Are all people with autism picky about food

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I can relate to this a lot, just with me it’s most fruits (except for berries), some vegetables and most salads.

It used to be more extreme as a child, but now since I eat more vegetables it has gotten better.
There are many fruits I’ve never tried in my entire life and I can’t stand the smell of several of them.

When I was a little kid I was both picky and adventerous. Loved Chinese food. But I couldnt stand butter on things. Even on bread. And since butter isnt particularly good for you that is good.

Gradually I caved into the crowd to conform in my adolescence ...started putting a little butter on corn cobs, like everyone else, for example.

But even now I like just a hint of butter. Not a heavy butterized taste to things like mashed potatoes.

Hate most cheese burgers . Probably because fast food places use those squares of highly processed cheese. Though I do like blue cheese that they put on burgers in gourmet places.

Like butter on, or in, potatoes though.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 08 May 2024, 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

When I was a kid there were different kind of food that I really didn't like, but I never really had a choice but to eat what was served. You could say that I learned the hard way not to be picky about food. When it comes to pain and fatigue I am to a large extent able to in the same way override it and carry on. For the record I have some autistic friends that, like naturalplastic, don't like butter on the bread.

Theoretically I don't think I'd describe myself as "picky". There are a few foods I don't like and as long as something doesn't have one of those in it, I'm perfectly willing to try it.
In practice, however, this is not what happens. My biggest issues are with tomatoes and mushrooms, and somehow that alone eliminates 90% of the average restaurant's menu. Usually I'll have one thing, or sometimes two, that I always order at a given restaurant.
I will eat tomato sauce as long as there are no tomato chunks in it, but there's no way of knowing that until it's too late.
I don't think there are that many foods I won't eat, but somehow those few foods are in almost everything.

I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily picky with what food I eat (although there are certainly are some foods I'd have no interest in ever trying), but I am picky with how my food is arranged on the plate (and, if my food is on multiple plates, the way I have the plates themselves arranged) and the order I eat it. (To give a basic example: if I decide to make myself a cheeseburger and fries for dinner, I need to have the burger on the right side of the plate and the fries on the left side and the way I eat the food is I take one bite of the burger and then I eat a fry [taking a drink when necessary] and alternate like that)

I have legitimately spent like 5-10 minutes rotating a tray with a TV dinner in it because there was no way I could have the tray positioned where the food would be arranged the way I need it to be and I'd end up eating the meal while thinking 'This is wrong, this isn't the way my food needs to be arranged'.

I was very picky. Now I will eat most things but I'd still rather my food didn't touch. I forget what it was people would always mix together, green beans and macaroni maybe?

It confused me then. Still confuses me. I want my flavors to be clear and distinct.

I also prefer to eat foods one at a time. But my grandma tends to ask me how things taste, so I break my order and go back to it after.

Since I moved to the group home, I been eating stuff I don’t like, I need to stop eating it. The people here can put different stuff on the plate,cut up bananas, chicken nuggets, potato fries & ketchup, other times, it were weird stuff & papaya, I tried it, I spit it out in my napkin, they make alot of stuff with beef, they give us beef hot dogs, I don’t eat beef too much, I should stop eating beef, red meat is bad for psoriasis, but I love spaghetti. I didn’t eat the beef hot dogs. I don’t like their cereal either, I don’t drink cow milk. I only love the eggs & some dinner food, alot of the time I don’t really care about the food they made, I been eating it, I don’t want to starve. I hate eggplant.