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Strange food phobias?

I always thought it was interesting how a seemingly normal food can be found distasteful by some people. My father has an aversion to raw onions and raw bananas, both for their textures (I have always found that odd, they are on the opposite extremes) I am not one to talk though, I have a huge aversion to anything containing bones. Whole chicken, T-bone steak, Buffalo wings, Fried chicken, Bone-in pork chops, Whole fish, I can't eat any of it because bones absolutely disgust and repulse me. I think the term is cartilogenophobia, and I have never heard anyone else afraid of bones!

What are your strange food phobias? Make me feel better about myself!

46 Comments:

My husband hates anything with the bone in it...it makes him think too much of the animal it came from. In my opinion we should be more conscious of what our food is and where it comes from. However, I understand that he's squeamish and if I do roast a whole chicken or something else on the bone I remove the meat for him and serve it boneless.
Beets and any kind of melon are my phobias. I've given them seven, eight, nine chances throughout the years. A cat only has nine lives, I figure the same is true on beets and melons--no more for me. They prompt an immediate gag reflex that sends me looking for the nearest bathroom.

about the only major problem I have is with Mayonaise, I went through a phase years ago where I couldnt eat enough of it, we're talking mayo sandwiches, In the last 4 years I've developed a major issue with it, I find mayo on a sandwich and I start to gag. (litterally end up unable to eat for 2 days) SO on the other hand loves the stuff and begs me to make roasted garlic mayo for him to dip fries in. I do it but just dont watch.

It's not so much a phobia as something normal I really dislike. Prepare yourselves.

I DO NOT LIKE CEREAL WITH MILK.

Yea, I said it. I like cereal. I like milk. But not together. The milk makes the cereal mush and the milk left over in the bowl has pieces of cereal still in it. ICK. And I've had this fear that if I don't eat the cereal fast enough the milk will go bad. But that's an extension of my supreme dislike of spoiled food. (I won't drink milk if it's even one day after the sell by date. Drives my mom nuts)

Anything that tries to crawl off the plate. I

Liver. As a kid, my parents made liver and onions often because liver was cheap meat, but I hated it and still do to this day. Something about the texture, it makes me gag just looking at it.

i am afraid of Splenda.

Any type of tomatos raw that is. I can have them stewed, soup, sauces, even in salsa fine chopped, ect just not raw slices, chunks, whole.
Any type of offal whether chopped in stuffing, sausage with a lot of herbs and spices in it, froi gras, anything.
Last is clams, oysters, mussels......Gross!!

Liquid dairy milk. Ice cream is OK. Sour cream is OK. Just not liquid milk.
Mayo
Organ meats
Okra
Stilton. I know some people really enjoy it, but it's just not for me.
Canned, pressed meats. Except Spam occasionally. Who really knows what goes into potted meat?

Liver.

Any organ meats.

Cottage cheese. There's something about how it looks - like brains - that makes me queasy.

Ripe bananas.

Brussels sprouts and kidneys which is kinda odd because I love most other offal and "cabbage family" products...

I don't know that you can call it a phobia, but there are very few organ meats that I will eat. I think my aversion for them is closely related to my extreme dislike for the taste of liver. I do like chicken gizzards though and will eat way too many of them.

This kind of foolishness puts me in mind of a "nutritionist" I once listened to on the radio. He was telling his listeners to avoid any vegetable in the nightshade family, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant and what have you, because the nightshade is a poisonous plant. Well, he's right about the nightshade. It is poisonous. What he did not seem to realize is that there are more poisonous legumes than there are poisonous nightshades and he said nothing about avoiding beans or peas. Nor did he say anything about avoiding mushrooms. "Bad" or "dangerous" by association is just silly.

Ditto on the organ meats, although I was raised on steak and kidney pie, and stuffed beef heart - I loved them until I was old enough to realize they were organs - in my 60's and I am ashamed to say I am still squeamish - especially things like tripe, head cheese, tongue (OMG, have you seen those things in stores?) - another great aversion is squid or octopus, I just could not put them into my mouth having seen the "whole" thing - I am most ashamed of my aversion to fresh tuna (although I love the canned solid white albacore) - but the fresh, seared tuna, looks so much what I imagine human flesh to look like!

