Picky Eater’s Rulebook: Chapter 1: No flavor!

By Zelda Reimpell., Grade 7

Another dinner – another battle over brussels sprouts.

 Everyone knows that its hard for kids to eat the healthiest food sometimes. The problems of precise eaters are reflected in the tons of food waste every day in our lives.

On a survey in Middle School, 48 out of 356 students considered themselves picky eaters. The most loved foods are carbs like pasta and rice where 150 people chose it. Vegetables are not as loved, as only 89 people picked as a food that they liked. On the other hand, some of the most disliked foods are soups and curries as only 56 people chose them as a food that they liked. 124 of the people said that they liked candy, chips, and sweets the most, but to counter that, many people also liked fruit – this is a perfect example of the fact that people can make the right choices when it comes to food.

But the question is: How does someone become a fussy eater?

Well sometimes its because their parents fed them only mild bland food and no spicy, bitter, sour, or umami food when they were young and naturally they have adapted to that and grown into it. There are also other ways to become a picky eater. Like for example, just not trying the food and then you won‘t know if you like it – there are many other ways as well

“The thing with this is that picky eaters, if you take a bite and don’t like it – you WON’T like it,” said Philippa L., Grade 7.

Another thing that is important about being a fussy eater is that it causes a lot of food waste – some families only buy food for their picky eaters, but other families do not. They buy loads of food, but the fussy eaters decline the food, and it ends up becoming one of the millions of tons of food waste added to our Earth.

 “I’m not a picky eater myself and I love spicy food, but I get how hard it is to not like a lot of food,” said Helene I., Grade 7.

But there are ways to limit the amount of food waste you throw out. There are many problems with fussy eaters, but

 they can be avoided – for example you could eat different food every day even if you do not like it and you can

train your taste buds. But some people would recommend other ways like for example: You should write a shopping list before you go shopping – so that you do not buy random food that you see on the shelves. Before making the shopping list you could ask the person who might not like most stuff what they want and then you can buy only that stuff and (if you are not the fussy eater) what you want to eat.

“We have to take care of the planet and I am a fussy eater so I kinda wanna learn how,”said Ida L., Grade 7.

Another way to be more sustainable with food, would be to store the food correctly – if you do not store salad in a closed conainer or in the right place in the fridge, it will turn bad and you will HAVE to throw it out. Another way to store food sustainably is that you can use Tupperware and you can reheat food. You can also remember always to put the vegetables and fruit in the drawer for produce because otherwise they will go bad sooner, as that drawer is designed for fruit and vegetables.

Now you know the problems of picky eaters and how to solve them – next time you see something left on your plate – you’ll know what to do, save it, reheat it, donate it, Tupperware it, or eat it.