We have this debate often as a parent acquaintance took the very opposite view from conventional wisdom. She let her two boys eat whatever they wanted, anything they left on their plates was discarded, in the firm belief that rather than spoiling them it was the body's way of rejecting or craving the nutrients needed (zinc, iron etc) at any one time. She says it worked, that children aren't being fussy at all, they're simply doing what their bodies tell them. Since I just remember being force fed greens and onions this is a novel view.
Of the two boys, one is now wholly vegetarian, the other eats virtually nothing but unadorned protein, mostly in the form of meat.

From a small child I can remember hating the taste and texture of banana - and this is still the case. It's a regret that I can't stomach the fruit as I am all too aware of how good they are for you!

Sprouts. And I don't want to hear anything from you lot that go on about how you have to cook them properly in butter and bacon and chestnuts and goose fat and whatever. That's not cooking them. That's hiding them.

When I was a child I was a picky eater. I couldn't stomach different foods mixed together (unless one of them was tomato ketchup), carrots made me gag and greens were a complete no-no

All this still applies to me 65 years later !
And I still don't say tomato or potater
But I am nonetheless preposterously fit
And not some cantankerous, greens-eating, finicky old git !

P.S. That public registry of finicky eating (!)
Is unlikely to end in lovers' meeting....

Tomatoes.

Ketchup was my favourite thing in the world as a little kid, but I have always hated the real thing. I have tried many times over the years to eat them thinking one day I will like them as everyone else seems to, but they always make me wretch. They just taste completely wrong to me, as well as having that horrible squishy texture.

Also my friend's mum didn't help matters when i was about four or five, she tried to forcefeed me a cherry tomato - the image of a small tomato on the end of a fork being shoved in my face accompanied by her shouting at me about much I'd enjoy eating it must have left some severe anti-tomato psychological wounds, this is possibly why they taste so vile to me.

None of my family are picky eaters.
I encouraged my children to try everything, so they eat pretty much everything now
I think I have the only two children who ask for seconds of cabbage and sprouts, and they normally request the these two veg on the same plate.

phaine

I actively like sprouts. My sister's in your camp, which is good news for me at Christmas because I get to eat her share.

When I was young I was violently ill after eating caramel pie made from boiled condensed milk. The smell is still enough to regurgitate that memory.

i wasn't really a picky eater save for particular kinds of meat and unfortunately that has stayed with me. my folks had a very easy attitude to food and we were encouraged to try all sorts of things and wouldn't have to eat them if we didn't like them. i think there is something to be said for encouraging different tastes and sometimes that means masking food to make it more presentable.

http://comeconella.blogspot.com/

Tomatoes.

I can't stand the wretched things. I want to know why everyone puts them in sandwiches. We've had the moan about mayo is sandwiches but I like that. I want them to leave out the tomatoes. I make my own pasta source at home out of red peppers because I dislike tomatoes so very much and the same for pizza sauce which is either a thicker version of the red pepper or BBQ sauce.

I like a lot of things that I hated in my childhood. A lot of things I used to dislike where down to how they were cooked. For the longest time I thought I hated pork but now I know I was eating it when it was overcooked. Cooking for myself and trying new things has certainly widened what I like to eat.

The only thing I can't eat are raw tomatoes. I love cooked tomatoes, but I find them nausiating when raw. I will eat pretty much anything else.

When I was little, I went through a phase of just eating Marmite and pork pies. I'm so different now.

As a child, I refused all forms of potato, all forms of egg, many green vegetables and anything that tasted of banana. Only two dislikes really persist: bananas (although I think that's definitely more a texture thing than taste), and peas. According to my mother, I would pick the peas out of my baby food so I think that one's pretty much ingrained.

When I was young I wasn't allowed to leave the dinner table until I'd finished, and if I claimed I didn't like the look of something and didn't want it, even though i'd never tried it, I was bullied (in the nicest possible way of the word) into at least trying it. I don't think I was a particularly fussy eater; I had an aversion to sweet roots (oh god! Sweet potato! Ugh) that has stuck with me through to adulthood - I've learnt to like carrots and swede, but not the dreaded orange spud - but that's mainly it.

