So tonight I'm having my favorite snack. Two slices of Black Forest Ham (Prima Della brand), a few slices of Sharp Cheddar cheese (Kraft brand block), and saltine crackers (generic King Soopers store brand) along with some Hormel Pepperoni. I love pepperoni, hot or cold. Preferably cold.
The thing is I got to thinkin' tonight about my preferences in food. Do they really affect me as much as everyone says it does? Weight-wise, I'd have to say yes, but medically speaking, other than the multitude of other medical concerns I have, I'd say I'm pretty healthy. My blood pressure is relatively low compared to a few years ago (whether that's from medications and vitamin supplements is debatable), and other than some arthritic pain, I think I'm in pretty good shape.
But what really got me was how the other day I was in a Burger King getting their double cheeseburger PLAIN with cheese only (as I've liked it since childhood), and although the customer behind me found that to be quite odd, and even got a little annoyed with my order (I don't know why it would bother him, but he even said aloud "Just order your [bleeping] food and get on with it. Other people are hungry!"), I proceeded to ignore him and his tone and got on with the rest of my order.
The funniest thing happened afterward. When he stepped up to put in his order, he mentioned he wanted to have a whopper with (and I quote) "I want it with no pickles, no onions, and no cheese please!". So this prompted a conversation with mom about people and their food preferences. For many years I was the subject of ridicule among even my own family about what I ate, didn't eat, and how it would affect me later in life. The truth is my food preferences are limited, but not by choice. If I eat the foods I gag at (whether by sight or smell or taste), I get really bad stomach aches. The kind that feel as though my stomach is being ripped apart.
Anyway, this got mom and I talking about people having preferences on food, and similarly are picky about it. For example, my cousin's husband doesn't like mexican food. When asked why, he would refuse to give a direct answer, only that he doesn't like Mexican food. Even I have some taste to Mexican food, particularly a plain cheese quesadilla or a plate of nachos with just the chips and the cheese.
Bottom line, when mom and I thought about it, we decided that everyone to a degree was a picky eater whether because of medical issues or by diet, or simply by their own choice of preference. My own late father, he HATED tuna patties, but loved eating pretty much anything else whereas I LOVE tuna patties, but HATE the smell of tuna. And you know how sometimes you can kind of taste what you smell, let's just say I hate the taste of tuna, but love it in a tuna patty. Why? Who knows! I just know that it's a fact. My stomach can tolerate tuna in a Tuna Patty form.
My younger cousins don't like pizza, but they'll eat beans, and I hate even the sight of beans. Beans to me look like something that would come from a remote alien world from Star Wars or Star Trek, and I wouldn't touch beans with a 10ft fork.
Though it begs the question, is everyone to some degree a picky eater? I would say yes. Some love veggies and fruits like nobody's business, but hate meat, cheese and other dairy items like eggs or butter. Others love potato chips but hate potatoes (gladly I'm not one of them). I think at some point, people develop food preferences based on what they like, or what affects them either positively or negatively. Upon further discussion, my mother and I reached the conclusion that although we knew of very few things my dad would NOT eat, he would pretty much eat anything you put in front of him because in his generation (among 6 siblings), you ate what you were given, period. It was only toward the end of his life that he started to realize that everybody has got a food preference of some kind whether it be that they didn't like onions, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, etc.
So I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that while everyone can judge others for what they do or do not eat, they might have preferences themselves. The next time someone says "Oh you don't eat [THAT!]? Why not?" Ask them if there's anything they aren't willing to eat. I'll bet that their answer will surprise even themselves. Or observe them quietly, and when they order something special, i.e. no pickles or onions, ask them why not? Ask them why they don't want pickles or onions on their meal. I'll bet they come up with "Well, I just don't like it!" or "I just can't eat it!"
Are there people out there who have food preferences based on medical conditions? Of course. There's no one in this world that would deny that. It would be like asking a diabetic why they can't eat sugary deserts, or why some folks go gluten free because of an intolerance to foods that contain gluten. What I'm saying here is that there are people in this world who have specific food preferences that are not medically based, but they still wouldn't eat a particular food for any reason, even if they were offered a large sum of money.
