I have ARFID. Lots of tastes and textures are the same as torture for me. It sucks.

For the same reason I wouldn't willingly get stung by most stinging insects. It's an unpleasant and unnecessary sensation.

Why do some people feel a need to pressure people to do things that make them uncomfortable? Who am I hurting by choosing what I eat?

I'm a somewhat picky eater, not to the extreme that some are but I do limit myself to foods I am sure I will like.

I'm autistic and have sensory issues. I also have a tendency to throw up a lot. I need to choose safe food that I know won't make me gag and that I'm sure I can physically eat

Every now and then I'll eat food that I didn't like the last time I tried them. I still don't like pickles, mustard, eggplant, etc. and might never like them. There are other foods I don't like the texture of, e.g. seafood with rubbery textures. There are other foods I don't try because they just sound fucking gross, e.g. chicken feet. I understand the arguments for trying chicken feet, but it's a psychological thing preventing me from trying them. My brain just doesn't want a fucking chicken foot in my mouth. There are other foods that I've tried and might have even enjoyed, but I don't want to create more demand for that food for one reason or another. I'm fond of ducks. Ducks taste good, but I want ducks to live. I'm increasingly fond of cows, which are delicious, so I rarely eat beef now. I've had foie gras and I will never have it again. Geese are assholes but they don't deserve what humans do to them in order to make foie gras.

no rawish shellfish, or some fishes. the textures is to gagging.

I reject the tone of this question because I wasn't given a choice in my sensory issues and you turning it into a mortal judgement about me is fucked up.

If I try to eat something I don't like, I'll throw up. It's a waste of money and food, and gross for anyone around me.

Not picky. allergies. But it is the real assholes sure love to treat those with allergies like we're just picky.

either way: what i chose to eat and like is none of all your damned business.

Reading through all the replies, I'm getting the sense that perhaps your coworker is a bit racist but you did a poor job explaining that in your post. Your post comes across as judgemental of all people who avoid certain foods because you did a bad job of explaining that you meant people who avoid foods because of cultural prejudice. I don't think you'll find many people on lemmy who are prejudice against other cultures. I'm not sure what answer you expected. There are some who are just racist, others who may not be racist but just don't trust food they aren't familiar with because they're unsure what's in it.

I think most people avoid certain foods because they either have a medical condition, ethical concerns, or sensory sensitivity. It sounds like you were looking for an answer from the few who are just racist and I'm not sure what explanation you were expecting for their prejudice.

I cook meals from other cultures a lot but I have to be sure I like all the ingredients first.

Why would I force myself to eat something I will not enjoy. I will try a bit but I am not lrdering stuff I don't like the sound of.

Sometimes the smell which often relates to taste is the first indicator of something tasting not to my liking but if I know I don't like something (eg mushrooms, I hate those, both taste and texture) I am not willing to try anything involving large quantitiey of said foodstuff

I don't eat seafood because I have a weird hypersensitivity to it. Normally I can't taste anything subtle, but even the slightest bit of seaweed sets off my receptors in an unpleasant way. The smell of seafood alone makes my stomach turn. It's like the feeling when you realize what you just ate was spoiled.

Sounds like you're lucky enough to not have any sensory problems - you probably don't get overwhelmed by textures, flavours or smells. Not everyone is like that. You also don't seem to have any particular cultural or ethical concerns about your food choices. My family is vegan and very neurodivergent; none of us would ever consider steak or shrimp, for ethical reasons, and most of us have texture and flavour sensitivities that mean that certain foods are off limits for some of us. We generally buy within those parameters, but some of us really like things others really hate, so cooking can be a nightmare. In many cases, it's the texture of food that causes this - often borderline textures going from firm to soft, too granular, "wrong" like soft when should be crunchy etc.

But I bet you have some things you wouldn't try, based on cultural or texture preferences, which some people love. What about...

• Soft biscuits (cookies) - baked crunchy, but have gone damp and soft?
• Dry, stale bread - baked soft, but just dried out and stale?
• Witchetty grubs - moth larvae from Australia?
• Dog meat, eaten in some Asian countries?
• Fermented shark meat, stinky and rank, eaten in some Nordic states?
• Reindeer poo - traditional Finnish cuisine sometimes uses it?
• Natto - stringy, slimy soya beans fermented by a bacteria, very strong flavour, popular in Asia, especially Japan?
• Tempeh - soya beans colonised by a particular edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?
• Tofu - bean curd in various textures, but very little flavour, eaten widely by vegans and in Asia?
• Furry tofu - tofu colonised by another edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?

Imo the modern picky eater is a byproduct of food abundance. Acquired tastes were pretty necessary for survival until fairly recently. That said for the life of me I cannot make natto palatable no matter how hard I try

Autism.

Textures & temperatures are problematic. I stay with what I know so minimise the chance of freaking out.

I'll eat my own cum but won't touch ranch dressing. Do with that what you will.

Disgust is an emotional response. No one can choose their emotions.

If the texture/flavor triggers my gag reflex and I can't physically swallow, the question is not "why am I limiting myself?" but rather, "why would I attempt to abuse myself?"

Trying new food can be risky, its not cheap and if you cant eat it you just wasted your money and the food. Food also takes time to prepare which you may not have the time to make or order something else which then can snowball into larger issues. Not to mention the social pressure/judgment to finish a meal you wish you could force down your throat and getting accused of being dramatic and wasteful.

I like to try new foods here and there but I need to be able to get a small portion to avoid waste and know theres a back up I can eat to avoid skipping a meal altogether. It also needs to be with a crowd that I feel safe enough with not to get shat on if I cant eat it.

That being said I can only imagine making a blanket statement that I'd never try something if I already know it's very similar to something else that I can't eat.

Some foods taste like litteral dirt. It's a genetic quirk some people have. Beets, carrots, mushrooms, grapes, all taste like mud. I can't taste the "sweetness" at all. Nuts also have a chalky flavor, but I couldn't tell you why (strangely seeds, legumes, and beans are tasty af). Parsley tastes like soap. Licorice tastes like old socks. People like to attribute pickiness to the foods I don't like, but why should I force myself to eat dirt and soap? That doesn't stop me trying new things. Eel is delicious. Shrimp heads are meh. Dirty rice is great. Conch is fantastic. Lobster is bleh. Ostrich is gamey. Gator is good. ~~Fennel heads~~ fiddleheads are amazing. I'm always trying new foods, but when I turn my nose up at "normal" food with carrots, or nuts, or mushrooms I'm called "picky" because people are quick to throw out that word.

wHy LiMiT yOuRsElF

You think I want to live like this? That I’m choosing to? Bewildering.

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.