Food Aversions, Phobias, and Disorders

[mktye]

I forgot my strangest and most un-foodie phobia. I really can't stand eating chicken on the bone. Aside from the occasional tandoori chicken leg or buffalo drummie (never the wing part), it just grosses me out. Too many pockets of fat and ligaments and veins and discolored meat.

I am very much with you on this one, Bilrus. I tend to eat very little meat and, when I do, I prefer it to be muscle tissue. Organ meats way too quickly bring to mind my biology/biochem classes. In my book, scallops are the perfect protein -- no bones, fat, skin, veins or connective tissues.

I am also not big on eggs, but with a pretty good reason... I cannot properly digest egg yolks unless they are well cooked. So I tend to identify eggs with stomach pain.

And orange juice and apple juice both fall into that had it/got sick category that so many here appear to have experienced. Just smelling apple juice still makes me gag, although I can eat apples. I deal with the smell of oranges okay, but don't like to ingest them in any way and I'm not a fan of anything orange-flavored.

Lastly, chocolate. I'll eat it, but I would pick nearly any other sweet over it. Growing up, my oldest sister was allergic to chocolate (but loves it), so we never even had it in the house.

[clayrae]

I was in the "scrambled eggs must be cooked till dry" camp for a very long time. Then I discovered black truffle oil...

Slightly runny egg, mixing with the truffle oil, so good. I will confess to licking the plate clean every time.

[treznor]

I have one that no one else has brought up yet that I've seen: raw tomato. My parents have always had a vegetable garden and tomatoes are one of those things you always end up with too many of if you grow them, so it probably stems from that, but to this day I can't eat raw tomato. The taste itself just grosses me out. I've grown out of almost all of the foods that I wouldn't eat though tomato remains. Oddly though I'll eat tomato ketchup, tomato soup, salsa (even chunky salsa, though I don't like it nearly as much as salsa that isn't chunky), but not raw tomato and not tomato juice. My parents have always pointed out that tomato juice and tomato soup are not far apart from each other but I just can't explain it.

The only other thing that I just won't eat is cucumbers/pickles, but it doesn't extend nearly as far as my hatred of the raw tomato.

In recent years though I've gotten over my dislike of onions and non-spicy peppers (I've always liked spicy peppers). My technique was to just tell myself I liked them and to get over it. It's actually worked pretty well.

[bonaire]

I have one that no one else has brought up yet that I've seen: raw tomato.

I'm with you here. Won't touch them, won't smell them and go so far as to wipe my bread over and over again with a napkin if one has touched my sandwich. The texture and the taste make me ill.

Love me some ketchup tho....

[monavano]

I am very much with you on this one, Bilrus. I tend to eat very little meat and, when I do, I prefer it to be muscle tissue. Organ meats way too quickly bring to mind my biology/biochem classes. In my book, scallops are the perfect protein -- no bones, fat, skin, veins or connective tissues.

I am also not big on eggs, but with a pretty good reason... I cannot properly digest egg yolks unless they are well cooked. So I tend to identify eggs with stomach pain.

And orange juice and apple juice both fall into that had it/got sick category that so many here appear to have experienced. Just smelling apple juice still makes me gag, although I can eat apples. I deal with the smell of oranges okay, but don't like to ingest them in any way and I'm not a fan of anything orange-flavored.

Lastly, chocolate. I'll eat it, but I would pick nearly any other sweet over it. Growing up, my oldest sister was allergic to chocolate (but loves it), so we never even had it in the house.

Ah, I'm not the only one who gets stomach pain after eating runny eggs! Interstingly, this mainly happens if I've had a couple/few glasses of wine the night before. It's just awful and I can't leave my house for at least an hour, lest I be more than 30 seconds from a bathroom. TMI...I apologize.

My dislikes are:

Salmon- in any form. I don't like oily fish. I wish i did like it, and I've given it a good try. It's so beautiful and easy to make.

Organ meat- My parents loved to eat liver and it was the only meal which my brother and I were completey excused from eating. She would prepre us something different and easy. Weenie beanies and the like. I did however, eat and enjoy lamb kidney at Eve. It was a small portion and I managed to block out "nephrons!' going through my head.

Fish eggs

Fudge- cloyingly sweet.

Souther Comfort- the worst hangover in my life. I have to avert my eyes in the ABC store. Watching Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" can be traumatic. That bad.

[smokey]

My technique was to just tell myself I liked them and to get over it. It's actually worked pretty well.

