I have ARFID, and at least in my case, my diet isn't as restrictive as most stereotypes portray, even though my list of safe foods hasn't really expanded since I was in middle school. I was raised vegetarian, and have never eaten meat in my life AFAIK, and I that think helped me to have broader, or at least healthier tastes than many with my disorder.
I of course have some stereotypical safe foods, like fries, pizza (on which the only topping I will tolerate is pineapple) and mac & cheese, but that list also includes things like sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, and tofu stir fry.
The list of foods that I will not eat also has some things you may not expect, like most juices, sodas, and energy drinks, anything cherry flavored, and chocolate, which I will only eat if it's mixed with something like caramel or peanut butter.
There are some genuine benefits to ARFID as well in my case. The smell of red meat makes me nauseous, which has ensured I've stayed vegetarian into my adult life. it's also prevented me from getting hooked on caffeine or alcohol, as I can't stand the taste of coffee, tea or any alcoholic beverage.
My biggest barrier to eating healthy is actually executive dysfunction, rather than ARFID. The healthy foods I like all take some active prep work, whereas I can grab a box of cheese-its or throw tater tots in the oven with almost no effort.
I’m a picky eater, or whatever the correct semantics for it are. I don’t enjoy it.
Figuring out what to eat every day is a giant pain, let alone even attempting to eat healthy. It bothers me that other people seem to think it’s some kind of selfish malicious plan. Forcing myself to eat something I don’t like makes me gag.
This is a completely psychotic thought, but I’m really curious to see what kind of circumstances would break their pickiness. For example, how many days of starvation before they change their minds. Also, would that happen sooner if no one was observing them?
Absolutely unethical and it could never happen as an experiment, but I wish I could see the results somehow.
Remember that guy who took a bunch of babies and had them raised without any affection and minimal contact to see what the original human language was? Maybe we can get him to do it
A friend of a friend got into coma once because of that, their parents apparently didn’t thought that it’s psychotic to starve their children to death as an experiment and a teaching moment
Someone very close to me suffers from ARFID. Imagine if you will that you were in the situations above. How long would it be before you tried eating dog poop? If people were telling you dog poop was safe and healthy and the only way to survive yet for your entire life you’ve known otherwise.
This isn’t the greatest example, but that roughly gives you an idea of what someone with ARFID might be struggling with in those moments and why it is different than just picky eating.
The amount of people who are actually unable to have gluten seriously dwarfs the amount of people who claim it, unfortunately for those who really have it.
I think there is a certain group of people that ruin it. EG: “yeah, I’ll have the burger, but no bun because if you put the bun near my burger, like within 6ft of my burger, I will die slowly and painfully.” Ok, so we should take off the sauce that is thickened with flour, right? “No, the sauce is fine. Also can I get the hef with that?”
I witnessed something like this once at a deli - lady is griping that the soups aren’t gluten free, but then goes right into deciding what rolls she wants… Meanwhile my stepmom has Celiac’s disease, and occasionally catches attitude from servers when she tries to figure out how serious they are about their gluten free options…
Fuckin a if this isn’t spot on. Knew a few people with ARFID. Exact same list of foods. One had a slightly more expanded list to include tv dinners. One was a kid who wouldn’t eat any kind of fruit or vegetables. Not even coated with candy dip or chocolate.
I don’t know if it’s true or not but heard that this is kind of a form of autism.
As somebody who’s medically diagnosed with Aspergers, I can personally confirm that this was my diet more or less growing up; I basically subsisted on Spaghetti-Os, oatmeal, Oreos, pizza, chicken nuggets, and chocolate-flavored Ensures when I was growing up.
Nowadays though, I eat a lot more variety - I still have some aversion to trying out new foods from time to time, but I’ve learned to be able to prepare myself mentally to try out new foods and drinks. So when people actually act like in OP’s post and they don’t have autism or something, I can’t help but just roll my eyes because somebody with a social and learning disorder is able to do better than them.
That’s a pretty impressive feat and I really applaud your efforts to try to break out of that. I feel for those with that diagnosis that this would be pretty difficult to overcome, especially unassisted and without professional help. I do also think that for others without a diagnosis it might be akin to a phobia that’s developed. I myself grew up with A LOT of food hang-ups - went a full decade without being able to eat anything remotely resembling a dairy product. So these things take time and a lot of forward AND backwards steps.
What do you think would happen if you told him about the mushrooms?
I had a BIL who hated any kind of seafood. Couldn’t be in the same room if we were eating shrimp. I made an Asian beef stew with fish sauce and I watched him tear through that. One of my big life regrets not telling him and then stepping back and watching it unfold.
I’ll be honest and say straight up that I don’t like mushrooms. But if you can dice them up into a stew or something so that I don’t notice that’s fine. But I can’t help but fixate on them whenever I see them on food, even if the taste isn’t that strong. Same with onion rings. Onion rings were ruined when I noticed they weren’t just some weird French fry my parents bought.
Granted I’m reasonable about food and don’t ask for special orders. So I won’t through a fit about stuff. But there no need to force someone to change if you don’t think they are willing. Doubly so if they have autism.
I can relate to this one- I generally don’t like seafood, if I smell or taste it, I won’t enjoy what I’m eating even if it’s something else. But I can eat canned tuna, as long as it’s the good stuff, and a few times I have been talked into trying someone’s fish dish that they “cook differently”- usually it’s not different, but on two occasions, I have been surprised. 20 years ago a neighbor made some buttered shrimp that was quite good, and a few years ago my wife got me to try some smoked salmon, and I was ok with it.
Add comment