Inexistance

Anyone have any ideas on how to get a pickey eater to try new things?

Average-Joe

Smoke Pot!

saltfish

Be open-minded and remember that no matter what you're offered, someone, somwhere thinks that it is their favorite food. So, be willing to give things a try, you'd be really suprised when you find new foods that you'll want to try again!

-SF

rockzilla

Find out what they like and make something with similar ingredients, introducing a little something new. Homemade pizza is great for this since the combinations you can come up with are as limitless as your imagination.

It depends on the age of the person too. Young children's taste buds are way more sensitive than those of an adult. I couldn't stand broccoli when I was a kid, it was pure bitterness. Now I love it.

Pickiness is a funny thing. In my line of work, I see people that would sooner starve than eat something like a cabbage roll, or who act like they would die if they ate a chicken breast that so much as touched a leaf of lettuce.

There's absolutely no reason that a reasonable adult shouldn't have the courage to at least try something new.

You could mention the health perils of not having a balanced diet. We need to eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients we need. Eating nothing but hot dogs and mac n' cheese will leave you without any energy and opens the door for a whole host of illnesses that you'd figure would have went extinct in the 1800's (scurvy, beriberi and the like). This is more of a shock tactic though

If all else fails, you could always sign them up to compete on 'Fear Factor'

Slims

One of my strict vegetarian friends got high at a party and devoured an italian sub w/ probably five different kinds of meat on it. She kept saying: "This is soooo goood"

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Rodney

I'll suggest a variant on what rockzilla said: put melted cheese on it, or cover it in cheese sauce. Or, make a casserole in which the new item is one of several, including a number that they do like. With vegetables, lasagne is also a good way of introducing new ones: chop them up small and put them between the noodles with cheese, tomatoes, olives, and so on.

kalashnikov

The thing I have found with vegetables (what I am still picky with, but working at getting better - and what most people avoid when they are picky) is that cooking method is everything! Nothing could be worse to make vegetables taste like crap than simply steaming or boiling them. However, if you make a sauce for it (which can be very healthy) they can taste fantastic!

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Chingal0

Agreed! I can barely stand boiled beets, but roasted or grilled beets are great.

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cait987

Best advice I can give is try everything, Honestly, I used to eat alot of chips and crap like that because it was well crunchy and easy to eat. Now lately I have been eating alot healthier and honestly I have no complaints about having 2 pieces of fruit as opposed to a bag of chips.

Personally, when people know something is healthy something clicks in their head that makes them beleive its grose. I can vouch for that however honestly, I never liked veges and the first time I ate almost any vege I hated it then you grow fond of them and cant stop eating them. When I started eating bananas I couldnt stand it now I eat 3 or 4 a day because they well taste good are easy to get and are portable.

Also another thing is, there is nothing wrong with adding a bit of butter or something to your foods, veges are one of the best foods you can eat but most people dont enjoy them at all, however adding a bit of butter or salt and pepper doesnt add many calories if used in moderation and can change a crappy meal that your forcing yourself to eat to enjoyable for a mere 100 calories and a few fat grams.

Honestly, I dont know why people eat fast food every day the only time I eat food that I dont make is when I go out to eat mainly because ive spent the entire week not eating something good and honestly it makes the food taste 100x better and gives you something to look forward to.

Haha, sorry for hijacking this thread turned it from a good foods to eat into a calorie counting good food eating diet.

TheJig

My wife is a serious picky eater. No veggies except green beans and corn. No mushrooms, etc. Most things she doesn't like she has never actually tried. I tried everything to get her to give certain things a chance, including sneaking finely chopped things into food. But somehow she always knows that something isn't right. She calls it her "gag-reflex", and she says that it happens whenever she tries to eat something she doesn't like.

When I finally backed off and stopped putting pressure on her, she started, little by little, to try some new things. My advice, take it slow, and don't pressure yourself.

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:::OshnSoul:::

add garlic or spice to anything and it will taste great!

TheJig

Garlic and spices do help, but I think most picky eaters are picky about the texture and feel of food, not so much the flavors.

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"Jenny, tell me, do you still walk, do you still get into sandwiches in a big way?" - Flight of the Conchords

dimbulb

Ask a professional to prepare it =)
try it at a restaurant or something. preferably a good one.

The chef should know how to bring out the best in the new ingredient.

My SO hated lamb, coz it occasionally had a gamey smell. But when prepared well, she took to it immediately.

Don't smother it, or chop it up, or sneak it in. That's not going to make someone like it. Good tasting food will make them like it.

That said, its got a lot to do with a person's mindset. I know someone who literally won't eat anything he hadn't eaten before 12, or something that his mom hadn't introduced to him while he was a kid. It's about how open a person is to new experiences. There's only so much you can do....

Vespertine

Perfect advice.

.....Not that I'd know anything about that.

dragonhawk

Yep, that's me.
I hate stuff mixed together and soft. Texture is the key.
Cheese sauce is also a turn down (but I like cheese dip? go figure)

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KellyC

I used to be a picky eater. In fact, I was so picky that I don't even eat the skins on the KFC chickens. I just eat pure white meat. That changed though. I began to realized that its a problem I and I need to change it. So what I did is to put a little bit of the stuff I wouldn't normaly eat into my favorite dish, then take a mouthful of the favorite stuff with a small pinch of the stuff I hated, and then more and more each time until I can eat any thing almost anything now.

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