The science of picky eating

by Nicole Weston, Posted Mar 5th 2006 @ 9:36AM

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, scientists think that “picky eating’ may have developed as a survival trait that kept children, and perhaps adults, from snacking on poisonous and unknown foods during the hunter-gatherer stage of life. Unwillingness to eat the unfamiliar until it becomes a safe, known quantity is a good survival tactic. Modern humans (with the possible exception of the roadkill chef) do not have to worry about survival in this manner because to most of us, safe food is readily available; survival of the species is no longer a major factor. So what is it that makes some people turn up their noses at cheese or sushi?

A recent study of 50 extremely picky adults at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia seemed to indicate that texture, more than flavor, is what turns people off. They hate surprises or simply don’t want to learn how to eat them. Many parents try to overcome these fears in their children, but the problems can be more difficult to deal with in adults. Most adults can avoid the foods they don’t enjoy, but if they travel on business, for example, encounters might be inevitable. The WSJ offers a few tips from eating consultants to wary business travelers: take a lot of foods you like (rice, potatoes) and don’t even ask what unknown foods are. Either take a little and “kind of nibble a little bit” or just push it around on the plate.

Filed Under: Science, Newspapers
Tags: business, business lunch, foods you don't like, fussy eater, grownups, lunch, picky adults, picky eaters, science, wall street journal, wsj

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-05-2006 @9:10PM rainey said... Interesting. My son is a picky eater in a family of people with a very wide range of tastes. He's always been that way. It took him a long time to identify that it was an issue of texture. I think he was 10 or older when he could finally say he didn't like "edges".

Figuring that much out helped me think in terms of things that could stretch his willingness to experiment a little. But the fact is, he's not the least interested in food and probably will never care for much other than pizza, burgers and mac & cheese (soft interior only, please).

He belongs to us. We have to love him anyway. ;> But interesting to read that someone is working on this and narrowed it down to the same thing my son did.
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3-09-2006 @3:13PM Maureen said... Hmm. My comment has been removed? I'll say it again: "modern humans" and "most of us" demonstrate a highly innaccurate world view!
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