Are Food Phobias Affecting Your Diet Choices?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around food phobias and their impact on dietary choices. Participants share personal experiences with specific foods they avoid due to fear, texture, or past negative experiences. The conversation includes various anecdotes about food-related aversions and the psychological aspects of eating.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants describe personal food phobias, such as a fear of certain textures or the experience of panic when thinking about specific foods.
  • One participant recounts a traumatic experience with strawberries that led to a lasting aversion to them unless they are perfectly intact.
  • Another shares a story of a child who developed a strong aversion to eating after medical trauma, raising questions about the nature of food phobias.
  • Several participants mention specific foods they refuse to eat, such as Brussels sprouts or seafood, often citing taste rather than phobia.
  • There are discussions about the psychological aspects of food aversions, including associations with past experiences that can lead to lasting dietary restrictions.
  • Some participants express humorous or light-hearted takes on food preferences, while others share more serious reflections on their experiences.
  • One participant mentions a dislike for dissecting food, indicating a discomfort with handling raw meat.
  • Another participant discusses a limit to adventurous eating, particularly with unusual foods like bats, suggesting a boundary that some may not cross.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of personal experiences and opinions regarding food phobias, with no clear consensus on what constitutes a phobia versus a preference. The discussion remains unresolved as participants share differing views on their experiences and the nature of their aversions.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention specific past experiences that have shaped their food preferences, but the discussion does not delve into the psychological mechanisms behind these aversions. The definitions of food phobia versus simple dislike are not clearly established, leading to ambiguity in the discussion.

  • #31
Those aren't carrots, but I can't remember what they're called. They're used in Asian cooking, have medicinal properties, supposedly.
 
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  • #32
Evo said:
Those aren't carrots, but I can't remember what they're called. They're used in Asian cooking, have medicinal properties, supposedly.

Medicinal ... like in keeping the eater conscious, ... or more as an Ipecac to aid in disposition of the meal?

Is there any wonder why so many zoonotic diseases come from China?
 
  • #33
I don't like raw tomatoes or tomato slices because of the texture. I cheerfully let my wife eat any tomatoes that turn up in my salad in restaurants. I refuse to eat okra for the same reason.

According to my mother, when I was very small, I refused to eat the grapes in fruit cocktail. When asked why, I responded, "because they're round!"

(I do eat grapes now, however. :smile:)

My wife, on the other hand, is repulsed by bacon, whereas I love it!
 
  • #34
Hard boiled eggs. The smell makes me retch so much that the sight of them disgusts me.
 
  • #35
jtbell said:
I refuse to eat okra for the same reason.

I refuse to eat it for any reason. Any vegetable with what looks like mucous is off my list of things I will eat voluntarily. Even hiding it in a dish with stewed tomatoes is simply a waste of tomatoes.

My nightmare meal would be warm calves brains, okra and tomato stew and a heaping serving of hominy.
 
  • #36
jtbell said:
My wife, on the other hand, is repulsed by bacon
:bugeye:
You should check her for a navel.
 
  • #37
Evo said:
Those aren't carrots, but I can't remember what they're called. They're used in Asian cooking, have medicinal properties, supposedly.
I never heard of or saw them before, but since you said Asian, I asked my wife. She recognized them right off the bat (so to speak). She called them gojidzi and a little research revealed the name goji berries or wolfberries.
 
  • #38
Try okra in a seafood gumbo you might change your mind. :P

I've never tried smothered cabbage because of the smell even though my mom cooks it every New Years Day. I used to refuse to eat anything with spinach in it until I tried a spinach curry my friend ordered at an Indian restaurant. That was surprisingly delicious.
 
  • #39
jimmysnyder said:
I never heard of or saw them before, but since you said Asian, I asked my wife. She recognized them right off the bat (so to speak). She called them gojidzi and a little research revealed the name goji berries or wolfberries.
That's it! Tell your wife thank you!
 
  • #40
Kurdt said:
I used to get dreams about smoothenss where all you could see was a big fluid plane that seemed to be changing shape and when it was perfectly smooth it was pleasing but I used to feel anxious when it became rough. It wasn't exactly rough either. It was still smooth but the global structure made it seem rough and spiky and I think it was the combination of a smooth surface in a rough shape that was the problem. Because the surface was fluid though it kept getting rough then smoothing out and there was a definite point where there was a transition from it being ok to being really bad. I sometimes used to associate the same feelings with food but I can't remember what food exactly.

The explanation is bad but its really hard to describe.

I think your brain is trying to tell you you're doing too much maths.
 
  • #41
LowlyPion said:
My nightmare meal would be warm calves brains, okra and tomato stew and a heaping serving of hominy.
That sounds disgusting, but I will eat fried okra (it doesn't have the mucous) and I love tomatoes.

Canned white hominy corn was created in hell as the ultimate punishment for man.
 