You know, I used to be one of those folks who thought cilantro tasted identically to soap. Then I went with this technique, and now I happily throw cilantro into loads of different dishes.

[zoramargolis]

I have been reading this thread with interest, since I am a student both of food and human psychology. So many of us seem to be struggling with food aversions associated with a couple of basic themes: ongoing dislike of flavors, textures or categories of foods developed during childhood; avoidance of foods associated with traumatic events, which can include power struggles with parents and eating foods just prior to becoming sick to one's stomach for various reasons. I exclude foods that one is actually allergic to--in that case, avoiding the food in question is a rational decision. In the other cases, it is an emotional one.

I developed a phobia about vomiting as a very young child, as the result of a traumatic experience. I almost never threw up during childhood, and avoided anything that reminded me of it. At age seven, I ate a hot dog and tomatoes just prior to coming down with stomach flu. I wouldn't eat them again for years. I wouldn't eat anything that had romano cheese associated with it, because I thought it smelled like puke, and I would breathe through my mouth if other people in my family put Kraft parmesan cheese on their spaghetti. As an adolescent, I was gradually able to reintegrate those foods, though I maintained the initial phobia. It really wan't until well into adulthood, after a number of years of personal work in intensive psychotherapy that the phobia finally lessened its grip.

I do have some food allergies that are a pain to live with, but which are purely physiological. I have a couple of things that I can and will eat, but which I don't particularly enjoy the taste of-- alfalfa sprouts and tripe. But happily, I am able to explore the world of gustatory experience unencumbered by old baggage from my childhood.

[JPW]

Last night I ate both salmon and scallops. (and even enjoyed them)

My bravery, however, did not lead me to try the fried oysters.

[Anna Blume]

What's the difference between aversion and simple avoidance?

I still don't get "Eat Your Vegetables" and all the phenomena that inspire the preachy campaign since I can think of less than a handful of vegetables that ever bothered me. In those few cases, it was largely due to the way they were introduced.

For example, canned beets, ubiquitous back in the 60s. Yick. Love roasted beets now. Same with mushrooms, if I'm allowed to call them a vegetable. They came it cans. Slimey and ugly.

To answer Heather's question about how I got over at least one aversion, when still a child I was taken to a restaurant in London that seemed elegant to me, but where my stepfather could indulge in his favorite mixed grill. Whatever I chose came unexpectedly with perfectly cooked fresh ordinary button mushrooms on the side. Given the fun we all were having, the extremely charming waiter, anticipation of a ballet or theater to follow, etc., I tried them and discovered for the very first time that something I didn't like before was something I liked now. One of those mundane but important lessons.

Otherwise, for me, it's slime or viscosity that makes me step back whether tapioca, offal or fruit. Bill, I'll take all the ripe bananas you don't want to eat, but the idea of a bacon-fried banana is repulsive. There's a dessert of broiled bananas Jacques Pepin includes in one of his TV-related cookbooks; it's recommended as a good option for over-ripe bananas. I tried to get over my aversion to the cooked fruit by making it. Looked absolutely disgusting. You know. Picture the shape, soft and caramelized. Just couldn't finish it even though I like banana bread, etc.

[giant shrimp]

At age seven, I ate a hot dog and tomatoes just prior to coming down with stomach flu. I wouldn't eat them again for years. I wouldn't eat anything that had romano cheese associated with it, because I thought it smelled like puke, and I would breathe through my mouth if other people in my family put Kraft parmesan cheese on their spaghetti.

this is starting to get gross. however, as an adult it took me more than a year before i could face tarragon after eating a poisoned amish hamburger outside of a corn maze that freaked out my schizo brother so much he tore off screaming expletives out of the open window as he drove his car out of the field, abandoning me and my wife, expecting us to get back home by means of the nearby strasburg railroad, a tourist attraction with four-and-a-half miles of track. we eventually made our way, by foot and by cab, to a real train station in lancaster only to find that the last train for philadelphia had already departed. by the time my wife finally was able to find a hotel with an available room in this fairly small town (who knew that a place like this could be so popular?), i was doubled over on the curb, beset with a peculiar malaise, feeling not so hot. the symptoms were hard to describe, but nausea was not among them, so a short time after checking into our room in a high-rise building, encouraged by my hungry companion, i found myself in a nice restaurant halfway through a salad dressed in tarragon and before i knew it tarragon had enveloped the entire room. as my chicken was brought to the table the revulsion grew intolerable, and i told my wife to meet me outside after she finished her meal because the terragon had brought me to the verge of collapse and i desperately needed some fresh air. i am sure i made a poor advertisement for the restaurant the 20 minutes or so i spent slumped at its entrance. i somehow made it through the night and was well enough by morning to depart for washington. a few years later, suffering from a mild case of dengue fever, when even the idea of sustenance intermittently filled me with disgust, i at least knew better than to accompany my wife to breakfast. when i awoke, the duvet was soaked through and she was at the window watching the ships come in to the port of rotterdam and it was time for dinner.

