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September 13th, 2010
12:35 PM ET
'Freaky eaters' cling to same food everyday
TLC’s new show that started September 5 shows people with a compulsion toward a particular food, meaning they eat only one item - like cheeseburgers, french fries or pizzas - all the time. On the upcoming shows, a 29-year-old mother eats only french fries and a 34 year-old diabetic is addicted to cheeseburgers. In “Freaky Eaters,” psychotherapist Dr. Mike Dow and nutrition specialist J.J. Virgin, intervene to figure out what compels the finicky eaters to obsess over the same food. Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, the medical director for Child and Adolescent Services at the Eating Recovery Center, said he hasn’t heard much about this type of behavior in adults. “Usually it’s a problem with children with extremely picky eating,” said Bermudez, a past president of the National Eating Disorders Association. CNN's Eatocracy on Routine Repasts Children who usually stick to just one type of food have suffered some sort of emotional disturbances or have fears of vomiting or choking that compels them to stick to one food. They usually outgrow this. “It’s rare to see adults with that narrow of menu choices,” Bermudez said. “It’s almost unheard of.” The average person cycles through his or her menu every 10 days, meaning an average lover of pizza might eat the item once every 10 days. Some people cycle through the menu less frequently by eating something every 20 days instead. The 10 to 20 days is the normal range, he said. Eating the same thing every day is highly abnormal, he said. “There’s two ways of looking at it- there’s an obsessive component – ‘I want the same thing all the time,’” he said. “That can be obsessive. The other is avoidance. ‘These are the only things I feel safe eating.’”
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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Everyone has weird habits, its when they interfere with daily living that they may become pathology. I have an adult child who eats foods in a certain order. My nephew won't eat gravy, cooked vegetables or anything with sauce or gravy on it. Another child doesn't like foods to touch each other. People cope with the stress of their lives in different ways. Some of us drink tea and others have a margarita. I'm all for people learning about mental health and mental illness but dislike sensationalism.
Why don't canniibals eat clowns? They taste funny.
lol...thanks for the laugh Frank!!!
I only eat tacos....
This board sure opened up for people to talk about themselves..sheesh..
I once ate the same thing for breakfast 3x's in a row, wow! I know. Since then i have never accomplished that feat again but those were some good times, makin memories and livin on the edge. C'mon people if someone wants to eat the same thing the rest of their lives then let 'em. Who cares. Instead why don't you do a study on all the food we waste in this country by PICKY eaters who try something "new" at a restuarant and because they don't like it they waste a whole plate of it while millions starve every night or families who order their little kids a full entry and the little guy/gal eats two bites and the rest gets thrown away.
Interesting that you never find a case of someone obsessed over something healthy like celery sticks or apples.
Celery has no nutritional value.
Maybe we just don't hear about it because it is not considered as dangerous?
Celery is high in sodium – many people are not aware of this.
Lunchables are insanely overpriced. Funyuns are absolute junk food.
I guess I'm just a creature of habbit. I eat this just about every day with no change.
1 cup of coffee and a banana for breakfast
mozzarella stick and almonds for snack
turkey and provolone on whole wheat w/ spicy mustard, and an orange for lunch
granny smith apple for snack
boneless skinless chicken breast, and a small cut up avacado for dinner.
I also drink over a gallon of water every day.
i eat boogers everyday. it's a sick habit, i know
hey careful...you might give the networks an idea for a new show!
I have two great-uncles like this. They're entire life, all they'd eat is hamburgers and fries. To this day that's still all they'll eat. In the words of my mother, "That would drive me crazy. I'd of divorced them years ago!" She's a person who loves to try new things though. I don't know how her uncles ended up this way though...her father (my grandfather) does not have this issue and neither does his sister nor his other brother. Just these 2.
No one can eat the same thing every day. It is virtually impossible. You would have to eat it, vomit it up, then refrigerate it for the next day. Even if you do that it would eventually go bad.
