It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Softstuff

The talk of offal made me buy some liver to cook for lunch! You folks have a lot to answer for....

Mrs_Chip

... well at least you resisted the pigs head!

I had an interesting chat to my Cambodian hairdresser about the durian fruit, which smells foul, but tastes very sweet and, to some, delicious. Three of her four children cannot eat it, the youngest can. She thinks this is because she ate the durian when she was pregnant with the 4th. I think possibly because she could not afford the fruit when the first three were young, so they never got used to it. Whatever the reason, I think that nurture has a lot to do with what we will and will not eat. For me the worry is that a lot of today's children will not grow up exposed to many foods, and will never develop a taste for them. Even though I did not particularly like liver as a kid, I had to eat it, and in adulthood I grew to love it. Ditto sprouts and swede. From an OS point of view, is it possible these foods could gradually fall out of the diet and be lost forever?

Mrs_Chip

Kidcat - sorry things are not so good with you:(:grouphug:

VJsmum

Kidcat, sounds like you have had an horrendous time - hope you enjoy DD's birthday today.

Mrs Chip - I agree to some extent about the nature vs nurture thing regarding food. But when i had my daughter, 15 years ago, i vowed that she wouldn't be a fussy eater and would just be given stuff to eat etc. For a little while it worked, but then she learned to say no! No matter how much coaxing, "open your mouth for the aeroplane" - ing etc. she just wouldn't eat it. DS was the same.

However, all the way through i have encouraged them to try things and never said "You won't like it" as my friend did with hers - it has always been "Well just try it". Now DD is a good eater and loves most veg (tho she isn't a massive meat eater) DS is better than he was but still refuses some things. Swears blind he doesn't like onions and mushrooms but has no idea how much of them he actually eats in lasagne, bolognaise etc.:rotfl:

Well i am at work today what a bummer.

ceridwen

Kidcat - Hoping things come good for you with the family problem you mention ((( )))

MrsChip - I wouldnt worry too much re any children that get "exposed" to only a limited range of foods in childhood not trying out others later. I was brought up on a VERY VERY limited range of foods (thankfully not including the "unmentionable" bits of animals - whew! the worst we had was spam and I think mutton surfaced a couple of times). Howsomever - as an adult - I'm an endless experimenter with foods and I expect a good 95% of the food I have in an average day consists of foodstuffs I never had as a child. I'm still determinedly working my way through trying literally every single type of food I havent had yet that counts as vegetarian.
Breakfast right now is porridge (never had proper porridge oats), topped with apple, redcurrants (new to me), blackcurrants (new to me), seeds foraged from a plant (new to most). Then wholemeal toast (wholemeal bread is new to me), then real coffee (new to me). Thats typical of how much variation there has been. As a child it would have been packet cereals with just milk accompanying, followed by "rubber bread" white toast and tea or instant coffee. How things change in a generation and when the younger person is much more interested in food than her parents were/are.

Mrs_Chip

Ceridwen - add durian to that list at your peril :rotfl:

I think there are all sorts of things a play when it comes to food and our acceptance of it. I was forced to eat a lot of the things I love now, ditto OH, but it has taken years to breakdown some of his childhood 'hates' . I never tasted anchovies, olives, avocado until my teens, and adore them with a passion! It's interesting though, I would love to know why OH, who loves chocolate, hates beetroot and parsnips because they are too 'sweet' ???

mardatha

I think in the old days when kids were forced to sit at the table until they finished a meal that was cruelty. Never happened to me though, is just my point of view. I think there are millions of things out there to eat and if kids won't eat some things then that isn't the end of the world. My eldest son ate only Weetabix until he was 7 and he lived:)

ceridwen

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Ceridwen - add durian to that list at your peril :rotfl:

I think there are all sorts of things a play when it comes to food and our acceptance of it. I was forced to eat a lot of the things I love now, ditto OH, but it has taken years to breakdown some of his childhood 'hates' . I never tasted anchovies, olives, avocado until my teens, and adore them with a passion! It's interesting though, I would love to know why OH, who loves chocolate, hates beetroot and parsnips because they are too 'sweet' ???

Actually.....durian is "on the list to try" - but I've never come across it yet. I've noticed it featuring heavily in the American raw food books I have - so I HAVE heard about the appalling smell - but shall try to summons up the courage to try it if I DO come across it ever.

Anchovies (yep) - before I turned vegetarian, olives (yep) - but got to be black, avocado (yep) - and all those things were try-outs as an adult.

Beetroot (only if grated in a very varied salad) or cooked in chocolate and beetroot cake (I DO eat the leaves of it though as a vegetable - steamed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice). Parsnips - yuk...

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

I think in the old days when kids were forced to sit at the table until they finished a meal that was cruelty. Never happened to me though, is just my point of view. I think there are millions of things out there to eat and if kids won't eat some things then that isn't the end of the world. My eldest son ate only Weetabix until he was 7 and he lived:)

I guess that was part of the reason for the very limited range of foods as a child - because of the dislikes one or other of us had. Though the main one was lack of money and my mothers dislike for cooking (though both my parents regard "food as fuel" and not a "hobby/pleasure/etc" as I do). I think my mother reckoned that any food one of us would like - at least two of us would like in that household. As she put it "You liked what your father liked and your brother liked what I liked".

So - there wasnt any question of making us sit and eat food we disliked that much - I dont think my father would have allowed that.

Mrs_Chip

My mum was very Old School - I had to sit at the table until my food was gone, even if it was cold and congealed :eek:. I used to spit it down the back of the radiator :eek::eek::eek:. I guess this was how her parents were with her, but I can't see the logic of making a child eat something they find horrible. I have read that it takes three weeks to change a habit, food may be like that - perhaps regular exposure develops a taste for things, that's how OH got to love tomato. But I did have to coax him to try it the first few times, then he ate it just because it was there, now he asks for it!