Food issues

Picky eaters are not necesarily picky just to bother you! 
In the past few years I've seen a few studies which suggested a genetic componant to picky eaters.  I've long belived this to be true, as I've seen plenty of evidence in my own household.  Apparently it's a fairly common problem with children, but tends to lessen as they age.  Except in the case of some people.  This new article says that extremely picky eaters often have issues with the smell or texture of foods.  I've seen this in my husband who can't stand the texture of tomatoes or onions.  It completely grosses him out!  The article points out that many people with this problem have trouble eating out, being in social situations that include eating, and wish they could eat normally.  The comments I saw for the above article were discouraging, as they suggested that the parents just let their children eat whatever they want and that caused the pickiness.  But as my uncle said about his adopted son, "eventually you get to a point where you're just happy they're eating ANYTHING!"  It's hard to fight a battle, at least three times a day every single day!   When you think about it, it's easy to see how many people do just stick to feeding their kids the food that they know they will eat.  And from an outside view, that could look as though the kids are only eating that way as an effect, rather than it being the cause of the eating habbit. I suspect the problems in our household are a combination of a very real genetic componant, coupled with viewing a Very picky adult and often financially limmited food supplies.  Not a fun combination, let me tell you!!  In fact, I don't think my husband is of the most extreme sort described in the article, his issues, in my opinion, are a combination of very real factors combined with psychological factors.  As with many issues, I think they will eventually find that there are people with food issues who fall on various ends of the spectrum, and it's real for them all. 

A quote from the article:
"[They]could be one of thousands suffering from a previously unrecognized illness: selective eating disorder, more commonly known as very picky eating. Instead of having a couple foods they'd rather avoid, the way most of us do, people with selective eating disorder feel there are very few foods they are even capable of eating.

.."People who are picky aren't doing this just to be stubborn," said eating researcher Nancy Zucker of Duke University, explaining that extremely picky eaters experience food differently than the rest of us. "