i have an open mind about it, but i have never liked kidneys. i have tried cooking them myself, marinating them in vinegar, or whatever it is you are supposed to do to stop your kitchen counter from smelling like a high school biology lab, with little success. whenever i have tasted them, one word instantly comes to mind: renal.

[Tweaked]

At age seven, I ate a hot dog and tomatoes just prior to coming down with stomach flu. I wouldn't eat them again for years.

I had the same problem with vodka, except I wasn't 7, I was 17, and I didn't have the stomach flu. For years after, the smell of vodka reminded me of puking. It's still my least favorite alcohol.

[Erin11]

Interesting topic. I don't like stewed/braised beef - it's a texture thing. Have tried it repeatedly throughout the years, but cannot get over the texture. I also don't like the flavor of licorice. I'll eat fennel, but only in small doses.

I also had a childhood vomiting incident that put me off tomato sauce for years. I followed a spaghetti dinner with several spoonfuls of nestle quik powder (I was an idiot chocoholic child). For years the smell of tomato sauce made me queasy - however, I never had issues with chocolate from that incident.

[DinerGirl]

I had the same problem with vodka, except I wasn't 7, I was 17, and I didn't have the stomach flu. For years after, the smell of vodka reminded me of puking. It's still my least favorite alcohol.

Oooo, it's rum for me. Wait, not even rum. Pepsi. I spent July 4th, 1988 on the Mall with friends and we drank rum and Pepsi all day in the sun. Needless to say, I missed the fireworks that night, and still to this day, the smell of Pepsi (not Coke), makes my mouth water... and not in the good way.

Vodka doesn't have a smell to me, thank God, or I'd probably have issues with that, as well. Ahhhh, college.

[mktye]

I have been reading this thread with interest, since I am a student both of food and human psychology. So many of us seem to be struggling with food aversions associated with a couple of basic themes: ongoing dislike of flavors, textures or categories of foods developed during childhood; avoidance of foods associated with traumatic events, which can include power struggles with parents and eating foods just prior to becoming sick to one's stomach for various reasons. I exclude foods that one is actually allergic to--in that case, avoiding the food in question is a rational decision. In the other cases, it is an emotional one.

More on this topic... click.

[z. -- this link was sent to me by a birder. ]

[srhuddle]

Count me in the cilantro = soap category. If I'm watching a cooking show on TV I have to catch myself from saying "Yuck!" every time the word is mentioned.

I have a bunch of oddities (I used to be a hugely picky eater as a kid, perhaps they are carryovers)

Raw tomatoes, bleech. Though I eat salsa (and I've had the tomato 'caviar' at Minibar)

I don't like lettuce on my sandwiches or burgers, but do eat salad. I always think -- why is this grass on my perfectly good burger!

Mayo by itself is gross, but I cut it w/ sour cream and use it when I make tuna fish salad or deviled eggs.

Raw coconut tastes like wax to me. Though I like coconut milk.

Don't care for button mushrooms, but I like (cooked) Portabello, Shiitake, Oysters, etc

Uni (sea urchin). double bleech, but I love Tobiko (flying fish caviar)

Dislike green pepper, but adore red peppers.

[Heather]

I ran into one of the "makes me shudder" items yesterday. Mayo and lettuce that have been sitting around on a hot sandwich too long. It makes me queasy just thinking about it.

srhuddle, welcome to donrockwell.com, and I know several people with the hate green pepper/love red pepper syndrome.

[DanCole42]

I ran into one of the "makes me shudder" items yesterday. Mayo and lettuce that have been sitting around on a hot sandwich too long. It makes me queasy just thinking about it.

srhuddle, welcome to donrockwell.com, and I know several people with the hate green pepper/love red pepper syndrome.

You mean you don't like a good sogwich?

