Read on Twitter
My Thoughts On Picky Eating Discourse and Why We Should Be More Sensitive About Food: a thread
When making a post about picky eating, or any post in general, it is important to keep in mind your audience. If itâs on the internet, people can see it. This includes people with disorders/conditions wherein picky eating can be a huge imposition on their daily living.
While not all picky eaters have a disorder/condition, it is ordinarily in poor taste to discuss eating habits, because eating is absolutely essential to daily life, and to go out and be shamed for something you have no control over has deep social and self esteem implications.
For many years, I was undiagnosed with my eating disorder. Despite there not being apparently anything wrong with me, people commented constantly, and the effect of people talking about my eating habits and shaming me made my disorder worse, and made me better at hiding my habits
This of course was incredibly dangerous and prevented me from getting help until I was almost 20 years old.
Many people share in this experience. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE wants to be a picky eater, why would they?
Making comments about peopleâs eating makes people entitled to doing something about other peopleâs eating. A friend of mine was force fed by an older brother by having his breathing restricted until he swallowed.
This is a person who, to my knowledge, had no disorder or condition, and was just picky.
People may be worried that by not saying anything, theyâre enabling unhealthy behavior (see: people being fat phobic under the guise of âcaringâ)
People may be worried enabling, but do not understand the difference between expressing concern and shaming.
Concern: âHey, Iâve noticed that you donât eat a lot of vegetables, have you talked with a doctor about that?â
Shame: âPeople who wonât eat mushrooms are childish, grow up already 
â
â
My boyfriend is a good example of showing concern while being sensitive to my needs. He doesnât take me on dates to places I wonât be able to eat, but he sits with me while I do CBT and helps soothe my anxiety as I recover.
For those who do have disorders/conditions that can cause dietary restrictions and picky eating, having a symptom being made fun of is hurtful.
You (hopefully) wouldnât make fun of a person with autism for flapping their hands, or a person with anorexia who is experiencing hair loss, or a person with an allergy experiencing anaphylaxis, so you ought to not make fun of picky eating, as it can be a symptom of a larger prob
Many of these conditions and disorders are invisible and you could very well be shaming someone for their disorder just because you cannot see it.
Moving on, the infantilizing of picky eaters is diminishing on a lot of levels. Many people equate picky eating with being childish without realizing that there are many things that go into maturity.
For example, Iâm a picky eater, but I still live independently, pay my own bills, manage my time, and have adult relationships. To be told that my eating habits make me childish diminishes all of the progress I continue to make as as a functioning adult.
Going into a more abstract argument, many of the picky eaters I know are not picky eaters themselves and cannot fully empathize with how difficult being a picky eater is.
I have missed out on social events, been publicly embarrassed, and developed very real phobias about eating as a result of the shame surrounding picky eating, which is perpetuated by people who do not experience these things.
If you do not experience it, you do not know about it, simple. You always have the choice to be kind instead of diminishing or rude. You can choose sensitivity over judgment.
I recognize that there will be a lot of people who will still disagree after reading this thread, which is why I likely wonât be responding to any negativity.
Keep in mind that people with conditions/disorders, and people who have been traumatized because of their eating habits will be on this post and will be reading everything. Be nice.
Here are some resources about common conditions that may restrict peopleâs diets. Many of them are invisible and many people with them are all around you.
I canât tweet them cause Iâm out of space lmao but search ARFID, food allergies, ASD, IBS, and see @camiluhcameelah âs post about picky eating and food deserts. Thank you for reading! I feel super vulnerable lol so Iâll probably log off now.
