Are All Kids Picky Eaters?

This article is part of our monthly issue “#ThrowbackNovember,” in which we’ll explore various aspects of childhood memory through the lens of food. We’ll share fun recipes that riff on those memories and a slew of fantastic videos featuring our team in hopes that you’ll watch, share, and comment on with your own nostalgia-filled takes. Check out this link to find an overview of all our weekly topics, stories, recipes, and more.

It’s probably safe to say that, at any given moment, there’s a child sitting at a table somewhere around the world, refusing to eat something. Like a rite of passage, growing out of old eating habits and embracing something new can be hard for kids—especially if that food is something squishy (see: mushrooms), overpoweringly sharp (see: onions), or somehow deemed gruesome (see: ketchup and chicken wings).

When I was growing up, I was both extraordinarily picky and frustratingly stubborn. Meat, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and bread reigned supreme on my childhood plate, and if I had my way, all other things would never even reach my family’s fridge, let alone our dinner table. My grandparents used to say that I was just too young to enjoy all the foods I would refuse to eat, that once I got older, my taste buds would “die off” and I would be able stand eating anything put in front of me.

While I know now that this isn’t exactly true (the cells of our some 9,000 taste buds regenerate themselves every 1 – 2 weeks), whether through exposure, peer pressure, curiosity, or some dulling of my my taste buds, I most certainly have come to not only stand, but sincerely enjoy, so many of the foods that I despised as a kid. And while it’s certainly been fun to reminisce and see the memories our Kitchen Stories team shared about their most hated foods as a kid, I think there’s one thing we can all agree on: We’re happy we made it to the other side and left our picky eating habits behind.

I’m sure many of you have similar experiences to the ones our team share in this week’s #ThrowbackNovember video, but we’re curious: What food did you hate most as a kid? And, most importantly, do you enjoy it now?