What's with men who eat like little boys?

[ClutchLinkey]

I have a friend who has a generally healthy lifestyle: rock climber, very active, no alcohol, but all she eats is potatoes, eggs and chicken nuggets. She takes a kids chewable vitamin each day. Seems to be working out for her so far, but I do wonder about when she gets older. That’s a long time to go without the micronutrients and such that we get through fruits and veggies.

[gracchus]

@SamSam

Then, like a Greek hero getting taught a lesson in hubris, between the ages of about 5-6, our eldest stopped liking most adult foods, and we realized we were the parents of a picky eater, just like everyone else. Her 4-year-old sister is not far behind, starting to close the doors on previously-loved foods.

I have to wonder how much of that change is due to changing palates and how much is due to peer pressure. I don’t think it’s a co-incidence that your eldest started rejecting foods she used to enjoy when she reached kindergarten age and started socialising with kids who eat more standard American “kid food”. If they’re all eating pasta with butter, she might start wondering if there’s something wrong with tomato sauce.

The comparisons between French and North American school meals come to mind here. This article discusses it and offers tips on bringing young people back to a more varied repertoire.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/karen-le-billion-french-children-eat-anything

[AnthonyC]

I know you didn’t, and sorry for accidentally implying otherwise, I was just trying to add in that some people take that idea too far, beyond some shaming.

[GratuitousFish]

@SamSam

Then, like a Greek hero getting taught a lesson in hubris, between the ages of about 5-6, our eldest stopped liking most adult foods, and we realized we were the parents of a picky eater, just like everyone else. Her 4-year-old sister is not far behind, starting to close the doors on previously-loved foods.

This happened with our daughter as well. She’s always eaten what we ate, but then started to get picky about stuff. Some of it made sense (she can’t stand the smell of eggs), but others came out of nowhere (suddenly not liking fried rice).

She will still destroy a plate of sushi, though. I’m pretty sure she’d eat it every night if we let her, veggie only at the moment. She doesn’t like fish that isn’t white (like walleye). I think that one is on me, though, for not being very good at cooking trout or salmon. Even I don’t love trout when I cook it.

[anothernewbbaccount]

Not liking tomatoes or tomato sauce, on its own, is not ‘picky’. Also @GratuitousFish - everyone has things they prefer not to eat. As a kid that can come over as aversion or pickiness, but kids don’t have the emotional maturity or language to say ‘I’d rather not eat that if there’s something else, please’ either out loud or to themselves, whereas adults do and are not deemed ‘picky’ if it’s just the odd handful of things. Palates change over time, especially kids’.

Your kids sound fine, especially if they are still eating a wide variety of foods.

[GratuitousFish]

@anothernewbbaccount

Also @GratuitousFish - everyone has things they prefer not to eat. As a kid that can come over as aversion or pickiness, but kids don’t have the emotional maturity or language to say ‘I’d rather not eat that if there’s something else, please’ either out loud or to themselves, whereas adults do and are not deemed ‘picky’ it’s just the odd handful of things. Palates change over time, especially kids’.

Definitely. I’m not at all worried about her. And picky probably isn’t the best word. I think a lot of it was kick started by the development of her palate and her sense of smell (like the egg thing). She’s starting to come around again to some things, she’s been experimenting with black pepper as an example. She’s moved from hating it to enjoying just enough for a bit more flavour.

Honestly, it’s fascinating to watch how kids develop around things like this. It can be intensely frustrating when they suddenly hate something they loved the week before. But it’s all part of the experience.

[Mangochin]

So he’s just begging for Type 2 diabetes.

[WoolyBugger]

This thread has been fun

[generic_name]

@Ryuthrowsstuff

If you’ve ever heard anyone get way too up their ass about the perfection of McDonald’s fries they were probably a trained cook.

And in fact this guy did almost exactly that-- we had to make a short road trip for work, and stopped at Burger King for breakfast [edit: hey, I had a coupon, OK?], he commented at length on their home fries as if he were dissecting some dish on a Food Network show.

[emo_pinata]

It’s also a pretty standard power move to make a claim to what you will and will not do at 5-6. Every kid does it, and I was in the identical boat as you having a kid who ate a huge variety of food narrow it down to just a few. But we’ve worked and coaxed her back to what she was like before because she just wanted control. While there’s no universal solution we got her back to what we saw as normal (her willingness to try anything and having favorite vegetables) by giving her more control over what everyone ate in the house and then setting rules limiting how many ingredients she can refuse to eat. Now we’re back in a place where we have a good dozen or so regular meals everyone likes and everyone’s preferences are well known.

And now as parents we also know for sure she doesn’t like mushrooms and zucchini instead of all foods that are not tacos.

