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A woman in the UK who claims to have "been terrified of vegetables for more than 40 years" is now saying that she is on the path to curing her fear. The fear, known as lachanophobia, had been with 61-year old Krissie Palmer-Howarth since she was just 17. Since its onset, she says that she has not been capable of smelling vegetables or even speaking their names aloud without feeling sick. After a session of hypnotherapy, she can now stand near them without incident.
This treatment could be applied to others with food phobias, or even to picky eaters. Children aren't eating their broccoli? Stop by the hypnotherapy clinic on the way home from school.
And perhaps a similar treatment could help the poor people we saw earlier this year, whose fear of mustard and pickles was ruining their lives. Maury would probably air it as a followup episode, though it's hard to imagine more captivating TV than the original.
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10-08-2006 @7:26AM neil g said... i have never eaten a salad in my whole life...........do not eat anything green.not really into too many fruits or vegetables.....know that is not healthy and would like to change that bad eating habit!!!!...........please help me
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10-08-2006 @7:52AM Betty Rutter said... My grandson will be 17 this month. He has an aversion to food. Doctors could do nothing about it, kept saying he would outgrow it. He will only eat chicken nuggets from Burger King with a few French fries or Pizza from Pizza Hut or Dominos. He will only drink Coke or Pepsi. He won't go into restaurants and won't sit at the table when we have a family meal. The smell of food makes him feel sick. Can anyone help?
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10-08-2006 @8:24AM Emily said... Hypnotherapy? Like anyone's going to give a therapist $200/hour to make their kid eat Brussels sprouts. All you have to do is say "Kids...eat your veggies or you'll get no dessert." Trust me, it works every time.
Of course, if you are some sort of yuppie nitwit with money to burn and no idea how to raise a kid, then hypnotherapy is probably a viable solution. However, for us blue-collar folks, the threat of no dessert (or no video games, or no playing outside) works just fine.
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10-08-2006 @8:24AM Ken said... I don't believe that phobia. Sounds like a scam to get attention or to be on TV, etc. for their 15 minutes of fame. I can believe people dislike this veggie or that for whatever the reason - but to be AFRAID of them? Absolutely absurd. Put them into a strait jacket then, and let the Cucumber Guards stand outside of her rubber room.
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10-08-2006 @8:40AM Kelly said... Betty in #2 - if your grandson is 17 years old and he still won't eat his veggies, I think you missed the boat about 15 years ago when you might have taken away his favorite teddy bear as punishment. Now that he's 17 and still won't eat his veggies, I think it's time you let him worry about HIMSELF and his own vitamin deficiencies. Let his future wife worry about him not eating the proper foods. You should spend more time at BINGO enjoying yourself and less time worrying about a big buffoon that is already way too old to change now. ~ Kelly
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10-08-2006 @8:52AM Elise said... To Betty in No.2 - I agree with Kelly in a lot of ways. Eating at those places costs money. Let him pay for them. If the doctor's don't feel his life is threatened, then don't worry as much. Some of us really only eat to survive. Food is something we have to have (and it ticks us off) and there is no joy in it at all.
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10-08-2006 @8:57AM Jill said... For Kelly in posting #5. if your 17yo grandson is extremely thin, he may have the eating disorder anorexia. It sounds like he should see a physician in regard to feeling sick around others eating food, although sometimes teens just don't want to hang with family...
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10-08-2006 @8:58AM Jerry said... If your children wont eat their veggies... dont go with hypnotherapy... Give them the same treatment they need to get when they dont do their homework... it is a simple program.... they have hypno-therapy, they have rittolin, or they have you-can-do-your-homework-and-eat-your-veggies-or-i-can-pop-you-in-th-mouth-again... worked for me! :-) look at me now.... im fine... fine... fine... fine...fine... lol
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10-08-2006 @9:08AM Lisa said... Be advised...food phobias are real. My middle child would not eat solid food for over a year at age 9, after a few gagging incidents with foods she was adverse to. We tried EVERYTHING, (punishments, rewards, even downright bribery) and NOTHING worked. She got down to 44 1/2 lbs before we found something she'd eat (MELTED ice cream w/ ENSURE added for nutrition, and chocolate sauce to cover the horrible taste of ENSURE). The only expert on these disorders in the whole country is Dr. Chatoor at Children's Hospital in Washington, DC. Through a combination of medication (anti-anxiety) and therapy, our daughter eats again, Thank God. Good luck to all those with a child like this, it is heartbreaking.
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10-08-2006 @9:03AM Dana said... Betty,
Stop letting him eat those things. After he doesn't eat for a few days, he'll be willing to try something new. Don't keep pepsi in the house... try diet pepsi, and tell him he can only have one cup with his lunch and dinner. The rest of the time it's milk, or preferably water. If he puts up a stink, take him to a doctor to confirm that he he is indeed a healthy boy of 17, who has just been allowed to develope horrible eating habits. Let the doctor tell him where he'll be in five years if he keeps up eating that junk. Stick to it.. he'll be cured in no time. BTW, I might feel sick if I smelled "real" food after only eating that fat-laden junk for years.. same way that fast-food makes me queasy and tastes like oil and greasy nastiness if I have some now.. gross.
