Picky, picky

My discerning colleague Jay Cridlin was just having one of those Stick-It-To-The-Man, time-frittering e-mail exchanges with me about eating habits and peculiarities (it was that or do a little online shopping). For him: no sushi, no condiments that resemble mayonnaise. In summary, he says this:

"The crux of my argument stems from discussions I've had with my wife about my eating habits. She'll say I'm very picky when it comes to certain foods (pickles, mayonnaise, cranberries, canned tuna), but I maintain that I'm a perfectly normal eater, I just don't like certain foods and refuse to eat them. Does that make me a picky eater, or simply someone who knows what foods he likes and doesn't like? It's very much a philosophical debate. What IS pickiness?"

Indeed. I pride myself on the following: a willingness to put almost any food in my mouth, chew and swallow. No discreet napkin-filling. No balking. Still, there are foods I don't exactly like. The last time I was in Paris I made it my mission to try to cultivate an affection for head cheese. No dice. Goose webs and chicken feet may just wander around my plate at a Chinese restaurant.

So, what is pickiness, and is it heritable? Meaning genetically (as opposed to nurture-wise). Some science indicates yes. Some folks say it's both genetics and environment. Get this, though. This study indicates that inbred mice choose familiar foods far more often than unfamiliar foods. Ergo, inbred=picky. Just remember that, Jay.

Table from Nature.com

Comments

[A. Smedley]

You may pride yourself on your courageous adult dining habits, Mouth, but this reader happens to know that you weren't ALWAYS so welcoming of the unfamiliar or unappealing. May I be so bold as to require you to publicly admit that there was a time when you surreptitiously disposed of deemed "inedibles" into the swirls of concealing white liquid in your milk-glass on the dinner table? OK, OK ... so it wasn't detected at the time (you always were a sneaky little bugger!), but you better believe that bus staff around the Bay area will now be straining your beverage glasses to uncover whatever you may have rejected on one of your visits!

[Jay Cridlin]

How DARE you. You, with your "science," and your "charts," and your "insinuation that my parents were lab mice with disturbingly similar genetic codes."

Though you may claim to be like Mikey, willing to eat anything, that does not mean you'll actually like everything you eat. I have tried these terrible food products, and I do not like them. Why, then, would I choose to continue eating a food I know I don't like? I maintain that doesn't make me picky; it makes me someone who is secure enough in his tastes to know when to say, "No thanks."

So I'll continue ordering salads without dressing, and refusing to eat any fast-food sandwich served to me with mayo and tomato, even though I repeatedly asked for it PLAIN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLAIN.

Who's with me?

[Ed C.]

Picky, picky, picky.

Call it what it is. What is all this "I'm not picky; there are just a lot of foods I don't like and I get upset if everyone else in the world doesn't take it really seriously." Man up. You are picky.