@Grumpy Old Man - I agree that the fellow on the radio had bad reasoning. Nightshades are thought by many to be questionable, but not because they're "poisonous."

They are highly inflammatory foods, and contain compounds that may inhibit the body's absorption of calcium (which may explain why many traditional dishes containing nightshades also contain dairy).

Some people (like myself) find that consuming nightshades in any quantity (especially, but not only, tomatoes) can cause canker sores, while others with arthritis and other inflammatory conditions have found a reduction in symptoms when eliminating them from the diet, which is regularly recommended for arthritis by Western doctors in addition to alternative practitioners.

I've had to eliminate tomatoes almost entirely from my diet due to a stomach issue + the aforementioned canker sores (which is awful; I love them), but I don't think I could go very much further into abandoning nightshades, because cooking without chilis is too sad to imagine.

The only foods that I'm really phobic about are the artificial/processed kind, because I just don't know what they're going to do to my body twenty years from now.

I'm w/producestories on the processed food.....I'm currently trying to eliminate as much of it as possible from my diet. I fear what some of the chemicals and preservatives in it are doing to my body. Other than that...I'll eat pretty much anything! lol

Mayo. Just the thought makes me gag. And if I'm making a sandwich (not for me, natch) and get the tiniest bit on my hands, I have to wash my hands and get a new knife. And I can't rinse the knife afterwards, too. And I don't breathe when I'm scooping / spreading it.

ditto - @producestories - i agree -- i'm afraid of artificial/processed anything.... artificial coloring? anything i can't pronounce.... sorry to hear about your reaction to tomatoes..... i usually only eat them in season.
or the organic canned ones..... i know the acid can really do damage if you're sensitive to it.....

i also suffer from fast food phobia.

My son won't eat meat with bones in it, so you're not alone on that one! My aunt refuses to eat anything orange -- carrots, yams, whatever ....

Canned creamed corn or canned spinach. ick gross

cheezies or cheezits...those florescent, crunchy worm-shaped things. when i was six my babysitter hid the bowl we were eating, and convinced me someone had broken in and stolen them. hand in hand we searched the house for the intruder, my terror mounting every minute. when we returned to the living room, the cheezies had magically reappeared. i still hate those things, i suspect they have secret, evil powers.

Ice. It gives me the creeps. Frozen mugs are the worst. I remember the old-timey metal ice trays with the pull-up handle release. Yikes, even as a kid. I don't like cold watermelon or fruit, either. My boyfriend many years ago used to get the chills when he would eat cereal and hold a paper towel at the same time. He said the nubs on the backside of the paper towel bothered him.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't call it a "phobia" so much as a really strong aversion. BEETS. I'm not talking about the taste, as I can't even bring myself get them to my mouth. There are things I dislike but try from time to time, to see if I maybe now like them, however, beetroot will never cross my lips. Even if I have to starve to death.

That, and dried fruit. If I mistakenly eat something with a teeny-tiny piece of raisin or dried whatever in it, I spit it out as fast as I can. Still, it's probably not as bad as beets.

We're over the top kids. You may not like a taste or texture, but would most of you call it a phobia? There is little that I don't like or wouldn't try, but it does not qualify as a phobia. I am sure if you were starving you would get way past your aversions and I hope that none of you ever find yourselves at that point.

I can't imagine eating fried grasshoppers, but at this point, bones or no I would eat them if I was on an island where there was nothing but.

Not really a phobia, but three things I'm not eating are avocados, hummus and tofu.

I wouldn't eat jarred marinara for the longest time because my 10th grade science teacher told us that there is an average of 3 maggots in each jar-- and a similar situation with pre-ground spices with bugs probably mixed in.

I've since gotten over it because I realize that it's probably in everything!

