For me, personally, ADHD plays a part in my food. I crave routine.

My wife accuses me of being a picky eater, but I don’t think I am; I try to avoid eating mammals as much as possible (but if I’m at a party and that’s what’s being served or if there’s leftover that will just go in the trash, it’s fair game) and don’t like anything with ricotta cheese in it. I’m also a bit weary of mozzarella unless it’s cold or on pizza. That’s about it tho. She’s a pescatarian, but doesn’t like fish(so really just shrimp and plant based proteins provided they don’t taste like meat) and is watching her cholesterol, so trying to avoid foods that are high in saturated fat. That generally narrows down our food choices on its own, so when she asks me what I want for a meal, I try to take that into consideration first and then try to figure out what I’m in the mood for out of what’s left, so I guess that makes it seem like I’m the picky one.

I will eat literally anything that can be considered food/edible.

Growing up, my family has always accused me of being a picky eater, and it comes up every time we’re eating together. Every family get-together, it’s always a big deal whether I’m going to eat the prepared meal or not. My sister especially likes to offer to make a separate meal just for me because I’m “sooo picky!”

I can’t get it through their skulls that I’m less of a picky eater than they are - I’m just vocal about the very few specific foods I decided I don’t like. Which happens to be in a lot of recipes my extended family makes.

I spent 20 years traveling the world with the US military and I made it a point to try local cuisine everywhere I went. I became a bit of a foodie, and some of my favorite foods are from foreign countries. Every time family members came to visit me in other countries, I’d spend half of their visit just introducing them to amazing cuisine in the local area.

We’d eat out practically every day to give them a taste of the local culture. And surprisingly, most of them didn’t care for it. They wanted their “American food” instead. They weren’t very adventurous when it came to trying new things. There’s nothing worse than going to a ramen shop in Japan or a döner shop in Germany and having your family ask if we can go find a McDonald’s instead.

But sure, I’m a picky eater because I’ve hated squash since I was a child, and that’s apparently a staple of every family banquet.

Its yucky.

Almost 70. Seems I have had undiagnosed ADHD and some autism according to my doctor. It’s bad, I am so picky I piss myself off.

I simply don’t like the taste of many things. I’ve never been officially tested, but I suspect I may have extra sensitivity to certain compounds, such that no matter how many other things are in a dish, I can still taste that one thing that I don’t like. I also suspect that I am more sensitive to all tastes in general, as there are many foods that have been described to me as “mild” that I find are quite strong.

Now, I’ll still try most things once. There are limits, mostly involving spiciness, but I wouldn’t want to be thought of as ungrateful or close-minded. It’s just that I’ve disliked far more things than I’ve liked when trying new foods.

I also resent the common refrain of, “You just haven’t had good [food in question] yet!” Actually, I probably have, and I still didn’t like it. It has nothing to do with how it is prepared or what other ingredients are in the dish, that food still has its fundamental taste that I don’t like.

It’s not food, but I like using wine as an example. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the cheap boxed stuff from the supermarket or some expensive vintage at a fancy restaurant, because both taste like overripe grapes in addition to whatever other flavours present, and I don’t like the taste of overripe grapes.

In case of steak, I don’t like raw meat, if I see pinkness in meat it feels raw and disgusting. And when well cooked it’s hard. I like my red meat cooked in a pressure cooker so it’s fully cooked and soft. Same with raw fish or any other food with raw meats.

For other foods, variety of reasons. I don’t like some foods because growing up in a farm I always saw certain bugs in some plants so I have associated that plant’s smell to that bug.

Some foods I don’t like texture, some I don’t like the taste enough that I feel like I’ll vomit. Some foods I don’t like but I can eat.

And some food I just got used to eating a certain way. I absolutely don’t like raw or not well cooked beans or zucchini because it feels wrong. While some food I grew up eating raw so cooked version feels wrong like carrots

I think it just comes from our tastes, our experiences, our associations, and our mindsets. My general rule though is that the nicer the restaurant the more willing I am to try new things. I generally don’t like sea urchin at all, but if it was offered in a 3 Michelin star restaurant I’d be much more likely to try it. If it’s offered in just a regular sushi restaurant I won’t eat it.

health problems

This is an interesting thread to me. I have a strong negative feeling about not liking foods, so if there’s something on the menu I don’t like, I usually order it on principle.

I used to have 5 things on my “will not eat” list now it’s 3.

You should look up autism.

I was an extremely picky eater as a kid. The funny thing is how I became less picky after I went vegan (in my teens.) It tracks with how we lose taste sensitivity as we age - children have more taste buds than adults. It serves them because a lot of things that can be harmful are bitter (poisons are often bitter) or sour (spoiled food goes sour), and for a small child a small amount can be more dangerous than for an adult.

Anyway, as others have said, it’s a combination of texture, smell, and taste. Being a “super taster” isn’t as fun as it sounds - it means a smaller amount of flavor can seem stronger for you, and can easily become overwhelming. I still prefer bland foods sometimes for that reason. Light seasoning can go a long way. Texture can be awful or amazing, sometimes I crave a food not for its taste, but for its texture. As I noted in another comment, mushrooms have a texture that repels me. Eggplant also has a texture I struggle to tolerate, but I put up with it when somebody prepares something for me with it (occasionally people prepare vegan foods to help me feel included, but they don’t usually know my texture issues and I don’t want to be rude.) Hell, half of what drove me to veganism was texture, smell, and taste-based - a lot of animal products have textures, smells, and tastes that I couldn’t tolerate when I was a kid and made to eat them.

Eggs smell awful, and the fat from meats have a texture that was too much for me. I remember sitting at the dinner table and cutting all the “fat” from my meats just to isolate a single square to eat… but my parents made me sit there and told me to eat the whole thing, even if we sat at the dinner table for hours. I never liked bacon, and I know the internet hates me for that (well, they already hate me for being vegan, but still), since it’s pretty much all fat even if it’s crispy. The smell does it no help, either. A lot of people enjoy the smell of cooking meat, but I never did. The closest thing would be chicken, but ever since I had pet birds, it became awful, too - ever smell a bird up close? They smell like warm chicken. Once that smell became associated with my pets, whom I lost too soon (they were only two years old, victims to teflon poisoning) I only think of them. Giving up meat was part of my closure after they died - it brought me a peace that I needed, and has continued giving it ever since.

Please be kind to so-called “picky eaters.” Their sensory experiences are outside of their control. Don’t do like my parents did and try to force it, as that helps nobody. If you want to introduce a picky kid to a new food, be gentle and start slow. That’s how we do it at my job (working with autistic children, some which have extremely restricted diets that don’t provide proper nutrition.) It starts with tolerating it being on their plate, then progresses over time to them touching it, then to putting it to their lips, and only after all that do we encourage them to try a piece. It can take months. But if it’s something they absolutely won’t tolerate near them, just try something else - there can be very valid reasons they don’t want a particular food, but thankfully there are a lot of options out there.

My girlfriend is really picky, a lot of it is the texture of foods making her uncomfy. Its really subconscious, and that impacts what you try because you already know what textures you don’t like

I don’t get that. I eat whatever’s served, and I usually like it. When I was a kid, I ate horse poop because my friends said, “You don’t dare.” It tasted like hay, but I wouldn’t eat it again.