Adam; you are correct. Maybe you are one of the few who realize that every event is a one time occurrence.
You know what guys? Maybe theez people dont have no problems at all with the food they eat. the hole obbsesion compulshun thing is a hooey-wack-crap. For instannce, I smell my fingers everyday, "compulsivlly" because I LIKE the smell. I won't tell you wear it is but ill give you a hint (no one sees it but my wife and my mum sometimes). I enjoy the smell. Thats all. If my nuts smelled like cheeseburgers I would glue my fingers to my nose and be done with it!
I have a 16 year old student who Just told me last week that all he eats is French fries, weird!
What's next? Folks who ...
... only have one partner their entire life ?
... only vote for the same party every time ?
... only believe in one religion ?
... speak only one language ?
etc...
I wish people would stop being so rude and judgmental about what others eat. I have a special diet due to a throat handicap so I eat mostly the same things every day. My diet was designed with a nutritionist to make sure it was fully functional, yet rude people feel the need to harass and attack me for what I (need to) eat. This mostly comes from my family, but I've had obnoxious comments from co workers or even strangers who stare at my dinner and tell me how gross it is. I have the handicap reason, but I've known other finicky eaters who were harassed and I feel for them. If you like something and want to eat it regularly, fine with me!
i aggree with you mary. i had a traumatic experience june of 2008- i was carjacked. for some reason, i then had anxiety about foods- only felt i could eat certian things. at one point it was rits crackers and milk... thats it. i am now doing much better & am going out to eat again! this past weekend, we went to va (we live in md) and i ate like a pig all day! 🙂 well, when i was going through that anxiety, people would make rude comments to me, or not understand why, it wasnt their place to know why. you eat what makes you feel healthy and forget all the rest! 🙂
sorry, meant to type Ritz
It's hilarious to me how judgmental people get when talking about other people's diets. We all have quirks when it comes to what or how we eat – nobody is immune and nobody is perfect. It's great that you only feed yourself the most quality foods and spend hours of your day preparing and cooking meals for your family, but it doesn't make you a better person than me. We're all human and we all fall victim to the fast food/junk food monster at some point. Step down off your high horses and stop judging people you don't even know.
As for this show – well, it's in the title, isn't it? Calling them "freaky" says all I need to know about how the creators of the show feel about their subjects.
My younger sister (who is now 57 years old) has eaten eight foods for her entire life: American cheese, French fries, iceberg lettuce, peanut butter, grape jelly white bread, string beans and corn on the cob. She will not eat dressing on her lettuce or a grilled cheese instead of cold American singles on white bread, nor has she ever even TASTED a bowl of soup, scrambled eggs, a hotdog, a hamburger, Thanksgiving turkey, spaghetti, pizza, or anything else most Americans eat throughout their lifetimes. When she was a kid her pediatrician told our mother she wouldn't live to be 12 years old. She lived ... and she drove everybody crazy.
Dear Miss Macy
Your sister probably has Sensory integration disorder. She never asked to have it and her eating was not her choice. I know it's hard for you to understand. Glad to see she has lived such a long life. Is she healthy as the other brothers and sisters? Maybe even in better health.
Learn about this disorder at http://www.pickyeatingadults.com
Bob K
That diet sounds blah but actually not so horrible. There is protein, calcium, veggies, fruits, grain, etc. I can't believe a doctor honestly believed she'd die! That was probably just a scare tactic. With a multi vitamin, she'd probably be perfectly fine. Just think what people on tube feeding get....
"Children who usually stick to just one type of food have suffered some sort of emotional disturbances" I really don't think that is an accurate statement.
When I was a kid, I always had a grilled cheese and french fries when we went out to eat. At home, I would have happily had grilled cheese and tomato soup for every meal (and quite often, got my way!) Even now, after 30+ years, it still sounds delicious! I don't think that's an illness, I think it's just me really loving tomatoes and cheese. (Really, who doesn't?!) Nothing wrong with having a food you love.
