robysue wrote: I can tell you this: Most fresh fruit tastes way, way too sweet to me. (As do many sugar filled "treats". But I do confess a weakness for almost all things chocolate.) And veggies? Cooked veggies are either very mushy (which I don't like) or very strong smelling (which can trigger a migraine ) or both. (And yes, I do mean I can get a migraine from things like the smell of cooked cabbage.) Raw veggies? As long as my TMJs are not acting up, I'll eat them. But salads and raw veggies get old if you eat them day after day without much break ....
At any rate, it is very, very difficult to eat food that you do not really enjoy eating day after day while surrounded by food that you do like, but has been made "forbidden" for you to eat.
I am very similar with the problem, but my taste aversions are the opposite
Even as a child, I refused to eat most foods due to texture and smell. (Also, I do not eat anything spicy) The smell of plain steamed rice and worse, oatmeal, will make me gag. You can't pay me enough to eat even a bite of oatmeal. At summer camp, I quietly refused to eat oatmeal. I asked for cereal the first day, and they said I had to eat to 3 bites of the oatmeal first. I went back to my table and skipped breakfast. As a child, I went to bed a lot, without finishing dinner. My parents didn't have to say anything or even get the timer. I ate what I wanted and then went to bed. If something, such a burrito, contained an item I would not eat, I would pick through it and remove the offending ingredients.
My mom learned early on that I would eat foods with granulated onion powder, but not pieces of onion. I still use that powder in my recipes. It is not the taste the bothers me. It is the crunchy stuff in the food.
Fruits and veggies. Fruits - I came up with a list of 11 fruits that I like. But none are ones I like all that much. Unlike you, I find that fruit is often too sour for me. I used to think I was really bad at picking fruit. I always got the sour ones. But then I did an experiment. I would get an orange and have a few other people taste it with me. I would find it somewhat sour, while everybody else thought it was sweet. The best orange I ever had was after a 5 hour hike in 90+ weather. I can get most oranges down, but I do find them to be more sweet & sour. I also like my fruit very ripe, about as ripe as it can go before it goes bad. My sister likes sour. She will eat the strawberries with green and pink on them. I want deep red. Smaller oranges are sweeter than larger oranges. Apples. I can eat them with caramel, or I can eat them in pie, but I cook the pie 100 degrees lower than the directions and about an hour longer. I want them soft. If they are crunchy, I eat the crust and toss the apples.
Veggies. Even worse. I like broccoli and cauliflower. I can eat them both raw, with ranch dip. Or I can eat them overcooked, once they are soft. I do not like them in between. And I don't like them enough to eat them more than once a week. Other than corn and potatoes, which seem to be more starch than veggie, I am stuck with broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and cabbage. Not much variety. Oh, I can eat peas in split pea soup, and overly cooked peas in stew. But not the way that most people cook them. There used to be a canned stew that had peas, and I found that I could eat them. I do pick all the carrots out. Yuck.
I also do not like a lot of seasonings. I do like garlic, and I can put up with very small pieces in my food. Onions are still a big no. Can't stand rosemary. And I don't like the texture of any leafy things, twigs, etc that are in food. I like my seasonings pulverized so that they have no texture. And I like a lot of foods plain. If I order steak at a restaurant, I have to specify no seasoning, or I can't eat it sometimes. When I cook fish at home, I use no seasoning at all. My favorites are catfish and steelhead. I love them plain. I absolutely love those, and i love cooking it so that some of it is really juicy and some of it is a little crunchy. Perfect. Almost heaven. No seasoning
Texture is a really big deal for me. Here is the perfect example. I like nuts. I like almonds, peanuts, walnuts, and hazelnuts. I can eat them for a snack, no problem. I like cookies, ice cream, brownies, and fudge. But I will NOT eat any of them if it has nuts in it. In the past few years, I finally managed to like 2 things with nuts in them - chicken salad and almond chicken. Those are the only two exceptions.
When I have new coworkers, they are puzzled how I can eat the same thing for breakfast every day before work. And I eat the same thing for lunch almost every day. The thing is, when you don't like many things, you have to eat the same things over and over again. I can't eat a lot of premade food with dissecting it. I always have trouble at new restaurants because there is guaranteed to be something I do not like. I try to pick something simple that can either have something easily skipped, or easily picked out, such as fish and chips. A pasta dish can easily have chunky sauce or stuff that I have to pick out. I don't like to dissect my food in public.
I have learned to try more foods than I used to. But most foods that are considered healthy are on the bad texture list for me. I wish I liked healthy food. But I don't know how to change the way a texture bothers me. I also have textures I don't like the feel of, such as flour when baking. I have to wear gloves. Non-powdered gloves. Hate those too. Certain textures of clothing too.
As I said, this started when I was a child, too young to understand what I did and did not like about foods. My parents both love just about anything, and they offered just about everything. My brother and sister and not picky like I am. I think this is something that is built in, not taught. Just like my allergies. I am even allergic to metal and can't wear jewelry very long.