Try avocado mayo that's been in Tupperware in the sun... <shudder>... It's the emptiest I've ever ran my dishwasher. Full spray, sanitizing rinse. I was almost no longer "vomit free since '03."

[Drive-by Critic]

In recent years, I've had the very odd experience of having my taste change spontaneously with regard to several foods. I used to love garlic, but a few years ago, and without much warning, even the smell of it began to make me ill. Eating even tiny quantities would leave me queasy. It worsened over time. In the past few months, it has started to abate but I still don't like the smell or taste.

I used to hate blue cheeses and now I love them...again, for no apparent reason.

There's a whole list of food items that I've either all-of-a-sudden started to like or dislike. We attribute it - like everything else - to the hormone thing. Are there any other Red Hat-eligible women out there having this experience?

But I doubt I'll ever like mushrooms or eggplants. It's that slimy thing...and I hope I never develop a fondness for ice cream. It would be wonderful to develop aversions to Pepperidge Farm cookies (aka "medicine") cheesecake and anything else that is calorie dense and not good for you...

Ellen Paul

Chevy Chase

[zoramargolis]

More on this topic... click.

[z. -- this link was sent to me by a birder. ]

Great article! Thanks for the post. We hadn't really gotten into culturally transmitted food aversions, but that is obviously significant for many. I know adults who were raised in kosher homes who, though no longer observant or religious at all, still cannot eat meat that is even slightly pink, let alone rare or medium rare.

[thegourmetpig]

Great article! Thanks for the post. We hadn't really gotten into culturally transmitted food aversions, but that is obviously significant for many. I know adults who were raised in kosher homes who, though no longer observant or religious at all, still cannot eat meat that is even slightly pink, let alone rare or medium rare.

Mine is a weird one, especially for a big foodie/aspiring chef. I don't like cheese. Never have, and can't seem to get over it. Of course, I like mozzarella. I also like mild cheeses, but only if melted. However, nothing scares me more than a camembert or reblochon. Blue cheeses too. And before someone says it's because I'm not used to them, I grew up in France, and my family's fridge always stank of the strongest cheeses in the world, kept in our vegetable crisper.

[laniloa]

Mine is a weird one, especially for a big foodie/aspiring chef. I don't like cheese. Never have, and can't seem to get over it. Of course, I like mozzarella. I also like mild cheeses, but only if melted. However, nothing scares me more than a camembert or reblochon. Blue cheeses too. And before someone says it's because I'm not used to them, I grew up in France, and my family's fridge always stank of the strongest cheeses in the world, kept in our vegetable crisper.

I am exactly the same way except for the also liking mild cheeses part. It is only in the last few years that I'll eat mozzarella that isn't melted.

[goldenticket]

Items I have/had issues with that mostly fall into the childhood psychological power struggle category (as outlined by zoramargolis):

Canned salmon - This specifically relates to a Friday night meal during Lent when I was in 4th grade. A mouthful of salmon cake with a bunch of vertebrae in it was one of the most disgusting experiences ever. I ran screaming/crying from the table to my bedroom. I was coaxed back downstairs with the promise that all the bones had been removed...they weren't. I haven't touched the stuff since. No problem with salmon in any other form, and to be honest, I probably wouldn't have any problem with the canned stuff now, but decades later that memory/trauma is still vivid.

Wild rice - Love it now, but didn't like it a bit as a kid. Dad would say 'it's just like candy' - not quite!

Beets - just didn't like them - I think it was a texture thing. Now I like them a lot - preferably fresh ones, roasted. Canned beets - ok in the right context, such as part of one of those starter salad plates you see in homey French restaurants, accompanied by shredded carrots, celeriac, etc. (I know this kind of salad has a name and I can't for the life of me remember it.)

Cauliflower - I'm learning to like it, but still don't care for it raw.

"Barnyard" cheeses - Sometimes I get a very strong (and very unpleasant ) taste of ammonia. I like stinky, soft cheeses but not when this happens. It doesn't seem to be any particular cheese, so I try to go with the 'just get over it' approach.

I'm also one of those green pepper people - any other color is fine. I hated working with this woman that would eat green peppers like apples (and this was way before Iron Chef ).

[JPW]

"Barnyard" cheeses - Sometimes I get a very strong (and very unpleasant ) taste of ammonia. I like stinky, soft cheeses but not when this happens. It doesn't seem to be any particular cheese, so I try to go with the 'just get over it' approach.

The ammonia taste means that the cheese is past its peak and should not be served. It's not the cheese's fault.