Friends have told me that I'm an obsessive eater of only foods that are nutritious, low fat, and high in nutrients. Often if faced with only junk foods and let's say, wild Pacific lox on a whole wheat bagel, I'll repeatedly default to the latter. In a way I'm playing it safe because I don't have the stomach to get fat (no pun intended) or coronary heart disease from a variety of fast foods. This article isn't the only source claiming I'm abnormal. Friends say that today's fast foods, soft drinks, and junk treats are so flavorful and delicious, anyone who has the cast iron will to avoid them is abnormal! My girlfriend even joked that I'm so damned healthy that I'll become a lonely old man while "the rest of us" who will be long gone by then have lived enjoyable lives! When I told her I won't go to my deathbed at a ripe old age believing I missed anything – that I genuinely enjoy my vices of healthy food – she laughed and said "you think I'm dumb enough to think someone who won't touch softdrinks, candy, pepperoni pizza and bacon cheese burgers is enjoying their life?? For God sake Evan, your idea of a good breakfast is smoked salmon on not just bagels but whole wheat whatchamacallit bagels, and that organic coffee in a French press? Are you nuts?" (LOL, she's breaking my heart.)
Evan, they are just too engulfed in salt and sugar that they don't know the TRUE flavor of whole foods. Which is amazing and fun. Id have more fun putting together the smoked salmon on whatchamacalit bread than throwing a jimmy deans in the microwave any day. true flavor is much more satisfying for the body AND mind
"wild Pacific lox on a whole wheat bagel" really? Give me a break – food snob. Evan summed it up perfectly
I eat spagetti sauce alot. Sometimes I eat it religiously a couple times a day. What is the point of eating all the spagetti under the sauce it doesn't taste? I only formely liked angel hair spagetti and that has to be under massive amounts of sauce anyway. So I just decided one day I was gonna make some spagetti sauce with parmesian cheese and crushed red pepper and a bit of balsmic vinegar. I throw that all in a bowl and put it in the microwave. Bam. HI
@evan I have a boyfriend exactly like you and he too thinks he is being judged and marginalized by everyone because of his healthy eating. In reality no one but him makes a big deal over it. No one cares but you! This man is so obsessed with body type, food and exercise he has me (normal weight) constantly worried about what I eat and look like. Maybe you should concentrate more on your girlfriend and quit being so self-involved before she finds someone more balanced. Just sayin...
If I had the choice between a tasteless, unhealthy food item and something with complex flavor and nutrition – and I preferred the healthy tasty item that doesn't make me a snob. A snob is someone who thinks others are inferior because of the way they are (or what they eat). I don't get that from your post. It's interesting that people are affronted by your own food choices when you never implied that they are inferior people, but they feel that way anything. Could it be their personal guilt, shame? But that is another discussion...
In the title, "Freaky Eaters Cling to Same Food Everyday", the word Everyday is wrong. It should be Every Day, 2 words. The word Everyday is an adjective, used to describe a noun.
go back to teaching tenth grade english. It's a frickin' blog. And yes I forgot the "g" in frickin'
I started a support group for people like Amber about 7 years ago. I have found over 7000 people so far that have some form of the little known eating disorder. Sad the experts in the TLC show didn't let you know about our support group where the real truth lies. Come and find out the real truth about this Adult eating disorder.
http://www.pickyeatingadults.com
Bob K
OK this is about the eighth time you've put in a shill for your blog. You are becoming spam. STOP.
As I grew up, I was an extremely picky eater. For a good five years, my sister and I would only eat hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, cereal, and sweets. Even though I do have fond memories of raiding my mothers garden for veggies when I got a bit older (I miss that garden) but only a few kinds, I wouldn't eat everything.
I'm still horribly picky but I know where it comes from and I've worked to over come most of it.
