The Science Behind Why Your Picky Eater Refuses to Eat Vegetables

Don’t worry, your kids will be ok.

It’s a Saturday afternoon and I am in the kitchen looking up recipes on Pinterest for “easy kid-friendly dinners” and I come across a healthy version of McDonald’s chicken nuggets. Score! I have all the ingredients and the time so, I whip up a batch of golden, baked (not fried) nuggets that I used ninja cookie cutters to shape. This will win over my kids, I tell myself. But when I serve dinner only one of my three kids is happy. The other two? They are whining about how gross dinner is and why can’t we go to the real McDonalds?

I have two picky eaters and it’s a huge, colossal, pain in the derriere. Nothing — and I mean nothing — I do can convince these two to try new, healthy foods. All they want are starchy, sweet, or flavorless foods like endless crackers, cereals, Nutella, and maybe an apple once in a while. But vegetables? Hahahaha. Nope. The only way I can convince them to get enough fiber and protein is to woo them with milkshakes. They think it’s ice cream but it's actually strawberries, bananas, milk, and protein powder with added fiber.

My oldest child? He’ll eat anything I put in front of him. Venison burgers, lima beans, baked zucchini fries, calamari, he’s an adventurous eater. For Christmas this past year, we gifted him an America’s Test Kitchen cookbook for kids and he’s already cooked his way through it several times. This kid knows good food and isn’t afraid to eat it.