[ustreetguy]

Most of mine seem to have already been covered:

Cilantro - need I explain more? I've learned to not mind it when it's chopped up finely in salsas and the like, but there is no way you can get me to put sprigs of that stuff in a bowl of pho. I'll even pick the leaves out of a Vietnamese garden roll.

Green beans - now I'm okay with sauteed haricot verts, but there's something about the texture of a cooked green bean (especially the pre-cut ones from the freezer section) that makes me shudder (like hearing nails on a chalkboard) when I bite into one.

Colas - Coke, Pepsi, Tab (and even Dr. Pepper) all make me gag. Doctors suspect an allergy but haven't been able to figure out what it is in colas I may be allergic to.

Bittermelon - my parents grow it in their backyard. I think it's vile.

[jm chen]

I have one that no one else has brought up yet that I've seen: raw tomato....I've grown out of almost all of the foods that I wouldn't eat though tomato remains. Oddly though I'll eat tomato ketchup, tomato soup, salsa (even chunky salsa, though I don't like it nearly as much as salsa that isn't chunky), but not raw tomato and not tomato juice.

The only other thing that I just won't eat is cucumbers/pickles, but it doesn't extend nearly as far as my hatred of the raw tomato.

Funny -- I have the same aversion to tomato but love for tomato products... but I also hate cucumbers and love pickles, which you lump together.

I'm one of the anti-egg people too. Three years old, told to finish a plate of eggs I didn't want to finish, promptly threw up all over the table. If eggs are mixed into a batter, like for cookies, cakes, or pancakes, that's okay, but anywhere they're recognizable is a no-no. French toast is OK 90% of the time but occasionally gets too eggy, and I even pick the little yellow strips out of fried rice. Occasionally I can have a mini-quiche if it's got enough cheese in it. If eggs are cooking on the stove I have to leave the room.

When I was really young I didn't like cold-boiled shrimp or real whipped cream, but by the time I was 10 those were both A-OK.

[goldenticket]

The ammonia taste means that the cheese is past its peak and should not be served. It's not the cheese's fault.

That is good to know - but it makes me wonder about the places where I have been served cheese that has that ammonia quality

[DanielK]

The ammonia taste means that the cheese is past its peak and should not be served. It's not the cheese's fault.

I'm pretty sure that at one of the Cheesetique tastings, Jill said that some small but measurable percentage of the population, when eating certain types of cheese (washed rind, maybe? I don't remember the context), got a strong ammonia scent. Agreed that a bad cheese is a bad cheese, but sometimes it is the person, not the cheese.

[yeuxblu]

Mayo and aioli. I have a gag reflex to the smell and its been the same since childhood and I've tried to get past it. Now I avoid dishes with it. Removing it usually changes the food in a way that isn't the intent of the chef. Its just sad since I want to like it.

After hearing about a friends experience with whale blubber, I think I would have to rule that out too. Anything that has the potential for me to digest an eyeball similar to my own I find rather creepy. Think whale blubber jello mold.

[Poivrot Farci]

A fortnight past there was a dinner, coincidentally the anniversary of the day my tripe enthusiast grandfather's pipe broke and Louis Albert Marceau Fructidor turned his light out. In memory, I ordered what was fit for...a direct descendant of Charlemagne and Le Baron D'Apcher... an incorruptible school professor forced to flee Nice after turning over the portrait of Vichy's Marshal Petain in his classroom...a Resistance fighter who rescued victims of bombardments and stashed his revolver in my mother's crib...then a determined Rubik's cube figure-outer... yet puzzled by bicycle locks: andouillettes, a charred tubesteak composed of innards which carry body badness outwards offering a texture and whiff of organic balloon ends last inflated by the dying breaths of death deities who subsisted on Maroilles and Vieux-Boulogne cheese hot pockets.

In the annals of comestible western civilization, many coprophagous analogies have been made . I have come closer to those than most (except puppies and sürstromming consumers). I would gladly regale my own grandchildren with tales of ancestral courage if my proliferation were not sanctioned by the damned prophylactic tongue-wilting barnyard sausage which even copious mouthfuls of strong mustard could not assuage.

Pépé was indeed a very brave man.

[bettyjoan]

I'm not a fan of raisins (though I love grapes), and I can't stand olives. Blue cheese makes me gag. Ditto on the cottage cheese.

While I LOVE eggs, I cannot stand the sight, smell, or taste of egg salad--there's something about mixing eggs with mayo that really grosses me out.

