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.

#ThrowbackNovember: Week 2

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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?