I would also agree that most of these are not phobias, merely dislikes. To me a 'food phobia' is when someone insists that even one bite of something containing carbohydrates will make them 'blow up like a balloon' or people who won't eat fat because 'fat makes you fat' (although this is less common than it used to be). Or a child's fear of being force-fed greens by a parent, although in that case it is more the experience than the food. My 'fear' of foods with sugar alcohols/olestra (fortunately, also less common) have to do with the unpleasant, er, aftereffects those products cause so I am literally 'afraid' to eat them, even by accident, like some of you are afraid of some additives in food and their effects on your bodies. To me, merely disliking say, mayo, isn't a phobia, but being petrified of eating something with mayo for fear it will make you throw up in public=phobia.

Beans. I can't even have them on my plate. Black beans, refried, baked, lima, black eye peas...even lentils and peas give me the willies. As I'm writing this, I realize it's pretty much anything in the legume family.

Okay, a real phobia: a few years back, I started getting massive gastrointestinal distress from eating shellfish. So I basically avoided it like the plague, for my health. "Just a tiny bit," a friend said, "and you could die."

Flash forward to about a year ago. I finally go get the damned full battery of allergy testing, and I'm not actually allergic to any fish or shellfish. "Must be a gastric intolerance," the doc said. "Try eating a very small amount and then ramp up gradually, so you can see your tolerance level."

Nope. I cannot do it. Not even because I'm afraid of the gastrointestinal distress. I'm afraid that my throat will close up. I literally start to panic when I try to put a shrimp to my lips for a bite. My throat will *not* close up, I know this... but I'm too freaked out.

And I'm someone who regularly eats tendon soup, tripe, kimchee. I eat the fat off of steaks and sometimes don't bother to wash my fruit, two things that I'm certain *are* actually killing me. But shrimp? Hell no.

Now that's a phobia.

i truly have a fast food phobia .... the thought of eating fast food causes me such mental distress -- the thought of other people eating it also causes me distress. i do believe if they could grow a chicken with a dozen wings on it - they would. that scares the hell out of me.

*Raisins
*Peas
*Yams
*Mangos/Guava/Papaya
*Bananas
*Mushy Tomatoes
*Shitake Mushrooms
*Eggplant (for the time being)
*All Carbohydrates (other than the ones that come from vegetables)
*Pork Products of ALL kinds
*Corn & Corn Fed Animals
*Dairy Products (ALL OF THEM)
*Sugar (That's right, I don't eat sugar - only the "sugar" in vegetables)

The thought of eating cheese without a cracker makes me gag but love cheese and crackers. Toast must be dry and eggs cannot be eaten without toast--again the gagging problem.
Mayo is poison.
Some foods can never ever touch on the plate. Luncheon meats are icky because they seem slimey except salami. Soup must be always eaten with crackers in it--I am actually starting to get over this one. Chocolate and ice cream must only be eaten after meals.
The list goes on and on. I live in a community that eats together-I basically hide these things but a close friend ate many meals with me and finally she turned to me and said, "Wow, you can really hide your crazy food issues can't you?"
BTW I can eat at any restaurant no matter how dirty, have eaten food all over the world and love fast food. (I know, I know I am trying to get over that too!!")

I would rather skip lunch than eat a sandwich with mayo but the food I'm really afraid of is jello. The thought of being in a situation where I have to eat jello has kept me up at night.

I got put off egg sandwiches once, because there was egg shell mixed in with the egg. I also can't stand tuna sandwiches if the bones are still in the tuna.

Also hate steak and kidney. Love steak; just don't mix it in with kidney...

Tongue makes me think of Fear Factor, which is weird because I like other organ meats. I don't like eggplant. I can eat squid, whole or cut up, but I cannot even get close to whole baby octopi without freaking out just a little (or a lot, depending on how close to my eyes they are). Maybe they remind of me spiders? I do like octopus, but it must be cut up into pieces before I see it.

I don't have phobias. Aversions, sure. Lima beans and cooked red cabbage. Black licorice. Those are aversions. I go out of my way not to eat those.