I only like whole bananas when they're ultra-green and unripe--the second they get brown, I start sacrificing them for chocolate chip banana bread.

I don't like licorice, but fennel is okay.

Aside from those little quirks, the only thing I avoid like the plague is peanuts--I'm mildly allergic (no throat-closing, just itchy, annoying hives), but more importantly, I really hate them. Always have. My childhood friends said I was "un-American" for not liking peanut butter.

This thread has been great--nice to know there are lots of folks out there with strange food issues!

[thistle]

I think my food phobias are pretty common-offal, green peppers, asparagus, sweet potatoes, melons & I might be able to eat some of these if they were cooked REALLY well. I'm not a big fan of traditional breakfast food, prefer savouries to sweets, the only thing that really sets me off is the smell of microwave popcorn (dates back to my first pregnancy, that only thing that made me nauseous).

[Chocolaterie Wanders]

In the annals of comestible western civilization, many coprophagous analogies have been made . I have come closer to those than most (except puppies and sürstromming consumers). I would gladly regale my own grandchildren with tales of ancestral courage if my proliferation were not sanctioned by the damned prophylactic tongue-wilting barnyard sausage which even copious mouthfuls of strong mustard could not assuage.

I had a hard time finding something I didn't like in this post. But this is definetly one of those things.

We were on our way to Tain L'Hermitage, a little town about an hour south of Lyon. It was already too late - we got in rush hour coming from Paris and didn't suspect it to be THAT bad. Anyway, it was 12:30AM and we didn't have dinner yet. I pulled over at a gas station south of Lyon and we checked out the menu. Although I had learned the French language in high school, it wasn't really helping me understand anything on there. So we just ordered anything that gave us hope to get sth. fried. Well I tried to erase most memories of that dinner - but the fried sausage filled with inerts remains.

It looked just like the one on the quoted post - just deep-fried. The second I cut in it it gave off a stench that just can't be described. I gave it one try, but the gummy-y texture didn't do it for me.

We ate the fries and hit the road - hungry, but happier to be on the road again.

The croissanterie in Tain L'Hermitage made us forget about last nights dinner excursion and we enjoyed our stay at the Valrhona factory in this small and almost forgotten town.

[JeffC]

While I LOVE eggs, I cannot stand the sight, smell, or taste of egg salad--there's something about mixing eggs with mayo that really grosses me out.

I only like whole bananas when they're ultra-green and unripe--the second they get brown, I start sacrificing them for chocolate chip banana bread.

The smell of hard boiled eggs--and sometimes egg salad--remind me of flatulence. So much so that when a woman who has a taste for them at work opens up one of her eggs, my first thought is that someone cut the cheese. To her credit, she tries hard to have her eggs when I'm out of the office.

I also like my bananas green. If I see any brown, I won't eat them. Fried plantains, OTOH, are an addiction. Go figger...

Eggplant...I used to like it, but I got violently ill after eating eggplant once in South Asia. Never again.

Organ meats, including various intestines, gizzards, etc. Again, a friend in India once made me an elaborate curry which I attacked heartily, but was brought up short by the soft crunch of the first bite. Curried goat brains! I struggled through the rest of it--didn't want to offend my host--but it was about the most painful meal of my life. My mom used to love chicken livers, but I was never required to eat any kind of liver.

Tongue. I hear it's good, but the idea of it doesn't work for me.

Soft-shelled crabs. I've tried, but that's another one that grosses me out.

Hot-house tomatoes. If they aren't heirloom, I'm pretty much not interested, except in salsas and sauces.

And my number one food phobia.....soggy bread! How I would love to know what a great bowl of French onion soup tastes like. But the soggy bread is like having to conquer a pit bull to get to the treasure.

[Anna Phor]

1. Peanut oil. I think I'm okay if it's fresh, but if it starts to smell even a teeny bit, I wanna gag.

2. Creamed Vegetable of any sort. Gammon. Cf. school dinners in Britain in the early 80s.

3. Baileys. 1 & 3 are from unfortunate incidents with the porcelain telephone; 2, just coz they are gross.

Bitter melon, otoh, is truly vile and doesn't count.

I understand the wet bread thing, too; I'm not fond of things like panzanella or even biscuits with gravy, but I don't mind the bread in French onion soup.

[trillian68]

Raisins. Taste and texture skeeve me out. I'll sit and pick out every last one from a muffin or granola. Drives the hubby crazy. I don't have a problem with any other dried fruits though.

