My comfort food is also boxed Mac n Cheese, and like you i like to add veggies to it (no meat since i don’t cook meat at home). I know its crap food but it’s a familiar taste i like on the rare occasion, overall though i try to eat pretty varied things though lately i’ve really slipped on cooking home meals. I need to get back to it 
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I know, right? And chefing is so so so violently macho. Horrible profession.
I mean it’s horribly high pressure with terrible hours and substance abuse culture and lots of bullying. Commercial kitchens can be horrible places.
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Accident. I meant to do a general reply to the topic, but must have hit reply to your post instead. Nothing more intended, I assure you.
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I haven’t read the article yet but going off the comments and the title, I find the premise suspect and a bit insulting.
I look at my own son as an example. As a boy, he was an incredibly picky eater - no spices, no salt, no vegetables, no condiments of any kind, would only eat certain foods no matter how much we begged, threatened or bribed. He was just one of those kids.
We like to joke he was formed this way in the womb - when my wife was pregnant she could not tolerate any kind of strong flavors. She was even turned off by the salt in the water when boiling pasta.
Fast forward a couple of decades and as a young man, now living in his own with nobody else to cook for him, he has naturally become more adventurous. Isn’t this the way it’s supposed to be?
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That’s literally what the headline says doesn’t it? People should develop into healthy diets, but some people (especially men) just don’t.
The complaint is that it’s unfair to the men who don’t develop tastes beyond frozen foods marketed as the favorite foods of children, and that it is gendered.
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Sure, it’s great when it is that way. So what’s with men who instead still eat like little boys? And why do you find that question insulting?
Sounds like you actually agree that they’d be better off if they moved beyond the mostly unhealthy diets of little boys.
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Jinx! (Basically.)
You owe me a – um, fruit and veg smoothie!
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Better make it beet and apple!
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If you have a full-time job, and a bunch of kids to feed (at least one of whom will moan about eating the same stuff as the others), and a desire to see them avoid malnutrition, and limited time to research, plan and shop for a wide variety of alternative menus (see: full-time job, above), then that’s not picky eating, that’s just keeping your sanity.
ETA: “I don’t want sausages, mash and peas.” “Tough, it’s Tuesday and on Tuesday we have sausages, mash and peas.” Short-circuits a lot of arguing.
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As I stated, I have yet to read the article so maybe it’s addressed there. I have yet to meet any men like this so I question the premise.
While I’m sure people like this do exist but is it really that prevalent that it’s now ‘a thing’?
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Somewhat, my daughter goes through phases, she eats loads of things, then only a few things… she’s one of the few kids I know that love(s/d) beetroot, and will eat slices of lemon, so her tastes are definitely not the most common.
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Presumably these “men who eat like little boys” score low on the Openness To Experience domain of the five factor personality model:
This would track with these men tending to be conservative politically.
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Well, anecdotally at least, I’ve met a lot of men like that.
But yeah, if you can’t get past a headline before taking umbrage and telling us about it, I’m not seeing much reason to discuss the topic with you.
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I know one woman whose diet has regressed to eating just a couple processed foods all the time.
I, a man, frequently still partake of my childhood favorites (Chef Boyardee, canned soups, KFC, etc.), but I eat “real food” as well.
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I mean don’t we have generations of people now who have spent their entire lives consuming media and entertainment that consistently associates manliness with these these key food industries and consumption habits and presents it in opposition these other key food industries and consumption habits associated with femininity while tying the desired consumption habit to an essential part of people’s personal identity and suggesting that divergence is undesirable and diseased?
I feel like I’ve seen something like that going on maybe. Maybe I’m imagining it.
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When I was a little boy, I ate my vegetables like a lady. With great gusto. 
I think it’s a disservice to attempt to draw parallels between maturity and abnormal (and unhealthy) eating habits. While it’s true that some children go through a phase where they’ll only eat specific things. Bread, noodles, and dairy being a pretty common one.
I know young boys who wouldn’t eat meat, not even chicken nuggets. Not that they were vegetarian, they just didn’t like the texture.
But I have a roommate that is rather picky. He won’t eat whole vegetables except for potatoes, or things like tomatoes if they’re cooked down like into marinara sauce. Meat can’t have a lot of fat or gristle on it. Chicken needs to come off the bone easily, no struggling with an unappetizing bone. He mainly eats frozen pizza (pepperoni w/ cheese only! and never reheated leftover pizza), chicken nuggets, and spaghetti. Drinks up to 2L of diet soda a day. But also drinks water. I think his eating habits are more nuanced than the kids I’ve dealt with. There are certain parallels but it’s more than simply sticking to what he’s used to. It’s a smell and texture thing.
If you’ve ever been food poisoned. You don’t really reach for veggies and complicated food after that. Your preferences are more along the lines of food that is simple and very well cooked. Like a chicken nugget.
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Yes.
But it doesn’t always work that way. Speaking as a parent, it’s easier to allow the kids to eat the way they want, but it’s usually detrimental in the long run, physically if not socially. I’ve raised two picky eaters, but both are healthy-ish eaters, because we determined early on what the problems were (with one, it was a texture issue; with the other, a physical sensitivity to raw fruits and veggies.) Once you find out what the yuck factor is, you can work around it and teach your kid to be feed themselves in a nutritional way.
From what I’ve observed, microwave meals and fast food dinners have made it much easier for parents to allow their kids to determine what they’re going to eat. And that’s something else observed - in a lot of families, the kids make the decisions, not the parents. The parents don’t teach their kids about health and nutrition any more than manners or consistent discipline, leading to adults who can’t dress themselves appropriately* or choose foods** that will not guarantee diabetes and heart disease.
[*wearing nothing but cargo shorts, t-shirts, and athletic shoes, year round, for all activities and events]
[**Big Ag and the US government are responsible for a lot of food choices, but even poverty stricken you can choose between rice and beans or chicken nuggets.]
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There are things I like now that I couldn’t stand as a kid, and likewise there are things I liked as a kid that I can’t stand now. I think Spaghetti Os are the prime example of that, yuck!
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pishaw
everybody knows the four food groups are:
- deli sandwich
- potato salad
- macaroni salad
- cole slaw
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Okey dokey. Did not mean to start any controversy. Just relating a personal anecdote and opinion.
You have a nice day.
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