There are things that might freak me out if I was ever in a position to have to eat it (trapped on a desert island...finding out I'd have to try and eat this or face death): live octopus, that Sardinian cheese with the live maggots living in it, cow eyeball tacos (although, I'd have to see what that looked like - I like other offal). But the likelihood of me coming in contact with any of these things is pretty slim.

Runny eggs and okra make me gaaag! Some offal like brains, sweetbreads, hearts, tongue, blood sausages-stuff like that, ewww...though pork tripe and any type of chicken, pork, beef liver is ok. I can't stand to look or eat baby octopus, tho the grilled tentacles are delicious. No lamb, pheasant, ostrich, venison, elk, alligator, frog, bunnies, eels for me...

"Phobia" implies that there's something IRRATIONAL about the aversion. I don't think aversions to some of the things that people have mentioned--offal/organs, cartilage, exotic animals, insects, and even tentacled sea creatures--are considered all that irrational in American and European culture. LOTS of people find those things distasteful.

So, who out there has an inexpicable fear of carrots?

@lorenzo - hopefully not peter cottontail.... do you? :^)

For 25 years I was a seriously picky eater, but living in Japan now, I've had to get over that. Recently I've met Remy through YouTube. He's an American boy who's put us all to shame with his adventurous food quests.
Check him out with key word: foododdities in YouTube or through his blog. He's amazingly brave and fearless! He faces all your worst food phobias with grace.

I got a little scared when I was at my fiance's parents' house, and his sister was going to start cooking the beans. In my mind, she was steaming fresh green beans. In reality, she was opening a can. Fortunately they were those little pork and beans in some sort of tomatoey sauce. I think I'm scared of canned green beans. Canned legumes I can abide.

I don't really have food phobias, but I do have food aversions. :) Which are much more common and therefore more fun to talk about...

My main aversion is fennel seed. I have not tried fennel root but I assume it has the same sort of smell/taste as the seed.

If I even smell it in my food, I don't want to eat it. Blech. It just doesn't smell or taste good to me at all. My body must be trying to tell me SOMETHING (even if it's just that I'm a nutball) and I'm gonna listen.

I have a similar aversion to bell peppers. I don't like how they smell and they don't taste good either. Green is the worst - I can tolerate red and yellow, although I still don't like the smell. But for me, if something has green peppers in it, it's essentially ruined. The taste permeates the whole dish. It ruins salsa for me.

Zucchini.

I just can't handle the texture.

My friend is literally afraid of donuts. if she even sees a dunkin donuts box she flips out. she has no idea why they scare her. she says it's everything about them. it's not even a taste thing. she hates the way they look, everything. she will literally run out of the room if she sees one. strangest thing i've ever seen.

butter.
i love almost all food, and live for sweets like cookies and cakes, but if i'm making it myself, i can't eat it.
thats why i appreciate my mom cooking for me- i can enjoy foods like stuffing and mashed potatoes that would otherwise gross me out...

the worst thing ever- going to a diner and getting breakfast served with a huge melted pool of butter covering it :(

I know it's a little late but I'm glad I'm not the only one with strange food phobias. I won't eat condiments, cooked veggies (except corn), seafood, anything with a sauce, cheese that's the slightest bit warm, milk on my cereal (because it gets soggy), salad dressing, or anything warm and mushy (mashed potatoes, thick fries, etc). Also I don't mix some things like cheese and crackers... the texture is just gross. Oh and most breakfast foods. The only thing I'll eat for breakfast is fruit, a bagel with a little bit of butter, or cereal. If I'm served any of this I'll starve instead of eating it.

My boyfriend can't stand cereal. He can't even see someone else eating it, which is weird for me as I love it. I asked him why, and he said he didn't know.

As for me, I hate the smell of both bubble gum and cotton candy. I can't smell either of them without getting nauseous.

I don't like bananas as they're too squishy, broccoli feels weird in my mouth- it's like eating a little tree; but neither of these give me an adverse reaction. I just dislike them.

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