Anything with the taste of licorice. That used to include fennel but I've been working on getting over it.

Okra. Dear god - I shuddered just typing it. Oozy yuckiness. Blech.

[Dave Pressley]

I'm a restaurant professional. I like eating just about anything...but the few things I dislike are so HUGE in the restaurant world! I am a good guy and keep tasting different versions of the items I'm about to list in hopes that I will find a version that I like, but have never succeeded.

I am ashamed. Here is my list:

*Blue and Yellow Cheeses- I can handle mozz, parm, ricotta, provolone and the like. Nothing stronger. Oops, I just farted thinking about it.

*Raw tomatoes- I have found a few heirlooms that I really like, but they are few and far between.

*Oysters- I can't get past the mouthfeel...and the flavor doesn't do too much for me either.

*Eggplant- Looks like a dense sponge with seeds. Tastes like a used Dr.Scholl's pad.

Crucify me. Whatever. I'll try another version of all of the above tomorrow just to further confirm that I HATE them passionately.

[sparkycom]

Haven't had time to find anything to back this up, but, years ago a biology professor of mine told me that the aversion to cilantro (expressed as cilantro tasting like soap) was genetic, just like certain people can roll their tongue and others can't. Anyone else ever heard of this?

[zoramargolis]

Haven't had time to find anything to back this up, but, years ago a biology professor of mine told me that the aversion to cilantro (expressed as cilantro tasting like soap) was genetic, just like certain people can roll their tongue and others can't. Anyone else ever heard of this?

Yes, I think you are right. Also, some people have strong-smelling urine after eating asparagus, also genetic. This happens to my husband, but not to me. Our daughter is like me, in that regard.

[Xochitl10]

Okra. Dear god - I shuddered just typing it. Oozy yuckiness. Blech.

This makes me think of a dish we had last year on vacation: sliced okra, water shield, and slimy mountain mushrooms in soy sauce. I recall being annoyed that I couldn't get any non-viscous food on my birthday.

I can't handle lima beans (mealy) or egg yolks in any distinguishable form.

[JLK]

"Down with picky eating" (NY Times)

[zoramargolis]

However, I once worked with a certain vegan. I looked forward to talking to her, because how many people do you really identify with in the office? Imagine my horror when the opening small-talk revealed that veganism was just the first constraint on her diet. The second was that she wouldn't eat most vegetables! The subsequent months bore this out: every lunch, she would microwave a Amy's bean and rice burrito and be chomp away, perfectly happy. No alcohol, no caffeine. The kicker: she insisted that she loved food!

I finally told her one day that I didn't consider her a vegan -- it was just her handy label to hide the fact that she did not like food. Yes, I am awful and judgmental, and I will probably be deep-fried in Hell for calling out her core deficiency. She said she'd rather never hear from me again, and I agreed, with the condition that she would chew with less projection in our office. I'm reasonable.

There are people who have serious food phobias or other eating disorders who try to mask their problems and appear normal by saying that they have food allergies or are adherents to various special diets. It's not either-or: like many psychological phenomena, there is a continuum from mild to severe. It's fairly common in children: the "picky eater"--at the age of 12, my daughter had a friend who would only eat pasta with plain tomato sauce. That's what she ate for every meal, every day. Usually, by adulthood, that eases up, although the tendency to have strong food likes and dislikes probably endures. But there are a number of adults who remain food phobics, and will eat only a very few things. It can be crippling, socially and emotionally.

[DaRiv18]

There are people who have serious food phobias or other eating disorders who try to mask their problems and appear normal . . .It can be crippling, socially and emotionally.

Well, if that was the case then I feel very badly. She had a tremendous group of close friends, so hopefully they will intervene if it is severe. FWIW, she was a very self-confident person, very productive, and passionate enough about her diet to convince her boyfriend to become a vegan.

Just curious, do the people you reference ever return dishes at restaurants for self-validation of their phobias/disorders? I would intervene if I saw a pattern of such behavior from a close friend.

[JPW]

However, I once worked with a certain vegan. I looked forward to talking to her, because how many people do you really identify with in the office? Imagine my horror when the opening small-talk revealed that veganism was just the first constraint on her diet. The second was that she wouldn't eat most vegetables! The subsequent months bore this out: every lunch, she would microwave a Amy's bean and rice burrito and be chomp away, perfectly happy. No alcohol, no caffeine. The kicker: she insisted that she loved food!