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  • #42
I don't understand this. Personally, I will eat most things considered edible by most western cultures. There are still things I won't eat though. (I wouldn't eat that bat soup for instance.)

But that isn't a phobia. I'm not afraid of the bat soup. I didn't have a panic attack or run screaming from the room when I saw the picture. I just do not find it appetizing.

What is the definition of a food phobia? I think many people hear are confusing dislike for something, like okra slime, for a fear of it.
 
  • #43
G01 said:
I don't understand this. Personally, I will eat most things considered edible by most western cultures. There are still things I won't eat though. (I wouldn't eat that bat soup for instance.)

But that isn't a phobia. I'm not afraid of the bat soup. I didn't have a panic attack or run screaming from the room when I saw the picture. I just do not find it appetizing.

What is the definition of a food phobia? I think many people hear are confusing dislike for something, like okra slime, for a fear of it.
Yes, most people here are describing food dislikes or preferences.

Food Phobia is where someone is genuinely so frightened of the thought of eating a particular food that they have a panic attack. Just looking at the food sends them into a fit. It's normal food too, not something weird.
 
  • #44
A Vietnamese Chinese man living in the US eat all kind of pus-sies ( = little cats ?) because he loves raw cat meat. Years ago on a business trip to Northern Japan, he ate a Northern cat there, she has small eyes like his, small two lips and the meat inside is juicier than the cats he ate in Chicago
 
  • #45
lonton said:
A Vietnamese Chinese man living in the US eat all kind of pus-sies ( = little cats ?) because he loves raw cat meat. Years ago on a business trip to Northern Japan, he ate a Northern cat there, she has small eyes like his, small two lips and the meat inside is juicier than the cats he ate in Chicago
Wait! I know this one!

He was marooned on a desert island with his shipmates who told him it was seagull meat!
 
  • #46
Evo said:
Do you have any food related phobias? Is there something you are afraid of eating because of texture or taste or something else?
I came down with mono 30+ years ago. Full-time job + grad school at night + girl friend whenever I could steal the time = sleep is for whimps. One day before the symptoms really kicked in I ate at Wendy's.

It took 20+ years before I could eat a square hamburger.
 
  • #47
DaveC426913 said:
Wait! I know this one!

He was marooned on a desert island with his shipmates who told him it was seagull meat!
It was my husband's sister's husband by the way.
 
  • #48
Evo said:
Yes, most people here are describing food dislikes or preferences.

Food Phobia is where someone is genuinely so frightened of the thought of eating a particular food that they have a panic attack. Just looking at the food sends them into a fit. It's normal food too, not something weird.

OK. That makes sense. Hmm. That must be a debilitating illness, especially if your afraid of some really common food, like hot dogs or pizza.

I also wonder if some examples given, such as the guy who would only eat hot dogs or the woman who would only eat round foods would be better classified as OCD, not a phobia.
 
  • #49
jimmysnyder said:
... She recognized them right off the bat (so to speak)...

omg jimmy...:smile:
 
  • #50
I'm afraid to eat blowfish. There is this nagging fear that I could die.
 
  • #51
Vid said:
Try okra in a seafood gumbo you might change your mind. :P
I agree.. Okra is delicious in gumbo.. Cajun cooks, worth their salt, won't cook a gumbo without it..
The taste & texture I can't rave about when cooked by itself in a saucepan.

For food phobias? In western culture, insects don't make a bit hit on the dinner table..
Sowbugs (those little woodlice you find under a log or a rock, that curl up when you touch them) probably put your off, yet they are in the same phylum (Arthopoda) and subphylum (Crustacea) as lobster & crab, which are might tastey.:-p
 
  • #52
Ivan Seeking said:
I'm afraid to eat blowfish. There is this nagging fear that I could die.
My mother has a sister, she is very good at cooking with a blowfish
 
  • #53
RAW OCTOPUS! damn!.. i saw a jap tv show, and there's this guy who dared to eat one..
guess what, he choked. that kinda creeped me out! i mean I am a fan of japanese sushi!
 
  • #54
The smell of a ham joint being boiled actually makes me sick, is this a phobia?
 
  • #55
no that's not phobia.. i mean, you just get sick when you smell it.

so i guess you just hate it.. :]
 
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  • #56
RAW OCTOPUS! damn!.. i saw a jap tv show, and there's this guy who dared to eat one.. guess what, he choked. that kinda creeped me out!

I liked boiled octopus. In Japan they have street vendors selling bright red octopus on a stick (or is it squid?) - meaty and slightly smoky, like a very tough hot dog.

Sowbugs (those little woodlice you find under a log or a rock, that curl up when you touch them) probably put your off, yet they are in the same phylum (Arthopoda) and subphylum (Crustacea) as lobster & crab, which are might tastey.

And beef is in the same phylum and class as bat.
 
  • #57
signerror said:
And beef is in the same phylum and class as bat.
And humans. Yumm.
 

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