, I'll take a small serving and eat each pea individually but only can eat 3-4 peas as I'm trying not to puke. That's what its like with every food I don't like and I try to eat. I can't seem to swallow it and I just want to puke. Sometimes I do puke.

What sucks is that all of my friends are health nuts. My boyfriend and some other friends are vegetarian and it grosses them out to see me eat. Other friends aren't vegetarians yet they eat very healthy anyway. I actually don't know that many people who like the food I like. I could be having a gathering at my house and want to order a pizza and nobody wants any but me.

Every time I go out to dinner or lunch with someone, I will get a real meal and EVERY TIME I'll get a steak dinner and the person I'm with ALWAYS gets a salad. I hate that cause it happens with every person I eat with. I've tried to eat salad and I wish I liked salads but I don't.

Any suggestions? I'm not overweight but I feel like the food I eat could be harmful to me in the long run. I am 25 now but I really don't like the taste of anything. I try all the time and still can't bare to eat it. Should I just take vitamins and the veggies in a pill tablet? Someone told me to take this vitamin with every meal and its like I'm getting a full serving of vegetables. But as for eating dinner, its kind of embarrassing actually and people comment on my eating habits all the time and people do think I'm rude when I won't eat what has been cooked.

 

tl;dr but i was a picky eater same as you not anymore though

 

My sister is a lot like you. She's also just starting to realize the health problems she could face if she doesn't train her tastebuds to like healthier things. I've always been an adventurous eater myself, so I can't say I can identify. If you have genuine allergies to peanuts and onions, you're NOT being rude by telling people you can't have those ingredients. I would tell people flat-out that you are allergic and that eating them can make you ill or perhaps kill you. MOST intelligent folks will take those warnings very seriously and not think you're being rude. Those who do are very ignorant about how real food allergies are. I've had various food allergies come and go through my life, though none deadly.

I would visit a nutritionist and tell them exactly what your dilemma is. They might be able to help you change your current diet to something more desirable, even if you don't find you're able to drastically add a lot of veggies in at first. My sister eats the few fruits she likes, whole-grain bread instead of white, tries to get fiber in her diet, and avoids artificial foods. She's been able over the last year to get to where she can eat things that she would have never eaten a few years ago, like spinach lasagna. She told me she also started grinding veggies in a food processor to add them to things like meatloaf or other food items they could be "secretly" mixed into where you're getting the nutritional benefits but not really tasting the veggies or the texture of them.

Good luck on your journey to better dietary health!

 

When you expose yourself to a limited variety of foods for a long time your brain will cease to recognize other foods as `food`. The key to breaking this cycle is to retrain yourself, this is difficult, and with your allergies you do not have the option of eating out, making it even more difficult. You are probably not used to the flavinoids in vegetables, making them even more unappealing. I think de-sensitization therapy might work well in your case, start with some very `neutral` but still healthy foods like brown rice, corn, beans cooked from a dry state, plain yoghurt, or raisins. I would be happy to help! Message me, I have 20 years of professional cooking experience, and can probably help you gradually introduce new foods into your diet by associating them with ones you already eat in a way that does not trigger the `this is not food` response. Just tell me a few of the things you eat, and hopefully cook for yourself, on a regular basis. I love hamburger helper too, but it`s not as good since they changed the noodles.
C/O
P.S. You might be allergic to peanuts, but you are not allergic to onions, a lot of what you listed as things you eat contain dehydrated or powdered onions.

 

A full plate of broccoli! I know how much picky eaters love that

...just kidding. You should try making some lentil soup. I usually add olive oil to it, and it gives a nice texture. ...or u could try a grilled hummus, tomato, avocado and spinach sandwich on rye bread. Those are very tasty. Just put it all together and grill it. I prefer home made hummus, and its pretty easy to make once you get the hang of it, but try it with some store bought hummus first if you want.

 

Thats funny i thought I was!

I can tell the slightest change in a recipe (Where others cant) and that makes it hard for me when something changes and its not as good as it used to be!!

These stupid companies think people are stupid and wont notice a slight change in taste,they dont know what to do when someone like me comes along that they cant lie to,etc!! "Same great taste" ... Ya they put this on anytime they change the wrapper (Usually) and they have messed with the recipe in some way.... They think putting that will implant in peoples mind IT MUST BE EXACTLY THE SAME!!

Fucking crap these people pull i swear!!

 

you think so..
people ask me how could i of survived the army when Im such a picky eater.... and I say "milk and cereal its the army's friend"..

 

you have a phobia of ranch? i eat spoon fulls of that shit

 

Location: San Francisco

nuff said lol

god damn city slickers.


you just need to smoke more weed.

weed makes even the gnarlyest of things magical.

 

i dont like the smell of ranch .. reminds me of uke:

 

i tossed a girls salad with ranch on it

 

Uhh, clearly you've never been to or met anyone from san francisco if you think they don't smoke enough weed. the only thing those motherfuckers do is smoke

 

Wow. So pretty much, if you were dropped out in the wilderness, you would die... Sorry, that sucks.

You may have some kind of deficiency or imbalance... Maybe talk it over with your doc and get a test done to see if there is a reason things just don't taste right to you? You're right to worry about your health. I can't imagine what the inside of your colon is like... Disaster area, man, haha. But there is hope!

There really isn't any way to get what you need out of a pill. Multivitamins and stuff are just supplements to a regular diet. You may need to change your relationship to food. Eat to live, don't live to eat. When I started wanting to lose weight and get away from junk food, I started seeing food as fuel, not something to bring me comfort (though I still treat it like that, sometimes- we can't be perfect). As I cleansed my body of preservatives and chemicals from processed food, I found that those old junk foods didn't even taste the same to me, because my taste buds weren't intoxicated with chemicals anymore. I lost my tolerance to them as well, and now if I eat too much junk, I feel like crap. (It's like in Mexico, how they've gotten used to the bacteria in their water, but if we drink it, we get sick.)

You know a lot of fast food is addictive, too? It may be that you are addicted to the high sugar content and other things you can become dependent upon, and when you only find comfort in these foods, you are really satisfying a craving linked to an addiction.

It's never easy to break bad habits, but that's how you have to look at it. Keep those smoothies coming, though, and throw some greens in there. You won't even know they are there. Here's my favorite smoothie recipe. It has a specific juice listed, but you can use pretty much any juice, berries or greens interchangeably with the ones listed (I suggest baby spinach as it is very mild and easily masked by stronger sweeter flavors):
http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/juicy-berry-greens-smoothy/

Seriously, though. Once you get more and more away from the junk, the better you will feel. You can't just subsist on meat, either. You have to have some form of plant material in there to keep things moving and to get all of your nutrition. There's only so much fat and protein we're supposed to have.

Hope I helped a little. This is all just coming from my experiences with trying to get healthy. I've gone back and forth between not giving a damn, and going so far as to go vegan, and I think I've found a pretty good balance between indulging myself and keeping my body well-nourished (as an omni- veganism didn't stick too long, heh). I'm sure someone could find something I'm doing wrong, though. It really is a personal journey... Just try to keep yourself informed and keep your goals in clear view.