I am an adult picky eater also but I don't blame it on my parents.  My mother eats lots of vegetables and tried to get me to eat them also.  It's not that I don't want to eat them, it's just that I don't like them.

The only green vegetables that I eat are...  greens, green beans, corn, and salad.

I eat meat, but I don't want to eat a lot of it.  I need real help.  I've been to a dietitian and the guy just basically read off a piece of paper the things that you are suppose to eat, despite my picky eating habits, so needless to say that didn't go very well.

My cholesterol level is high (254) and I am overweight (5'3" - 173 lbs). So you can see my concern.

The good part about all this is that my 2yr old son eats everything, all the vegetables in the house are for him.

Is there any help out there for someone like me???  Thanks in advance.

First, please realize I am not an expert, but I'll give you some thoughts to "munch on".   Your real victory, of course, is that you haven't passed this pickiness on to your son!  Great job.

On your choices, eating greens and salads is a great start.  Green beans are good too, and a source of fiber and other nutrients.  But corn isn't really something that can be counted, as it is actually a grain, as I keep telling my granddaughter.  You can build on this by adding small amounts of other veggies to your salads, and hopefully you'll eat tomatoes and tomato products of all kinds, as they are all a great source of lycopene and other nutrients.  Add a few  very small pieces or shredded items like red bell pepper, cooked cold veggies (even green beans), cucumber, sun-chokes, prepared bottled artichokes, broccoli sprouts (they don't taste anything like broccoli), black olives, pepperoncini (picked slightly tangy Greek peppers), shredded radish or carrot, ripe cherry tomatoes, minced celery, finely julienned beets and so on to your salads or casseroles.  Onions, garlic, spices and herbs are rich in nutrients and both add and vary flavor.  The list is endless.  Start REAL small and use your favorite dressings and sauces.  Keep in mind that you can eat things without actively liking them, particularly if they are hidden under or among foods you like.  If you enjoy cheese sauce, try a little of a vegetable you don't particularly care for covered in cheese sauce (I make mine with VERY low-fat cheese and skim augmented milk).  Hide carrots or zucchini in sweet muffins.  Try fixing veggies you do like in various different ways.  Prepare green beans with a little sautéed onions, mushrooms and red bell pepper, for instance.  If, however, you WILL NOT vary your diet in the way you desire, that is psychological, and a whole different ball game.

As far as that dietitian, there are those that simply advise what you should eat, and those that are further qualified to help you realize why you won't do so.  It looks like you didn't get what you needed.   A clue is your overweight.  It's much more useful to figure out WHY you are overweight or cannot seem to follow through on losing some of it, than to follow some dry diet read from a book.  And don't overlook exercise as an additional solution.

One thing that will help you turn it around is by improving your diet and stop tempting yourself.  Toss the snacks, junk food and high calorie treats.  Stock up on lots of the healthier, lower calorie items you do like (and frankly, I don't mean "Lean Pockets" or "Healthy Cuisine" type stuff, or fat free empty-calorie sweets) as well as some of those that you can tolerate even though they are not a first choice.  You may find that if you are hungry and don't have a sweet, fatty, salty or chocolate food at hand, you may have more appetite for veggies.  If this is a handicap for others in the family that have no need or desire to follow this course of action, tough!  Explain what's behind it, give them some spare change and send them out with instructions to eat up their "junk food" before they get home.  (I know what I'm talking about: if there's a 1/2 gallon of ice cream in a flavor I like in the house, it'll be gone in about 24 hours... or less!)

If this doesn't help, you may need counseling to find out why you need to eat things that won't help you attain a better weight and health, and why you cannot learn to like other foods.   Select either a dietitian with special training to uncover conflicts that may be preventing you from succeeding, a psychologist, or perhaps EFT which interests me greatly, and if you find after a session or two you aren't compatible, wind it up and look for another one until you find a "good fit".

Incidentally, if you are picky only on a small range of foods, don't overlook the possibility of allergies - unlikely, but that was my youngest daughter's problem, to my astonishment!

And finally, at the beginning of your note, you state:  "I am an adult picky eater...", thereby defining yourself to you and others.  And who are you to lie, right?  Especially to yourself.  Affirmations are highly powerful.  Might be useful to stop defining yourself this way (see the Princess and the Pea) and start stating, and thinking,  "I am a person who has not yet learned to like a variety of vegetables."  or simply "I haven't learned to like _____." when offered an item you don't care for.  Just a thought....

For some professional advice, see Grown-up Picky Eater Advice from Dietitian Jessica Setnick, MS, RD/LD 

I'm am also a picky eater myself.  I mean I don't like chicken, any rice or noodles, steak, fish, ham, turkey.  The advice I have is when I was little I was the first born, so I got everything I wanted, so my parents didn't enforce a eating habit like my siblings.  After what a mistake they had made they enforced the eating habits of my siblings.  So they can eat pretty much everything, while with me I have a limited amount of foods that I like.  But as I got older I started trying a few foods such as some pastas, and a few other things.  So I say force some strict rule on your child's eating habits but at the same time let them try what they want to try.

Oh, and also don't tell your child that they have to stay at the dinner table until they finished their meal.  My parents tried that one on me and let's just say I never touched that plate, and my parents sat there for over an hour!!!

This is how I did it.  See Helping Along the Learning Curve Painlessly.

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