Comfort of Home – Carys Thomas
Alexa Wadley
As I’m eating the chicken from the cafeteria at school, I hear others around me loving the same food. At the same time, I’m not enjoying it as much.
This brings me back to the one time I sat down at the dinner table with my family. I was used to my plain, lightly buttered pasta, and carrots. This time, however, it was not that. Instead, my nostrils opened up to an unfamiliar smell, a smell so bad I gagged. I wanted to be removed from the steam this food was causing. When my mom removed the cover of the pot, I witnessed a circular green vegetable I had never seen before. “Mom!” I said, “What is this?” “It’s a brustlesprout,” she replied, “C’mon, eat it, it tastes like candy.” I felt bad about not eating food somebody made for me because they tried. So, I reluctantly believed her as I took a chomp. BLEH. What did I just poison myself with? I didn’t have the courage to swallow the grossest thing that just entered my mouth. As I held it in my mouth, my mom asked me, “Isn’t it so good?” as she was gobbling up her whole plate full of them. I smiled at her, shook my head yes, and ran to the bathroom. I spit that disgusting green plant out in the toilet to hide the evidence. I then started to get this jealous feeling. Why do some people like food and others don’t? I just wanted to be able to eat food without feeling like I had to vomit.
As I reflect on this moment later in my life, I realize I’m the same. But why? Why are some people picky? After some research, it makes sense as to why I turned out like this. Being a picky eater is based on learning, not genetics. My mom and dad are both not picky eaters, compared to me who is, which makes sense. How is it learned? It’s learned by usually parental figures when they try to make their kids eat more. Trying to make somebody who is a small eater eat more, usually has the opposite effect. When I first interviewed my person, I had no idea that this was a factor. I asked her about she felt about the cafeteria food.
Me: How do you feel about the school cafeteria food?
Interviewee: I think it’s disgusting and it sucks.
Here I thought about how similar we were, both bonding over the same dislike.
When I went to interview her again, after finding out this revelation, I asked her, “How demanding were your parents about making you eat foods you didn’t like?” she replied with, “Yes, they would physically force the utensil in my mouth and didn’t let me leave the table until I ate it.” Wow. That was something. The forcefulness of parental figures making somebody eat develops a permanent picky-eater mentality.
To contrast this, I asked for a view of my friends. I asked them whether or not they were picky eaters or not. All of them replied no, and I asked if their parents ever forced them to eat anything they didn’t want. They all said no because they are open to new things.
The bottom line is that picky eaters form from nourishment, not nature. If a developing child is already cautious about eating certain foods, making them eat them is going to have the opposite effect of trying to fix their habits.