【海外の反応】アメリカの偏食家がなぜか茶色いキッズメニューばかり食べる理由が判明？

Because that’s what they are fed when they are kids. A more universal observation is that picky eaters like to eat the same thing since they are kids.

\>I don't think I've ever met a picky eater whose diet was dominated by vegetables, or fish, or spicy foods, etc.

I think others have mentioned childhood, but the other thing that comes to mind is that we aren't conditioned to think of people who would eat diets dominated by those things as "picky."

My brother in law loves all vegetables but won't touch fruit. It's an odd combination

Carbs are easy and consistent with no surprise or odd flavors.

BUT I did know someone who ate almost exclusively vegetables and meat, and was repulsed by all junk foods. He wasn’t called picky; he was called healthy. But his diet was often just as restrictive as a regular picky eater.

Brain likes carbs and sugars. Brain likes fats. Because brain likes calories.

It'll override everything else to get you to eat those foods, over any other option. (Alongside familiarity from childhood, like others have said.)

I actually have a picky eater son who is vegetarian, and eats a lot of vegetables and fruits. That said, he's picky about preparation. Raw, peeled and sliced; or steamed seem fine. But no sauces when raw. So compiled salads are out. But will also eat beans with certain sauces/flavors (e.g. vegetarian chili; succotash, falafel)

But he won't eat any meat–seems to be a texture thing–and really doesn't eat cheese (except Kraft powdered "Parmesan").

Carbs, though, yeah, that's a big part of his diet.

One factor in "picky eating" is taste profiles, which *can* come from family of origin or whatever, but can also be genetic.

I've got the so-called "super taster" gene, which is actually one of a number of different genetic twists that affect how you taste things. For me, bitter tastes tend to be *very* bitter, so things that are slightly bitter to other people, or maybe not bitter at all, taste *extremely bad* to me.

The bran, the shell that surround wheat kernels is the difference between white and wheat bread. White bread removes the bran, wheat bread does not. That bran tastes bitter and unpleasant to me, so wheat bread tastes bad. When I tell people wheat bread tastes bad, I often get eye rolls, like I'm a child who can't handle a little flavor; but the truth is, it tastes very different to me than it does to someone without that gene variant.

Brassica – Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage – these are all cultivars of the same basic plant, and they all taste like extreme garbage to me. Even worse, they overpower other flavors, so if you put broccoli in something, for example, I will only taste the broccoli.

And that's just one gene variant. The cilantro gene is related but not the same; some people taste cilantro as being soapy, while others taste is as a lovely green-ish flavor.

My point is, lots of people have dramatically different taste profiles, but we tend to cook as though everyone tastes the same way.

So some of us end up seeming really randomly picky.

edit: *genetic* not *generic*