I can't eat fish and I know why too. When I was 15, my math teacher decided to introduce us to different types of sea critters. She thought it would be fun and it was was until I got to the octopus. One bite and I was ready to throw up. Ever since, I can't eat ANY type of sea food. I don't even like the smell. Every single time, it brings up the texture of that nasty octopus.
The thing is though.. nothing tastes right anymore since my car accident in 2004. I had brain damage. Sometimes my taste buds work and sometimes they don't. I tend to stick to things I know I liked before my accident in case it turns out to be one of my good days and I can actually taste something properly. If its one of those rare days, the last thing I want is for it to be disgusting.
Like last night with the gumbo. It was salt. Thats all it was. Everyone else in the house was raving about how good it was, but to me, I might as well have been licking a salt lick. It was disgusting.
There is only one thing I can be sure I'll taste correctly. Sugar. Anything sweet seems to register properly with my taste buds, even if any other tastes don't at the time (like sometimes I can't taste chocolate, just the sugar in the bar).
Unfortunately, because I can pretty much only taste sugar properly, its resulted in me gaining weight. It was actually 2 years before I could taste anything at all except sugar. And subtleties in food are pretty much completely lost on me at all times. I used to LOVE chicken alfredo but I now can't taste the alfredo sauce at all unless I add lots of Parmesan cheese and pepper to it.
Its incredibly frustrating and I wish it would change.
TLC: THE LEARNING CHANNEL
I used to love this channel. You learned USEFUL things about nature, different cultures, and other subjects. How are we learning anything by watching a bunch of side-show freaks!?! That is all this channel has become. Watch the 3,000lb man eat himself to death! TONIGHT AT NINE!
Saw it last night. Shocked to see it on the front page, lol. This is the third time a show I randomly chose to watch hit mainstream news. Anyway. That blond french-fry eater was pretty hot. I'm surprised she's not dead though - what with eating french-fries straight for 26 or so years!
Mining the world's suffering for gold! Thanks, Hollywood!
Given a choice between eating the same thing every day and never eating the same thing twice, there is no doubt–I would pick the latter.
I'm allergic to mustard, but didn't know it as a kid. I had a narrow range of stuff I ate, because it was safe (without realizing why I did that). Even now, I don't experiment because you never know when mustard seed or flour is in something. It can be labeled as "spices" or "natural flavor." I still mostly eat the same foods everyday because it's the easiest way to be safe.
When I was in High School I ate 5 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day, with nothing to drink (had no money for milk, from what I remember). LOVED it. Still love PB&J's, but now I'm down to one sandwich and a half glass of milk. Lowering metabolism due to age STINKS! !
Hey guys, will you visit SaveStan.ORG a friend of mine with 4 young babies is fighting for his life…… thanks.
Why does everything always have to be psychological? Maybe they just happen to LIKE that kind of food and don't care for anything else. Some people only watch the news on TV. Others game shows. Simple matter of CHOICE.
My guess is because if they just happened to like that food & not want anything else, they wouldn't be on a tv show trying to change. Of course, cynical people might figure they don't really want to change; they just want their 15 minutes of fame.
I stay away from condiments does that count? I won't eat anything that has condiments on it....ketsup, mayo, etc. Especially MUSTARD.....I hate mustard with a passion it smells like crap...I dont know what it tastes like because I ahve never eaten it but just the smell alone makes me sick.
can you imagine? me eating a box of brocoli and beef from Panda express every single freaking DAY for two years now!? its SO UNNERVING I AM GOING TO HATE EVERYONE or ANYONE WHO TALK TO ME ABOUT BROCOLI AND BEEF!
This isn't spam; it's based on this article & thread – the Consumerist website's visual breakdown of what the "average" American eats in a year. Enlightening, to say the least. Just remember.. "average," not "every." 😉
http://consumerist.com/2010/07/-if-you-are-what.html <– Dairy, 600.5 lbs? Thanks a lot, Wisconsin!