I can't eat fruit. Any of it. Couldn't as a child, can't now - and, like the article says, it's a texture thing rather than taste. I hate squishy textures and slimy ones. But I can have fruit juices no problem. Well, unless bananas are involved - the smell of them makes me a bit ill.

Pretty much all vegetables are OK with me, though.

Still, I was much worse as a child, when I refused to eat almost everything, except for sausages, chips, crisps and fish fingers. I couldn't even cope with sandwiches, I hated the idea of food wrapped in bread. I was weird.

Pilchards! We used to have them at junior school with salad and it was usually the only thing left if your table was at the end of the dinner queue.

Apart from buying them for the cat at one time I can't even stand to look at the tin they come in. I went for a meal to a work colleague of my ex-husband once and his wife had cooked pilchard curry. How I kept it down I don't know.

My father loves them on toast and I think he tells me deliberately when he is having them just to see my face go green!

I didn't have a choice, it was eat or don't get fed! end of story - there was days I used to sneak tomato sauce or sugar sandwiches to fill up.

This has its down side though - I still can't eat anything that has been cooked in milk i.e Fish pie - due to the fact I was forced to eat tripe and fish boiled in milk when younger.

Anything to soft-panacotta, mushrooms, tofu etc makes me gag. Also peppers always taste unbearably bitter to me. So mainly a texture thing.

I can't eat bananas, although I do like the taste the texture just gets to me.

My sister was a picky eater. My parents would try and persuade her to taste something she turned her nose up at. Her ingenious excuse was always to claim that she had 'tried it at someone else's house' .

Supertaster indeed? Ok, as in most things human, there's a range of variation but it's obvious from the information linked to that the concept of supertasters can be technically and scientifically described as bollocks.

Never was picky in the sense it's usually meant. I ate everything. (Which was just as well considering what my mother still does to poor innocent vegetables.) My sister, on the other hand, was always the picky one - although it's curious how often 'picky' means 'only likes extremely unhealthy processed food full of fat and sugar'. She still exists largely on crisps, packets and ready meals.

But why do we call only wanting to eat shit being 'picky'? I check food labels, I look at where food has come from and try to buy local and seasonal veg and fruit as much as possible, I avoid meat that isn't free range or organic. I walk a mile out of my way home to shop at the local independent wholefood store that I like rather than going into the nearest supermarket. Surely I'm the really picky one?

We were just not allowed to be picky eaters in my house when I was growing up. My brother had a lot of serious food allergies, so my parents basically catered to him: sardines and liverwurst were on the menu; cheese and chocolate were not. At the time, it felt woeful, but I think it helped me to develop an adventurous palate. The only thing I won't eat now is black licorice, which I find to be a substance utterly bereft of any pleasure-giving properties.

i cant stand anything too salty. a little bit to season is ok, but the amount on some bacon is unbearable. cant stand ready salted crisps, well any crisps to be honest as they all taste artificial and too salty!

other than that i eat most things except meat but love fish.

my son is the same, hates meat, processed burgers, chips, crisps etc loves fish and sushi.

couldnt ask for a better eater really and he saves me a fortune by not wanting meat or the usual snacks.

When I was a child I was a fussy eater. I wouldn't eat a whole range of things including sliced white bread, margarine. cheap ham, and instant mashed potato.

I'm just as fussy now.

@ technopeasant - im with you on that, im definitely picky in that ill go to 5 shops instead of just one big supermarket.

it has to be home made bread here and the big supermarkets just dont cater for anyone but the white bread masses (with regards to buying flour)

the greengrocers because they usually have something different in, this week doughnut peaches which were tasty.

i even grow the veg i love because i cant find it on the shop shelves around here.

The writer mentions cucumber.

There appears to be variability in the human olfactory response to cucumbers, with the majority of people reporting a mild, almost watery flavor or a light melon taste, while a small but vocal minority report a highly repugnant taste. The presence of the organic compound phenylthiocarbamide is believed to cause the bitter taste.

My wee'ns never really turned their noses up at anything but they did both go through a phase of eating ingredients one-by-one. Even down to disassembling sandwiches or carefully plucking items out of a mixed dish. I never really worked out the arcane rules that determined what order things should be eaten in and since they would ultimately clean the plates I never really worried about it.

Perhaps this is toddler OCD rather than picky eating.

Baked Beans! hate the crappy tomato sauce they are in but mostly I hate the chewy texture eugh! Being forced fed them by my mum up to the age of 11 when i was taller than her by that point leaves bad memories too.

I like most fruits however, my mum seemed to be one who would pick soft or dented fruit so I wouldnt eat fruit that had dents on them coz i was worried about the taste of the soft spots or that a worm had got into them. Also cannot stand bananas - the smell, the texture - especially if they have gone brown and soft eugh! not a fan of kiwi fruit either!

Cannot bare tomatoes either!! i can cope with tomato sauce in pasta but do prefer to not have it.

I hate cream - especially the squirty stuff - don't like the taste or the texture of it. Although butter cream in cakes can be nice - just hate the cheap stuff that's really gloopy.

Hard custard - due to the horrible skin it has and the texture.

I love doughnuts normally but those ones you get from the nosepicker stands that waft their horrible dirty smell through town centres are vile.

Couple of tips:

Encourage your children to participate in cooking their meals
Add food colouring to veg

wouldnt eat salad until I recently started to make my own - never thought of them as filling and the ones my mum/relatives made always had tomatoes and cucumber in them!

Echoing the dislike for bananas, but only when they're ripe. A bit green, and a bit firmer, and they're fine. It's definitely more about texture than taste though, Ms Pic can't stand peas or sweetcorn because she imagines them popping in her mouth and slimy mushrooms make her gag.

Likewise my mum could never eat spaghetti because they felt like worms in her mouth. She better now, but now she's coeliac so can't eat it anyway.

I was always a bizarre child in that I never wanted to eat cake, sweets, or ice cream. I didn't like junk food either, I just wanted ham sandwiches with cucumber and red pepper, and roast dinners.

At Christmas, I am always the one to hoover up all the left over veggies. Cold brussel sprouts are amazing, and I can't work out why people think I'm weird for liking them :(

I grew up believing I was a picky eater as that is what I was told by parents and relatives. But looking back, apart from not being massively keen then on mixing foods on my plate (which seems to be quite a common thing among kids), I ate a wide range of veg and fruit, loved raw veg more than cooked, and was happy with brown pasta and bread etc.. I look at a lot of my friends' kids and think 'I wasn't picky at all!'. The only thing I did have an issue with that I still am a little squirmy about is too much dairy/creamy/eggy stuff- but if someone has cooked it I'll eat as much of it as I can. It's not about the taste or texture, more the over-richness really.

There's very, very little I won't eat- and I'll try most things at least twice. In particular I remember a distinct moment at the age of 13, when I was invited to a friend's house for tea and was faced with a plate of overcooked broccoli and egg/cheese sauce, and thought 'I need to start eating, or at least eating a good proportion of, whatever is put in front of me, or I'll end up with no social life- whether I'd choose to cook it myself or not'. I've lived by that rule since then!

As a kid I couldn't stand anything yellow & soft, so eggs, custard & bananas were all off the menu. Even today I can't eat eggs - the taste & texture of boiled, fried, scrambled, poached eggs makes me want to gag. Don't even get me started on egg mayonnaise!!

The best type of egg is in a cake.

I haven't grown out of hating; any type of cheese, jam, cherries and pineapple. Luckily I like pretty much every thing else.

I am the least picky eater out there, in all honesty, although I can't stomach miso soup particularly.
My elder sister has an aversion to all cheese, unless melted. She simply can't stick the look, or particularly the smell, of it. It is an old family gag that we'd forever offer her cheese when we know she hates it, but she still would look fairly green at the sight of it. If we eat camembert, she leaves the room. A bit bizarre given that we're a French family, and cheese is a staple of the table.
My partner, meanwhile, goes in and out of enjoyment - right now she doesn't like spinach, unless cooked, or mushrooms. Recently she loved mushrooms on toast. (No she's not pregnant!).

I couldn't and still can't eat eggs and cheese in the same dish. I want to, but I just can't. bleugh!

That said, I wasn't a picky eater. You ate what was given to you or you didn't eat in my house. I am particular about what I eat and how it is prepared now, but I'm also not wasteful with food.

Cauliflower - it is Satan's vegetable, and no amount of cheese sauce is going to change that. I have always hated it and had that reinforced by a very strict father who made us sit and finish cold meals - and who once made me eat cauliflower that I'd tried to chew and spat out!

Felt the same way about mashed potatoes for years, but that was because my mother made them fun-free (ie: skimmed milk, no butter) and LUMPY. Decent mash was a revelation. All other foodstuffs happily ingested.

I am hugely picky. I think my mother indulged me and never forced me to eat anything.

Ketchup
Mustard
Mayo
Coleslaw
Pickled anything
Anything with vinegar
Unknown sauces
All salad dressings

See the theme here?

Scrambled eggs

I hate anything that comes in small quantities.
Give me anything to eat, but make sure there's plenty of it.

Deep breath.

courgette (It is not "cooked cucumber", I think I can safely say this is what inspired Roald Dahl's idea for snozzcumbers.)
sprouts
cabbage
onion
broccoli
cauliflower
Angel Delight (i.e. Mortal Dismay)
fish
licorice
burnt cheese sauce (you might call it "browned")
dark chocolate
mushrooms
casseroles
lamb (or any fatty meat)
nuts

Anything in bold causes gagging, actual vomiting on a couple of occasions.

Has anyone ever heard the phrase "Try it, you might like it." (possibly appended with "It's different this time.") before actually eating something that tasted good?

SPROUTS!!!!! Icky green smelly stuff.

My mum loved them, but the rest of the family didn't share her feelings. Remember back in the 1970s, when sprouts were the size of golf balls and had a really strong taste and smell, and they bloated you till you felt like you was gonna explode any second? That was the time. Mum force-fed me on them, means I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I had eaten my portion.

Soon as I took charge of the cooking for myself, sprouts were declared public enemy #1. I eat every other vegetable with pleasure, just not sprouts. I find them on my plate at a Christmas Party or other occasion where I don't have influence what ends up on my plate because they use a vague description such as "vegetable side" and they go back untouched. Nasty horrible little shits!

No.

I wouldn't say I have ever been a picky eater, but I do have a lifelong hatred of peppers which my dad still carries on about as if I had been one of those children only eats oven chips at each meal when in fact I ate pretty much everything else.

I absolutely cannot eat them without retching. It made being a vegetarian in this country and trying to eat out well nigh impossible as everyone thinks meat free and shoves a tonne of peppers into things for 'flavour' without mentioning them on the menu. And when you complain, they tell you they don't taste of anything. so why ruin a perfectly nice meal with them then?

I won't let anyone bring them into my house I hate them so much...

@besidethesea

pilchard curry

Agh, you've just ruined my lunch. What a vile thought.

Haggis
Black pudding
Saurkraut
Tripe (I remember my motheres hatred of cooking this for dad)
Marmalade

Mushrooms!!! YUCK! I can just about handle them cut into tiny pieces in something, preferably when I am not aware of their presence, but otherwise I can't stand them! I used to think it was the texture, but have tried many times to get over this and have realised it's the taste I dislike too...

I think some things you can grow out of, like coffee, olives, and so on, but some things stay with you for life, and some things can develop in later life: I used to enjoy lamb but now can't stomach the taste of it..

I used to not eat my pees and onions when little, but now I can enjoy both. Only coffee continues to make me feel sick.

I could'nt and still can't eat any kind of sauce or cream or custard or anything. I guess I'm averse to wet or wettish stuff on food.

I will not mix food in one mouthful ie no meat and veg together. As a child I would eat all the meat, then all the potato, then all the veg. I'm a little better at this now, aged 60.

Apart from that, I eat pretty much everything except bread and butter pudding. I adore all kinds of offal, for example, and brussel spouts are probably my favorite veg.

I can't think of anything I won't eat. I'd rather not have egg sandwiches but I'll force one down if I have to. My brother in law is the fussiest eater in the world - he'll eat chicken, beef, potatoes, rice and not a lot else. No sauces or veg, no pasta or cheese. I feel sorry for him because no one will let it lie (he's 45) and keep desperately trying to entice him to try something new.