Neil,
You have to start somewhere. Grab some fresh fruit fruits and veggies from your grocery store, and start eating them! Go ahead.. go crazy! I bet you'll find some stuff you really love.. but don't be discouraged if you taste something not so great... stay away from okra, kale, fresh spinach, etc for a while.. those are for experienced veggie eaters only, lol. Good luck!
And Ken, people have phobias. Get over your aversion to it. At least she's doing something about it.. and what are you doing to overcome your close-minded opinions and judgemental holier-than-thou attitude about people with anxiety disorders?
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10-08-2006 @5:50PM Chris said... I saw a TV show recently that had a child who could not eat with others, or in resturants without vomiting, and they found he was missing an enzyme or something, and it was treatable. I wish I could remember the details, I think he had some other medical condition which was what the show was about.
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10-08-2006 @9:07AM Tina said... Well I have a freind who has a 6 yr old girl and she will cough and gag untill she throws up if she don't want to eat what everyone else is eating. She will only eat junk food cause that is what her mom gave her all the time to get her to eat something and I think its totally wrong!! My son tried that crap all I had to do was get the belt out and stand beside him 1 time he ate everything without a1 complaint funny how punishment will make a kid eat!
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10-08-2006 @9:11AM Karen said... I do believe that there are phobias.....I am terrified of not only spiders but any bug that crawls! My heart races very rapidy, my chest feels constricted and it's not a joke! This started when I was a child and I am now a 41 year old mom, wife and productive member of society. My phobia doesn't make mean I am crazy or that I am "looking for attention" as the one person said. If you are lucky enough to not suffer from anything like this then count yourself lucky. While some kids may be picky eaters...I am sure there are some foods that you don't like either. Don't like it, don't eat it!! I never made my kids eat things they didn't like, but never fixed seperate meals either. Let them help in the kitchen and you will be surprise at the new things they will try.
Hypnotherapy? Not for picky eaters, but if you truly believe it will help and you have the money.....GO FOR IT!!
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10-08-2006 @9:11AM Tina said... As for those of you that don't like food and get no pleasure in it, SEE A DR.!!! YOU ARE NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD! Food is a wonderful thing! I am not fat so don't think that, I love cooking for my family and hearing them tell me how good it was. Friends are always asking me for reciepes. Maybe you never had a well cooked meal.
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10-08-2006 @10:04AM Jenny said... What exactly are these people 'afraid' of? Attack of the killer green beans? Invasion of broccoli spears? A frightening medley of mixed vegetables? This ailment is an 'attention getter'. The aversion to food indicates a way in which these people seek to convey they have a greater and more fundamental issue that needs to be addressed; an issue that has nothing to do with food.
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10-08-2006 @9:26AM Kelly said... A 17 yr old that won't eat anything but pizza & Burger King? Won't drink anything but Coke or Pepsi? Yeah OK. That's not food aversions. That's a spoiled teenager who is manipulating his family to get what he wants. Make him get a job & pay for it then. I bet he gets over his "aversion" in record time.
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10-08-2006 @9:42AM Lisa said... I don't believe in beating a child to eat. My kids are not allowed to eat crap if they are not going to eat healthy food. I do not keep soda in the house. If they choose not to eat a meal, they simply do not get anything else until the next meal. It works because after skipping a meal or two they start to think before they turn that meal away. My kids are allowed to have some junk, but in moderation.
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10-08-2006 @9:45AM Sarah said... I am a nutritionist (not the "food police" kind). sometimes, an aversion to food like this can mean thatthere are some nutritional deficiencies like a zinc deficiency. Zinc affects how we taste things. Her ability to taste may have been impaired. I start my client on vegetable broths (boil lots of veggies like carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes, leeks etc, but no leafy greens as they are bitter)and ask them to drink the broth. most people love it and it begins to get the minerals fromthe veggies into them.
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10-08-2006 @9:53AM Sonya said... Neil in #1, I too have never been able to eat Veggies or Fruit. The only ones that I can stand are Corn on the Cob, and once a yr a Banana. I hate it, I know my eating is not right and bad for me. But everytime I think of eating something green I have this image of a cow chewing grass. When I saw this article I quickly clicked on it thinking there was someone like me in the world, and they had beat it. And for the person who said smack your child and make them eat. I was made to sit at a table until I ate something I didn't like, even if it meant all night and was made to eat it for breakfast. It didn't work, I'm 38 now and still more than ever can't eat veggies or fruit.
I'm willing to do anything to fix this....and to the person who wrote just go to the store and try everything....if it smells or I see it, I gag, and throw it up, I can't help it....That's the problem, if it were that easy don't you think we would have done that by now!
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10-08-2006 @10:00AM Dr. Charles Barth said... After reading the comments, my conclusion is that most of these "problems" are due to poor parenting techniques when the children are very young. Refusal to eat perhaps one or two food items is not a crisis, but when it applies to one or more entire food groups, one must look at the parents, not the child.
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