Picky

There is a long list of foods I refused to eat at when I was a child. My mother would get so tired of hearing "No I don't want that for dinner!" that she stopped telling us what she was going to prepare. She never forced us to eat her dinner, so when tomato macaroni hamburger casserole night came around I would just make something else (like toast or mac n cheese). I was pretty much spoiled about being able to avoid foods I disliked.
I remember going to a friend's house for dinner one evening and not having the luxury of being picky, was told in simple terms by my friend's mother that I needed to eat what she put on my plate. What she had plated was frog eye salad. It looked strange, it smelled odd, the name sounded disgusting, and I was terrified to taste it. But I did taste it, and the face I made must have gotten the message through to the mother, because she said AGAIN I need to eat my food and it's not to be wasted. I felt tears spring to my eyes and a lump form in my throat, but seeing no way out of the situation I ate the frog eye salad. I nearly vomited in her kitchen and remember running home as fast as I could in case I did in fact throw up. I never ate frog eye salad again.
I always wondered why people put so many weird tasting things in their food. When I had kids I vowed I would never make them eat disgusting foods. Why put them through that torture? I judged other parents as insensitive who would make vinegar bean salad, steamed spinach, tomato cucumber salad, sweet potatoes, olives, or any of the many foods I found unpalatable and force their kids to eat it. If it looked yucky, smelled yucky, felt foreign, it would probably taste yucky. Besides, it was easy to make food that tasted good, you just add sugar and avoid bitter herbs! Having been raised with the "eat your side dish of veggies cuz they're good for you" mentality, I included some canned green beans or frozen peas or carrot sticks with every dinner, but breakfast and lunch, that was time for the peanut butter sandwiches, waffles, cereal, breads and fruit, cinnamon rolls and sticky buns! Salads were occasional and only eaten if they had a good tasting dressing and chips or croutons on top. How could anyone eat plain lettuce anyway, ew! I don't think I even bought spinach or avocados until I was 32. The only reason to eat food is if it tastes good right?
Wrong. Food is not only energy and sustenance, its medicine. You can literally heal yourself from hundreds of ailments just by eating clean, whole, healthy foods, many of which are outright bitter or are an acquired taste. When I was a young mother with small children my house was constantly cluttered because I had 3 mess makers running around 24/7, so I was spending exorbitant efforts trying to keep it clean, and some days I just gave up and let it be a mess even though I hated it messy.  If you are going to eat refined, chemical ridden, sugary foods your body will be a mess and it will take more effort to keep it clean.  Competitive athletes who spend several hours a day working out can probably afford to eat more refined foods, but for the average person the Standard American Diet (SAD) is far too much garbage and not enough medicine, and people go back to it again and again craving food that tastes good.
My kids ask me several times a week why can't healthy food taste as good as ice cream, candy bars, white bread, and cake?  The reason is because we are not supposed to live to eat, we are supposed to eat to live!  Overeating is just as hard on your body as eating poorly.  If you eat a well balanced meal of meats, proteins, healthy oils, vegetables, herbs, fermented foods, whole grains, and some fruit you can STOP eating when you are full because these foods don't cause dopamine surge cravings. They are fuel, what God intended food to be, and they can be very enjoyable.
I was introduced to the wide world of vegetables, herbs, botanical's, spices, nuts, oils, and minerals in 2011. I had to take it slow on my spinach smoothies and salads, and it was years before I could eat a plain salad with no dressing and find it very enjoyable. Now cake and cookies look TOO sweet, far too sweet, and like a stomach ache waiting to happen. Pass the vinegar bean salad and the cucumber tomatoes and olives! I'll try it if it's a whole food God intended for my body to use as food. I'm still picky, just in a radically different way.