[How many people can't stand the texture of fish, can only stomach grilled chicken or refuse to eat their vegetables?]

This is so totally OT... but I still found it fascinating. To the foods mentioned, I would add the evil Brussels sprout. Cannot believe it was not the first thing mentioned!

From the BBC today...

Slainte!

Bobbie



How many people can't stand the texture of fish, can only stomach grilled chicken or refuse to eat their vegetables?

Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina are compiling the first global registry of "picky eaters" in the hope of discovering why some people have trouble with food.

They believe it may help find a genetic reason for some eaters' intense dislike of certain foods, like broccoli, or beans with a "fuzzy" texture. They note some eaters' pickiness is so deep-seated it interferes with their jobs, their relationships and their social lives.

"This is an area that is vastly under-explored," says Dr Nancy Zucker, director of the Duke University Center for Eating Disorders.

"People think this is something you choose, but I don't have a choice," says picky eater Heather Hill. "We have no idea how prevalent it is and how it affects people's lives."

The findings have given heart to picky eaters who say they are not taken seriously because most omnivores consider their fussiness a choice or a childish habit, not a medical condition.

Neither is picky eating socially acceptable, in the way that vegetarianism or other voluntary diets are.

"The worst thing about being a picky eater is other people," says Rhonda West of Virginia. "They're just mean. It starts with your family thinking you're doing this on purpose, that you're trying to gain attention or just being a difficult child - but it's none of the above. They're asking us to do something that's equivalent to eating dirt every day."

Ms West, 42, says she began rejecting food as an infant, refusing to breast feed or accept substitutes. As an adult she only eats fruit, white rice swallowed whole because she doesn't like the texture, French fries, and plain meat. Texture is just as important to me as taste, because if something is slimy, like pasta or sea food it sends my senses to the moon," Ms West says.

"Tomatoes look good but I can't get past the squishiness. It's like biting into a big fat maggot."

Eating pasta is like "having a live worm in your mouth", she says.

Research into obesity, food cravings and how people perceive different tastes has raised the possibility that genetics are responsible for picky eaters' finicky tastes.

Professor Beverley Tepper, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, is part of a group researching why people react differently to chemical compounds in food. She says the ability to detect bitterness is inherited and contributes to people's preferences for some foods rather than others.

"Taste differences are a combination of genetics and personal characteristics, but there are other variables - some of it might be psychological."

"It's hard to accept this about myself," says James Matta of his food preferences "Maybe there are genes out there that cause picky eating. We don't know yet."

Ms West is convinced she was born with her food preferences, although she says they were compounded by constant childhood battles with her parents, who tried to force her to eat foods she didn't like.

Jenny Nikolaisen of Virginia also believes genetics play a role because she comes from a long line of picky eaters. For the most part, she eats only plain meat and potatoes, baked or fried, and has the same meal of hamburger and chips for lunch virtually every day.

"A lot of times when I try something new, it causes me to gag," says Ms Nikolaisen, 34, adding that at times she can talk herself into eating foods not on her usual menu.

"I tried broccoli once and it felt like little trees in my mouth," she says...

Chirpy Bird-Day, Sharon!

Slainte!

Bobbie

 

They are so beautiful!  I look forward to seeing these at the end of my long day at work...It is so uplifting to see those lovely innocent expressions!
 

I bet they wouldn't look so innocent if you were a pigeon 

There's one in the Zwolle nestbox... kinda like a PF pizza delivery... only the dellivery guy does not know he's "lunch"...

Now if only the skys would clear. 

never fails when there is something to see its clouds, clouds everywhere 

Yup...rain here.

Same here in Ireland... at least in Wicklow... and after a glorious day too. AND I was awake! Hoping for a show tonite... it will be clear... I will be asleep... Sod's Law...

Not that The Lady is heading our way (or at least I sure hope not... wrong direction!), but Ireland and GB are expecting northerly and north-westerly winds for the next little while. Hope they give her a gentle shove to speed her on her majestic way...

