Diet & Fitness 

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Fussy eaters

Are you a member of the fussy eater tribe or are your food aversions hiding something more sinister? Andrea Wren investigates our relationship with food

Do you have a friend who faints at the mere idea of dressing on her salad, or one who scrapes the gooey bits of cheese off her pizza? Maybe the fussy eater you know is a grandparent who won't touch any of that 'funny foreign food', or a health-obsessed white-carb watcher who can't bear to chew on non-organic?

We all probably know people who are picky about what they eat. The Americans have excelled at this for a long time, with their skinny, soya lattes and carb-reduced snack bars, and the UK has quickly followed suit.

Health and wellbeing coach for The Wellworks, Barbara Louvrou, says: 'There are many people, young and old, who do not eat certain foods, but their reasons why can be very different. Faddy eating usually begins in childhood and adolescence, and can be a normal part of growing up, but is something we generally grow out of.'

But when does fussy become an issue, or develop into a food phobia (an irrational fear of certain foods)?

It often begins when children are forced to finish what's on their plate, sometimes to the point of vomiting, or they relate a food to a bad experience. Louisa Bainbridge has had a thing about eggs from being a baby, and although she cannot pinpoint exactly how it occurred, she has avoided them for much of her life.

Now, aged 45, Louisa can eat eggs but only if she has cooked them herself, and they are 'free-range, organic, from a certified flock and stamped as salmonella-free!'

She says: 'My borderline phobia is about the smell and the texture, or it was when I was younger. Now it's as much about health fears. I can't stand the smell of cooked eggs at all, unless I've done the cooking. I often feel nauseous if I can see or smell cooked eggs. Sometimes I'll have to get out for fresh air.'

Nutritional therapist Barbara Powell, who is based at the National Nutrition Clinic, says: 'Louisa's case is verging on phobic because while she is obviously able to eat and process eggs in her digestive system, she won't allow other people to cook eggs for her. It isn't an aversion, which would happen when someone reacts badly to a food because their body can't process it.'

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