Why do some Aspies dislike their food being touched?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm not criticising anyone, I'm just curious. How my food is laid out on the plate has never bothered me. Well I have never thought about it really. For those who don't like your food touching on the plate, how do you have your gravy? I have to have my gravy all over, so that it practically drowns the food.

So how do you feel when your foods touch on your plate? Can you not eat it if it's touching? I'm just curious. I get upset of certain things, so I am not being hypocritical. I'm just wondering how Aspie people feel when your food is touching.

I actually like to mix my food together. Maybe that makes me an ASD oddball in this case

But I think for those who don't want their food touching, it's an order thing. Which I can relate to. A place for everything and everything in it's place. And when I think about it, getting food piled on a plate at a buffet there are certain items I didn't want next to each other. Like if a cookie was added to the plate, I would want it off to the side so it didn't absorb gravy or whatever.

For me, it's an issue of the taste. An extreme example would be chocolate cake and gravy or ketchup.

Back when it bothered me it was because it looked disgusting and too gross.

Yes but there are certain foods most people don't mix anyway. I mean, the thought of tomato ketchup and chocolate cake mixed together....eww! But I'm talking more about food on a plate that you're supposed to eat together, like bangers and mash (in other words, sausages and mashed potatoes ).

I have no issue with my food touching.

I do however have a big problem with people touching my food with their bare bands.

I also hate lose bread and cakes being sold I just imagine snotty little kids messing with it and other people coughing and sneezing all over it.

I never knew of that issue. I always thought autistic people were talking things about like ketchup touching the mashed potatoes or corn touching it or mac and cheese touching something else on the plate. That doesn't bother most people. It sure bothered my NT brother too and he would refuse to eat his food totally while I still ate mine but not the mixed part.

That's an absurd example meant as a comparison, some things that most people think go good together, I think are gross together.

I've never heard of sausage with mashed potatoes, it's not common in the states I guess.

I like to mix some foods together, but most mixed foods just taste strange to me.
I love gravy with everything, so I just pour it all over.

I've never had this particular issue. I thought that was an eating disorder thing?
I mind where the food goes though. Meat in that spot, potatoes over there on the plate etc, so they're in different heaps. Potatoes on the far side of the plate. Meat to the left or middle. Remoulade to the right. If both mustard and ketchup is used, then they will go on one side each of the meat. But I have never cared if they touch each other.

It's common here (Norway). It's one of only two meals we eat with mashed potatoes in my family.

I don't mind food touching on the plate but I can't tolerate when food is mixed together. My mother in law mixes her food together and makes me sick. When we eat with her I have to sit in a seat where I can't see her plate.

Aside from specific things I do not like my food touch. Another thing is I tend to eat one thing until it's gone then move on to the next item.

I tend to do that a lot too.

I used to dislike my food touching, up until I was about 9 or 10 years old. There was no particular reason, I just liked to keep my different tasting foods apart. If something was touching, I just moved it away with my fork and ate it anyway. It was more of a preference than an anxiety-causing issue. I was fine with mixing certain foods, if they were meant to go together (mashed potatoes and gravy, etc.). I'm not sure when I stopped doing this, but it was something that I just stopped doing at some point, with no real effort on my part.

I (still) do this quite often too! I also tend to eat the thing I like least first and save the best thing for last. I've been trying to change that lately though, because why save the best thing for last when you are too full to finish it ?

I still do not like my food touching, but I have learned how to deal with it.

Even today, when different types of food are on my plate, I will mound them up so the same stuff is in a bigger heap farther from the other heaps. Gravy does pose a problem... I do not like that it travels around my plate and touches food I don't want it to. Or, too much gets soaked into the right thing.

For me, it is texture-related. I like a *certain* amount of gravy on my food. I want the flavor and a little moisture, but I don't want my food to get soggy from too much gravy. I *deal* with it if it happens. But, I don't like it. I have just learned not to freak out, and I don't go out of my way to do things that would be obviously different from most adults. If I was in my own dinner world, I would probably have the gravy separate and dip my forkful of stuff into some gravy to get just the right amount.

When I was a kid, I refused to have more than one type of food on my plate at one time. I would dish out one type of food, eat it. Then dish out the other type and eat it, then the next and eat it. This is actually a very bad approach because one will almost automatically overeat if one is required to eat all the foods (instead of getting a little bit of each until one is full.)

For a while, my mother had me using divided plates, but this didn't work either because I would still eat the different foods in turn. I could not move back and forth from one food to another.

This all started to change when I was 17 and started dating my now-husband. We would go out to eat (I would make him order for me because at that time I still couldn't talk to the waitress.) We would get our food, and I noticed that he would taste each of the things on his plate, whereas I would eat all of one thing at a time. It became very obvious to me that he was doing something "normal", and I was not. He didn't make fun of me (though he noticed), but I was a bit in awe of him - how could he do that? I gradually got up the courage to try eating his way. Now, I am used to moving back and forth between different types of food.

The only type of food I don't mind touching - and will actually mix - is Indian food.

When things touch or the texture (or taste) is something I don't like, I must fight the gag reflex, which is more psychological than physical. I can feel the sensation without actually feeling it.

Last week, I was going to vomit if I had another sandwich (that is a long story about issues with sandwiches), but my husband chuckled *with* me when I said I COULD NOT eat another sandwich. I had to get creative with lunches last week since I had to bring food with me various places. Yesterday, I was finally able to eat a sandwich again. Now, I need another rest from them...

I always like gravy in a little bowl on the side. I find that if I am served gravy it's too much. If it's on the side I can put just a little on as I like it. And I like mashed potatoes dry. I have never liked gravy on them and I don't like them if I they are too wet. That is a consistency that really bothers me. I actually prefer smashed potatoes to mashed because they are dryer and more lumpy.