[Mike.71]

I don’t think is relate to cooking activity.
I was almost forbidden to cook when I was a kid because when I was cooking the kitchen after looked like somebody had thrown a hand grenade in. My brother was better at cooking lo he learnt.
I can’t cook very well, my brother could open a restaurant.
There are some food I don’t like very much and avoid, and other I like way more, say I prefer broiled rabbit with ratatouille, deep fried brains with deep fried apples or duck with honey than hamburger with chips or sushi, but I like to try new foods.

[anon77190095]

My parents had a rule like that, you could pick a couple of ingredients you didn’t like, but everything else you had to eat, made life a lot easier for my Mom. I didn’t want bell pepper in any form or fashion, and I still don’t like more than a few pieces of it raw, but I’ll eat it no problems nowadays. My Aunt was telling me a little while back that she was amazed seeing all three of us boys eat salad with gusto, some day I hope to get there with the little one, she will eat tomato and cucumber all day long at least.

[GoatCheezInfrno]

@Ryuthrowsstuff

I know a guy who’s partially responsible for a couple of Michelin stars. The only thing I’ve ever seen him make for himself is “shitty Chinese food” a sort of generic chicken and veg stir fry. You just sauté whatever’s around with a splash of each vaguely Chinese sauce in the cabinet.

That’s one of the better quick-and-easy meal choices, and certainly one of my favorites even though I’ve never been a professional cook.

@phuzz

A while ago a friend was going to bring some hummus to a social occasion, but said that if anyone tasted coriander (aka cilantro) as soap, that she’d make another batch.
Now, it does taste soapy to me, but I’d always assumed that that was how it was supposed to taste.
(snip)
I still eat green vegetables, but only because they’re good for me, they still taste bad to me. I guess I see them like medicine.

I’ve never been able to describe how cilantro tastes other than it tastes like cilantro. It isn’t soapy to me, but it still tastes like absolutely nothing else, and I love it. One of my go-to sides are some frozen bake-in-the-oven samosas that come with a packet of cilantro chutney.

I’m lucky that as a kid I found that I liked most vegetables. If for some reason I go long enough eating sketchy meals, I find myself craving them, and a nice plate of stir-fry is something I quite welcome.

[phuzz]

@GoatCheezInfrno

I’ve never been able to describe how cilantro tastes other than it tastes like cilantro.

I can still taste the flavour, it’s just that it’s accompanied by a sort of soapy taste. I guess a good analogy would be the way whisky tastes ‘peaty’. Peat isn’t exactly a nice taste, but you can grow to ignore/appreciate it.

[fnordius]

Ah, yes, that book came out one year into Reagan’s first term, along with Truly Tasteless Jokes and just before Eighties movies became a thing. It was suddenly chic to make fun of Alan Alda and sensitive, caring men again. And yeah, though I was only 15 when it first hit the bookstores, it seemed like most people took it as a sign that rudeness was back in fashion. that men were allowed to be chauvinists and jerks again.

As for diets, my anecdotal experience has been that women are more prone to be exclusive in what they eat, more prone to claim allergies to this or that ingredient. I can’t say I have met any guys who just ate junk food, but that may be because I don’t travel in those circles. Instead, I merely notice how many otherwise sophisticated people eat with one elbow on the table.

[gracchus]

@fnordius

though I was only 15 when it first hit the bookstores, it seemed like most people took it as a sign that rudeness was back in fashion. that men were allowed to be chauvinists and jerks again.

Yes. Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche was one of those satires that a lot of knuckleheads took seriously. The Official Preppy Handbook was another. And to this day, “free”-market fundies still think that Gordon Gecko was the hero in Wall Street.

[fnordius]

All goes to show that, er, the guy who was in the White House between Obama and Biden was truly a product of the Eighties. Including his little boy diet.

[walter_guyll]

OTOH, I’m a picky eater (don’t and won’t eat invertebrates, organ meat, mushrooms, or green beans) but I’m also an atheist who would prefer drugs, prostitution and gambling legal. Conservative in habits, rather liberal politically.
However, I might support reasonable restrictions on the rampant spread of CILANTRO.

[TornPaperNapkin]

Man this culture really hates and fetishizes children in the weirdest way.

The argument shouldn’t be about how childlike people are it should be about adults incapable of taking responsibility for their own care and welfare when they have no known disability preventing them from doing so.

The word for that is entitlement. No one else in this world is or should be responsible for taking care of you and likely no one else in this world is going to do that for you. What is with all these irresponsible and entitled people? Question for the decade if there ever was one.

[jonbly]

I’ll see your banana-flavoured wrongness, and raise you this…

GLOBAL NONGSHIM