Also, such conditions usually mean fine weather here - and it is glorious! Harvesters are in the fields, working away - the buzz of machinery went on in the adjacent fields til late last night.

Slainte!

Bobbie

...over the past several days.  I've compiled some pictures for viewing at Peregrinations.
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/08/some-recent-sightings.html

Thanks, Jim - I am sooooo jealous of those Pileated Woodpeckers at your suet feeder! These were once my "bogey birds". (Do birders use that expression in the US re a bird that always eludes them? They do here...). Finally got my eye on one a few years back - but to have them right outside the window? Wow! The Great Spotted Woodpecker, extinct here for ages, has now made its way back, probably from Wales. I look forward to my first contact...

The Belted Kingfisher is another favourite, and a trip home is incomplete if I have not seen one...

Slainte!

Bobbie

My back is starting to hurt!

It's the cheap bar-stools.

Vroom vroom! I can't catch up. You must have a better set up.

There's a pub just down the road... left-hand side. We'll wait there... You won't be able to miss me... I'll be the one sitting with the Sarcastic Fringehead...

Race You! 

Ok... I'm ready! Uhhhhh... where we goin'?

Phew! Thanks, Donna and Ei! I was beginning to think that there was something I should know...

Yard work?? YARD WORK??? Ohhhhhh, dear, you should see it out there. As I was home during the growing season, things got... well... growing. And now I am facing a tangle of stuff that really does need dealing with. But hey, ho... not today. Today was Lasagna Day, which is why I had time to check in every now and then... gotta say - it turned out wonderfully well... and we have loads left... anyone feeling a bit peckish??? (uh, yes, Donna... the slow season...)

Hey! Where is everyone?! Not a thing has appeared on the Forum since 09.00 Falcon-Time in ROC... so I am just checking to see if this message goes through... feelin' a bit lonely over here... 

Slainte!

Bobbie

How privileged were we to have spent this last season with her!

Hey! Whole stole my topic? This is the Sarcastic Fringehead topic, not the freakin' Mink discussion topic. For crying out loud, go get yer own topic! We're talking more 'mink' than 'sarcastic fringehead' here because of you. C'mon - who did it? Fess up.

Lou

OH, noooooo, Lou! Looks like I just "infringed" on your topic!!! Ooops!

Slainte!

Bobbie

Yeah well Bobbie, you better "HEAD" on out of here before Lou wakes up!
 

 

Hey! Whole stole my topic? This is the Sarcastic Fringehead topic, not the freakin' Mink discussion topic. For crying out loud, go get yer own topic! We're talking more 'mink' than 'sarcastic fringehead' here because of you. C'mon - who did it? Fess up.

Lou

OH, noooooo, Lou! Looks like I just "infringed" on your topic!!! Ooops!

Slainte!

Bobbie

The American mink is native to North America (I don't know about South America), but I think there is also a European mink.  There are lots of members of the same family (mustelid, I think) native to North America: short-tailed weasels - a.k.a ermine, long-tailed weasels, fishers, pine martens, badgers, otters, wolverines, black-footed ferret etc...I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.  They're rare enough that I always get excited to see any members of that family, though it is hard to warm up to a voracious carnivore that you know is preying on the other cute critters we like to watch.
[/quote]

Thanks for that, Patti. I did not know that re the mink being a North American native. I guess this is the whole question of introduced species, isn't it? Ireland's mustelids include badgers too - they get a bad rap as the possible cause of bovine TB. Our rarest is probably the pine marten... and yes, the excitement of seeing my one-and-only one a while back was sensational! Badgers sometimes go wandering down the lane beside us... and stoats have also been seen to frolic there too. They love the stone walls... (and the bunnies, for different reasons...). Not worried re the fact that one creature is the prey and another the predator. But the poor old "Irish" mink, I fear, is the wrong critter in the wrong place.