I finally told her one day that I didn't consider her a vegan -- it was just her handy label to hide the fact that she did not like food. Yes, I am awful and judgmental, and I will probably be deep-fried in Hell for calling out her core deficiency. She said she'd rather never hear from me again, and I agreed, with the condition that she would chew with less projection in our office. I'm reasonable.

Thanks for that. It was the perfect way to start off a Monday morning!

[synaesthesia]

Interesting discussion of food phobia on Kottke. http://kottke.org/09/10/food-phobia

[zoramargolis]

Well, if that was the case then I feel very badly. She had a tremendous group of close friends, so hopefully they will intervene if it is severe. FWIW, she was a very self-confident person, very productive, and passionate enough about her diet to convince her boyfriend to become a vegan.

Just curious, do the people you reference ever return dishes at restaurants for self-validation of their phobias/disorders? I would intervene if I saw a pattern of such behavior from a close friend.

A real tip-off that someone is anorexic is that they move food around on their plate as if they are eating, but actually leave most of it on the plate, unconsumed. Bulemics, as Frank Bruno has admitted in his autobiography, will repair to the restroom after eating and return, smelling of mouthwash or breath mints, or with a faint aura remaining of what the mint is trying to obscure. People with serious food phobias often won't eat out--they'll always have a reason why they can't accept an invitation to dine. Or they will order something that they consider "safe"--often requesting that the kitchen omit ingredients that they won't eat. A young cousin of mine had a girlfriend who always brought her own food along to restaurants and family gatherings, saying that she needed to prepare her own food because of her severe food allergies. After they broke up, the cousin's mother revealed to me that the allergy story was a ruse to avoid embarrassment--the young woman was a severe food phobic who would only eat a few foods that didn't cause anxiety.

[DanCole42]

I've always held a bit of personal philosophy that a person's approach to food is highly reflective of the way they approach life.

I know someone who is an extremely boring, uninteresting, and miserable woman who seems to derive no pleasure from anything. She eats extremely plain and bland food: bagels with nothing on them, unadorned salads with dressing on the side, etc. She is very picky and particular (i.e. she wouldn't eat the french onion soup at Ray's the Steaks because there wasn't a blanket of cheese on top).

I know someone else who has an addictive personality and is always satisfied with mediocrity in every part of his life. Lived in the same house for years with shag carpet and 1970s-vintage brass. He seems to have little eye for beauty and is only interested in watching as much sports as he can on TV. He is miserable and is content with more and more of the same. He is extremely overweight and for him food is an addiction: he eats tons and tons of junk food, but has little interest in what he's eating other than that it fills up whatever void he has in his life.

Yet another friend is a total homebody. Never does anything exciting or has any adventures. He eats nothing but chicken wings and orders the same thing at every restaurant he repeats.

So I think for a lot of people there are deeper psychological issues tied to what they will and will not eat.

I will eat pretty much anything, have a strong appreciation for food that's been prepared with care and love, and generally try to avoid foods that are mediocre or bland. I like spicy. I like seasoned. I like variety. I like food that's pretentious and arrogant (seriously).

What does that say about ME?

[alan7147]

I know someone who is an extremely boring, uninteresting, and miserable woman who seems to derive no pleasure from anything. She eats extremely plain and bland food: bagels with nothing on them, unadorned salads with dressing on the side, etc. She is very picky and particular (i.e. she wouldn't eat the french onion soup at Ray's the Steaks because there wasn't a blanket of cheese on top).

Let me guess, your MIL, right?

[DanCole42]

Let me guess, your MIL, right?

... Do I know you?

The Ray's trip was a mistake.

[leleboo]

There is also an entire world of EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified). I believe the Kottke.org article mentioned orthorexia, an obsession with healthy foods, but one can be a binge eater (no purging; bulimia diagnosis requires the purge element), or bulimic via exercise instead of elimination, or a purger alone, who will purge without binging first. One can be anorexic at times, bulimic at others, or move through the various forms of the diseases throughout life. Phobias about food, or about specific foods, can manifest along with, or independent of, other disordered eating habits.

This world is incredibly complex and often terrifying and upsetting. I would almost ask that the mods add a "trigger" warning to the title of this thread, especially given that dr.com is Google-searchable.

[KMango]

I've always held a bit of personal philosophy that a person's approach to food is highly reflective of the way they approach life...

Yes, over-quoted, but a big-T Truth:

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are" --Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin