How to Overcome Being a Picky Eater

One of the biggest things I’ve overcome in life is being a picky eater. Growing up, I was the pickiest kid I knew. Now, as an adult I’m one of the most adventurous eaters I know. I’m going to share my five top tips with you to help you or someone in your life overcome being a picky eater.

Tip #1

Figure out the why behind the pickiness. If you don’t know why you don’t like certain foods you won’t know how to overcome being a picky eater. The top reasons I’ve come across for people’s pickiness are: texture, taste, appearance, psychological, and inexperience.

Texture

Texture is what I have the most personal experience with since that was my issue. If I came across a vegetal-like crunch in my food, my body went into rejection mode. I would pick through the entire meal and remove any bit I suspected of being a vegetable. But this wasn’t limited to just vegetables. I would do the same with nuts/seeds, fruits, and chewy bits in meat. Anything that didn’t meet with my brain’s expectation for the texture of what I was eating got removed.

Taste

Taste is a common issue for many people. Let’s take a moment to talk about the different receptors on the tongue. Sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami (savory). These are what we can taste as humans. From infancy, we are accustomed to few flavors: sweet and umami with traces of salt. These are the receptors activated from milk. Children often struggle with bitter and sour flavors because young taste receptors aren’t accustomed to them. Children also have a higher tolerance for sweet things. The theory is that since kids are growing, their bodies crave quick boosts of energy to compensate. You can read more about the why behind picky eating in children here and here.

Appearance

Appearance is an interesting one. There are people who go through phases where they won’t eat any green food or white food, for example. There are also people who have trypophobia, a fear or aversion to clusters of holes or bumps. This makes certain fruits like strawberries and raspberries or even bread something to be avoided.

Psychological

Psychological reasons are more complex. Generally, some sort of trauma has occurred revolving around your experience with said food. It can be something small that happened over time, like a rule in your house of having to eat everything on your plate and having to take some of everything. Or it could be a large event, like when I was five years old and I tried to hide that I didn’t eat my peas by throwing them onto the shag carpet when the babysitter wasn’t looking, so she had me eat them off of the floor. It could even be that you got sick shortly after eating a new food, so you now associate that food with feeling sick.

Inexperience

Inexperience can be with cooking in general or inexperience with a certain ingredient. You may struggle when you’re having to cook for yourself for the first time. Going from having your parents or even a significant other make the majority of your meals to relying on yourself can be daunting. Cooking is a skill and it takes practice. You might think you don’t like a certain food, but you just might not like how it was prepared.

Additionally, a diet change may have the same result. Trying to make gluten-free pancakes, for example, may turn out different than you’d expect from your traditional pancakes. There is also some fear of the unknown that comes with inexperience. I have an uncle who when you ask him if he wants to try something new that he’s not sure he’d like, he’ll say ‘no thanks, that’ll make my butt itch’. There are no follow up questions after a reason like that.

Tip #2

Find a gateway food/preparation. Now that you know the reason behind your picky eating, it’s time to figure out a food that will push those boundaries a little bit. For me and my texture issues that ended up being spinach.

My sister was making a sandwich for herself with honey roasted turkey, mayonnaise, grey poupon, and spinach on white bread. Being hungry myself and curious, I asked if I could have a bite. I knew I already liked everything else on the sandwich but I had never tried spinach. She did the best thing she could have done, simply said okay and handed me the sandwich.

It added an almost imperceptible textural change that I didn’t mind. The spinach was tender and had a mild flavor that didn’t detract from the sandwich. My sister made me a sandwich and I became a spinach lover from that point forward.

Other Examples

If you are someone who dislikes the flavor of certain foods, try pairing them with something you love the flavor of. Hubby helped me like a bunch of different vegetables by sauteing them with onions, mushrooms, and a little bit of bacon. He’d toss others in a honey mustard sauce because it was one of my favorites.

This works well if you’re inexperienced as well. Add a sauce you like to foods you don’t. Some folks will eat anything if they can dip it in ketchup or cover it in cheese. The trick comes from slowly weaning back from those flavor maskers over time. I now love multiple vegetables that have been simply roasted with salt, pepper, and oil instead of covering them in honey mustard sauce.

If you have a psychological or appearance issue, try changing how the food looks. You could turn peas into a puree or add some beet juice to mashed potatoes to alter the color. A lot of kids will enjoy eating their fruits and vegetables if they look fun. Try getting some cutters or using a knife to change their shape. If slices of carrot look like flowers or Pacman, they’re more entertaining to eat.

Tip #3

Get help from someone who knows what you like. When Hubby and I were dating, one of our favorite things to do was cook together. I would cook the meat and he would cook the sides. While cooking, I would ask questions about why he was doing certain things or how to tell when the vegetable dish was ready.

I was able to learn about these new foods while being confident that they were prepared in a way I would like. There was also some relief that these new-for-me ingredients wouldn’t go to waste because someone else would help eat them and knew how to prepare them. That relief really helped me overcome being a picky eater.

You could cook with a family member. Both of my parents are professional cooks and I’ve learned a lot from them. You could try setting up a video call with a friend whose brunches you love. Get creative with it. And be patient with yourself. It might take multiple attempts before you have a result you really love.

My mom made asparagus for us one night shortly after I tried spinach for the first time. She made it how she liked it and how I would make it today as a vegetable lover. Sauteed in a pan until bright green with butter, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice. At the time, I didn’t like it. It was too crisp and very bitter tasting to someone who had just learned to like their first green vegetable. But after having it a few more times with different flavorings, I soon loved asparagus.

Tip #4

Dedicate the time/resources to try new recipes/ingredients. When trying out a new recipe, I recommend you double the amount of prep time listed or what you think it will take. This might be the first time you’re working with a specific ingredient, or it might involve unfamiliar techniques. This sets you up to exceed your expectations instead of flailing about trying to get something ready for supper. Because of this, trying a new recipe might not be achievable during a busy workday. Experiment on your days-off or when you have the time to do so.

This also works well if you’re trying to help someone else overcome being a picky eater. If they get involved in the meal making, be it with the grocery shopping or the cooking, they are more likely to be excited about the food because they helped. They are now more invested and there’s less mystery behind the food. But again, this will increase the time involved because of their inexperience. It will take longer because you’ll need to show them how to do something or answer their questions.

Try a CSA

A big thing Hubby and I did that really helped expose me to more vegetables was getting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). A local farm offers shares of their produce for an upfront cost. We’d get a bushel of produce every week for about sixteen weeks, sometimes longer. We got a lot of fruits and vegetables that neither of us had heard of.

It took the burden of shopping for fresh produce off of our plates and gave us motivation to find new recipes. It was sometimes a struggle, like when we were given six ears of corn every week for five weeks. There’s only so much boiled corn with butter two people can eat before you need new ideas. But it completely expanded my horizons and helped me become a more adventurous eater.

But…

An asterisk on this whole tip is to factor your food budget into this. A CSA is a larger upfront cost of hundreds of dollars. But if you do the math, you’re spending less on that amount of food than you would from a grocery store. If you’re someone who eats out for the majority of your meals then cooking at home will be cheaper per plate. But if you are truly starting from scratch in the kitchen, then buying pans, utensils, bowls, and knives could be a larger cost. Even spices can be expensive. Take things slowly and figure out what fits into your budget and lifestyle.

Tip #5

Share what you’ve learned. When I was in the thick of it, I was trying new food every week. I would tell my parents or sister about the new dish or ingredient I liked now and they would tell me about their favorite recipes I should try next.

If you tell others about your newfound favorite ingredient they will likely share in your excitement and give you new ideas to try. This helps keep your ideas/recipes from getting stale. People love to talk about food and your loved ones want to see you succeed.

I still hear ‘I didn’t know you liked that’ at most family functions today. It gives me an opportunity to talk about the other new foods I’ve enjoyed recently, and I like that. In fact, I recently completed a month of meatless Mondays and shared it with all of you.

Final Thoughts.

Now that we’ve covered the why and the hows, let’s finish by talking about the most important thing: wanting to change. If you don’t actually want to change, you likely won’t stick with it. Be sure to be kind to yourself and have patience. Don’t expect to love everything new, but make an effort to try each new thing a few different times or ways. This is a big challenge. But with these tips as a guide, I believe you can overcome being a picky eater. You’ve got this!

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