Picky Eaters: The Terror Of Being Invited To Dinner

By Dr. W. Gifford Jones

February 17, 2007

What's the worst fear for some people? It's not standing before a crowd and giving a major speech. Nor is it the apprehension of being crushed in a crowded elevator or flying. It's the terror of being invited to dinner at a friend's home. A report in the Washington Post outlines the overwhelming fears of picky eaters.

Billy Shore is founder and chief executive of the anti-hunger charity Share Our Strength in Washington. So surely he has no hang-ups about food. But that's not the case. Shore hates the "taste and texture" of all vegetables except spinach and corn on the cob.

So how picky can you get? The next time you're at a dinner party do a little detective work and see if you can spot which guest suffers from this phobia.

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot picky eaters. One clue is to keep your eye on your guest's dinner plate. For instance, some picky eaters cannot stand mixing foods together. Rather, they will eat the peas first, then the meat, the potatoes and so on. And some refuse to eat anything with their hands even if it's a sandwich, peanuts or pizza.

You may discover that some diners cannot eat the carrots if they have touched the beans on the plate. One picky eater explained, "I don't think of it as a disorder, just kind of curious". Maybe so, but the rest of us would consider it more than just a bit odd.

Here's another picky eater you can't miss detecting out of the corner of your eye. The one who is offered a chicken pie as the main course. Just watch that person pick out the peas or the onions trying to be discrete while doing so.

Other picky eaters face a nightmare when it's impossible to pick out what they don't like. A person I know hates olives with a passion. But he has the option of picking olives out of a salad. I recently saw horror in his eyes however at a recent party. The olives were ground up in the salad!

Even Sherlock Holmes might find it hard to know why some people avoid certain foods. For example, picky eaters don't admit they avoid fish because of the smell or refuse oysters because they're too slimy.

Marcia Pelchat, a Philadelphia food psychologist, says that picky eaters usually limit themselves to 20 to 30 tolerable edibles. They dislike the smell of vegetables such as cabbage or the texture of strawberries. She even admits she was thrilled to find out you could buy strained blackberry jam.

The ultimate nightmare for a picky eater is to be invited to dinner. But not to a restaurant where he or she can choose from the menu. It's the invite to a friend's home where they have no control over the food. The anguish starts early when the host passes finger food and they wonder, "what's in it?"

How many people are picky eaters? Bradely C. Riemann of the Obsessive-compulsion disorder (OCD) clinic at Milwaukee's Rogers Memorial Hospital says their numbers are increasing due to the public's awareness of OCD. He says that being a picky eater is normally not considered a disease such as the symptom having to wash hands one hundred times a day. But some picky eaters can become depressed when this disorder affects their quality of life.

I must admit wondering while researching this column how I would rate on the picky scale. My wife would say, "Not very good". I admit I'm a rare meat and mashed potatoes guy. I too hate olives. And why do onions have to appear in everything? But am depressed by ordering steak and Prince Edward Island potatoes? Not one bit. And I never refuse dinner at friend's homes. Sorry, Bradley Riemann, I don't need you yet!

But if others feel depressed and lonely and want to share their pickiness with others, there's a web site for them www.pickyeatingadults.com. Bob Krause says a lifetime of mealtime agony drove him to start this web site.

W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com

My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:

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Pre-2008 articles by Gifford Jones

Canada Free Press, CFP Editor Judi McLeod