my pink toes

Both my kids are picky eaters. Peter is pickiest of all - he pretty much just eats pancakes, hamburgers, and protein bars. Sometimes I worry about this, fearing it's all my fault. I watch kids who scarf down shrimp, hummus, and broccoli and stare, mesmerized. Surely there must be a candid camera somewhere - no kid eats like that! But, no - if I ask, the mom is quick to tell me about all the healthy foods she provides and how she firmly ascribes to the theory that kids acquire the tastes they are exposed to...blah...blah...blah. If that were true, then my children would love Thai food, crave Mexican, eat onions in any and every form, and start every dinner request with "more garlic,please". Alas, they do not.

I recently heard the results of a study on picky eaters and guess what? It really is all my fault. BUT, not necessarily for the reasons I feared. It turns out that there is a large genetic component to picky eating: 78% percent.

As Peter Segall from NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me put it: it's 78% you and 22% your crappy cooking.

The good news is that what many of us have discovered anecdotally is actually true: kids mostly outgrow their pickiness. I ate a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly, mind you) EVERY DAY for lunch until 6th grade, when my mom convinced me to take tuna on Wednesdays. Even in college I was a very picky eater (I even eschewed sweet and sour chicken, calling it "too exotic"). These days, I'm a very adventurous eater: I'll try anything once. And my tastes are very broad. Maybe when he's in his late 20s, Peter will actually eat something I make for him that isn't slathered in ketchup. But then again, maybe not: my dad slathers everything in ketchup (even the Thai food I make), and Peter has approximately 1/4 of his DNA.