Published on 12, July, 2020
I've had several food related discussions recently with a few autistic friends of mine, both on and off the forum and I can't help but be intrigued by how autism affects our taste in food. I have a couple of friends who are very hypersensitive to a lot of different tastes and textures and can only eat very bland tasting food of certain specific consistencies and yet there are other friends and also myself that seem to like lots of strong tastes; spices, etc. Food seems to be important to autistic people in one way or another! So I wondered where everyone else is with food. Do you prefer strong tastes and flavours or do you have a lot of food sensitivities that limit what you can eat? I'd like to know other people's opinions and thoughts on this?
Peas and sweetcorn work well. You get a little crunch and pop with the noodles. Yeah, noodles are great for leftovers!
Pho is sort of like that, but you put all the ingredients aside from the broth, and people add what they want. Everyone ends up with a bowl tailored to them. Which can be useful!
nexus9 said:Pho? No, not really heard of it. But there are many new types of restaurants muchrooming in the city centre here now, began and so on, so I may encounter it soon enough
It's worth a try, because you basically get the bowl you want. We have a restaurant here that does Vietnamese, and it really only sells Pho. It's called Pho!
Kitsune said:Can you eat liver?
Lambs liver isn't too bad. I use a recipe with a roux gravy with onions, and only lightly cook the liver. Over-cooked liver is terrible though, criminal!
The only 'dislikes' so far have been:
- liver and kidney (I can recall the urine smell of my mum boiling kidneys!) though I have started eating 'mild' liver e.g. as a starter in a restaurant
- 'spiky' parsley (it should be banned!)
- anything with a 'gritty' texture e.g. bone marrow or improperly cleaned bivalves...
- American chocolate (it smells like sick)
No real negative issues i.e. it'd be highly unlikely that I'd turn up to a dinner-party and not be able to eat the food.
For example, I've eaten:
- Smoked puffin
- Reindeer
- Minke whale
- a fish eye (for a bet)
- putrified shark (in Iceland, comes in a sealed jar but still puts other people off their food!)
- Bombay duck (smells/tastes like a burning dog-blanket)
- dog food from a can (well, you have to find out what it tastes like... right? Liverish and gritty is the answer)
The more 'extreme' the more likely I am to try it... though I'd draw the line at brains, a sheep eye, tete de veau or those birds they sew into a seal skin and leave buried for 6 months then eat 'raw' etc.
Sprouts with butter are good, even better with Stilton cheese melted on top of them!
Pho? No, not really heard of it. But there are many new types of restaurants muchrooming in the city centre here now, began and so on, so I may encounter it soon enough
No use crying over spilt milk, unless its on yer sprouts.. lol
Yes with butter on, I'd eat them all year round if I could, wouldn't touch um with a barg pole as a kid though.
That sounds good actually, might have to try it at some point! Hopefully it doesn’t make you cough if you try it again!
Won Ton! Thai soups, with rice flakes. I used to put in some prawns. They are very hot though and would probably make me cough now
They're good at Christmas! It's the only time that I eat them though!
Being addicted to milk - A definite case of oral fixation!!
Butter, a by-product of milk, so yeah! I love dairy too much! You've made me realise I have a problem! I even manage to get milk on sprouts technically.
I need help!
And soaked in milk? Lol
I like them! They have to be boiled for a long time though.
Sprouts anyone?
Rice pudding?
It was more my mum persuading me and checking with the school.really
Robert124 thank you for posting :)
I think a lot of this is due to social norms of the time, as in women's self worth was based on how well they prepared food for their families and kept the house clean; and for men it was keeping a good job to be able to support a wife and family. My grandparents were very much like this (and a lot of the time I was brought up by my grandparents). My grandmother has, and still does, a lot of bizarre habits that seem to increase housework for the sake of it, or create incredibly complicated procedures for doing things, like making tea which I think is about a 20 stage process (I've never got it right) it's all about "keeping up appearances". I have to admit though it's made me want to live my life in an entirely opposite way.
I remember the first time I had white bread when I was at a sleepover at my friend's house - I thought it was the most amazing thing ever! I don't really eat bread anymore though : ( it gives me horrible stomach cramps (I'm assuming from the yeast?)
I do like 'proper' bread for my children, I don't really eat bread myself. But I get the precut bakery bread from Aldi or If I get it from Sainsbury's they have a slicing machine in store that's free to use. Saves on having to mess about cutting it up once I'm home. To be fair, cheap white supermarket bread is quite rubbery!