It's really not too fun being a picky eater. I've gotten weird stares and comments like, "Really? You don't like that?" more times than I can count. Believe me, I wish I liked lettuce! I don't know why, but I just don't!
Awhile ago I read a magazine article that I loved, and it defined three different kinds of "tasters." Most people are Medium tasters, who like a lot of foods but have certain foods they don't like. Stephen falls into this category. Then there are the Non-Tasters. . . those people who will eat anything. Everyone knows someone who's like that. The third kind of taster is the Supertaster, otherwise known as the picky eater. Supertasters actually have many times more taste buds than other tasters, and as a result experience flavors much more intensely than others. It's genetic and we have no control over it.
So I'm not picky. . . I'm a Supertaster! Sounds much cooler, doesn't it?
This list is incomplete, but here's a sampling of some of the foods I just don't like and hate to eat:*Peppers
*Onions
*Fish
*Eggs
*Cottage cheese
*Potato salad
*Cabbage
*Lettuce
*Dill pickles
*Spaghetti
*Mushrooms
*Beets
*Brussels sprouts
*Chinese food (I hate the sauces)
*Coleslaw
*Coconut
*Teriyaki or BBQ sauce
*Turnips
*Asparagus
*Rice
What kind of taster are you?
*Cool thing I just found out about: Today is Free Hot Dog on a Stick day! If you live near a Hot Dog on a Stick, you can go between 5 and 8 pm today and get one free dog per person. I know where we'll be eating dinner tonight!
WOW! I thought my son Christopher was picky, but he'll eat 9 of the things you won't. LOL! I do think it's relative though that he was diagnosed with a "food sensitivity" when he was two. Certain textures make him gag and he doesn't do spicy. I think a lot of it has to do with over sensitive taste buds. Very interesting stuff! I don't know about it being genetic though, unless it is some weird recessed gene. Everyone else in our family loves spicy Mexican, Indian, Chinese, etc. Christopher always orders chicken fingers and fries wherever we go out to eat. We joke that he is our "little gringo"!
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world DO you eat?
ReplyDeleteyuck- its not just you- no one likes brussel sprouts!
ReplyDeleteHey, there's a song about Supertasters by They Might Be Giants. You should check it out!
ReplyDeleteI am a medium taster, but BRYAN is a SUPERtaster, just like you! He won't eat steak (who doesn't like steak???), refuses bow-tie pasta (because according to him it tastes differently and is disgusting), loves potatoes but hates them baked, hates spaghetti, all seafood, won't eat red spaghetti sauce but loves alfredo sauce; you get the idea. I've just learned to live with it! :)
ReplyDeleteYou must be a fabulous cook if you eliminate all those foods! I think I am in between a medium and non taster. But I agree with you on some of the foods you don't like - all of them have either very strong, distinct flavors or textures. I'm totally with you on your dislike of mushrooms, beets, and coleslaw. Yuck! How interesting though, I never knew that about "picky eaters", I mean, "supertasters". :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle catergory...growing up I would of been a super taster fo shiz though. I've gotten braver as I age. :) LOL!
ReplyDeleteI'm a medium taster, I suppose! That makes total sense that if you have more taste buds, you'd dislike more things. Hm! I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteI am a medium taster.
My sister turned into a supertaster when my parents left us with our grandparents when we were little and she's been that way ever since. The only meat she'll eat is bacon. And that's not really a meat.
You think you get weird stares for not liking lettuce? Try not liking chicken! People think I'm totally insane because I don't like chicken. They ask me all the time as they pick their jaw up off the floor, "Well, what do you eat then?"
ReplyDeleteI tell them that I manage somehow.
Ha! So that's what you want to be refered to as now eh? A "supertaster?" That's funny. Get ready for some Del Mar Fair food though! Yum yum.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way to put it... supertaster rather than "picky". I don't think I'm a supertaster, but I have a texture problem with a lot of foods. I won't eat anything soggy (milk on cereal, dunking donuts, etc.) and I also hate chunks of cheese. Everybody thinks I'm so weird. My husband will eat anything too, isn't it so nice? It makes me feel like a great cook!
ReplyDeleteShoot! I made you chicken teriyaki when you had Natlie! I even put the carrots and brocoli on a seperate plate in case those were some of the vegetables you didn't like! I figured, who doesn't like teriyaki? I guess, you, the Supertaster! Should we get you some tights and a cape? :)
ReplyDeleteI had heard that too and it makes total sense. Super taster does sound better. I have a brouther who only likes waffles and ice cream I think. I'm sorry you can't enjoy all those yummy foods, I'm a non taster, or as the jargon goes a sensory seeker. So is one of my boys. Your list looks a lot like my daughter's though, a supertaster for sure!
ReplyDeleteOh we've had this conversation before! I'm a medium married to a non! :) And still he thinks I'm a super, but I'm not.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this and will now tell everyone that thinks I am crazy that I am a SUPERSTASTER. I get the strangest reactions to not liking lettuce as well. THANKS. I'm pretty sure this information will change my life! :)
ReplyDeleteI am a supertaster with a list similar to yours, but I think you must be a supersupertaster because you taste differences that I don't. You can easily taste aspartame in products, you can taste the difference between double churned and premium ice creams, and you taste similar products as being wildly different from their generic counterparts(like Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Dove chocolate, and Bertolli alfredo). I can not tell the difference between those things unless I'm eating them in the same sitting. So I think the extra taste buds thing definitely applies to you, even more so than other supertasters.
ReplyDelete