Children with autism spectrum disorder can have "oral defensiveness". The smell, sight and texture of foods can be repulsive to them. "Normal" people who are not picky eaters can experience this as well. (I watched my small son clap his hand over his mouth and nearly vomit when he saw me eat asparagus. He lived on starchy food for most of his early years. No ill effects fortunately and he's ahead of the curve in physical and mental development.) I sympathize! While I can eat everything else, egg whites with their rubbery texture and faint sulphur smell STILL creep me.
seriously? seriously! eating a variety of foods is a man made thing... there are no other animals that vary their diet in such a way. The cave man didn't sit there thinking... well maybe I'll go out and get a mammoth today because I'm a little tired of the sabertooth tiger. I am 5'7" and weigh 120 lbs... I always have been. I go weeks eating the exact same thing... then my body says no more and picks something new. I'm always asked how I stay so thin... Well guess what, I listen to my body. You know who are the food freaks... they are the people that have to change what they are eating every day in order to get their taste bud orgasms then spend billions of dollars trying to loose weight... THOSE are the food freaks.
I drink beer every day, where do I apply to be on this show
I've watched one of the shows, where the diabetic husband ate only cheeseburgers and was not telling his wife how many. It started in childhood, when his mother would not make him eat other things and just let him get away with it.
In this hard times, fast food has cheaper options than ever; it's just easier to run through the drive-thru. Sometimes, though, like the people on this show, it becomes an addiction. An OCD is something entirely different.
I'm a 53 year old woman who has eaten like this all of my life. I'm fit and functional. There are alot of people who eat like this – you would be surprised. Jennifer Aniston said she had a cobb salad everyday for lunch for ten years. Who cares what other people eat. Stop passing judgement on what is "normal". Let's spend a little more time and effort on really important issues.
I eat pasta almost every day for lunch – because I LOVE it. it tastes good to me. I do eat other stuff for other meals. I hope these people who eat only one food also take vitamin supplements! http://www.lorimendenhall.com
Clearly this is a serious issue–illness it seems–for some people. Yet the title of the article is "Freaky Eaters"??? Seems completely inappropriate. Would CNN put up an article on people with depression or bulimia with a similarly degrading title? I highly doubt it.
The article is about TLC's tv show, which is called Freaky Eaters. If there was a show about bulimia titled Binge & Barf, CNN might very well title the article that way...
This is a bit ridiculous! A lot of children who suffer from food allergies eat the same few safe foods over and over, and might prefer one thing, especially if they know for example, that cheeseburgers never contain peanuts. I think this behavior has other signifance and it isn't just all psychologically determined.
Personally, I would hate eating the same thing over and over again, however my father eats a baked potato with various toppings for dinner every night. He is convinced it helps him lose weight. I don't think so. But eh, whatever.
If you eat a certain colored food all the time, you will turn that color.
I HAVE BEEN EATING CABBAGE AND POTATOES EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR ABOUT TWENTY SOMETHING YEARS,AND I STILL LOVE IT.THESE SO CALLED RESEARCHERS ARE REALLY CLUELESS,I EAT THE SAME THING BECAUSE I LOVE THEM.ALSO IT'S VERY CHEAP TO BUY.
If that's all you're eating, then you are missing VITAL nutrients and proteins, unless you are eating other things with that.
Any nutritionist will tell you that you're crazy, and they'd be right. Eating the same thing (regardless of what it is) every single day is not only incredibly stupid, it's dangerous and unhealthy. I could find the most nutritional food I can think of (Brocolli, Blueberries etc – basically any "super food") and if I only ate that all day it would be a very, very unhealthy diet.
Moderation and variation . There is nothing wrong if you eat a bag of chips once in a while, every day on the other hand...
The sad part is that we're at a time where a diet high in junk food is considered normal.
In a normal diet, junk food should be eaten as little as possible. Most nutritionists will tell you to NEVER eat junk food, but I think that is a little limiting.
I am type 2 diabetic, so eat healthy most of the time, but will still occassionally indulge in junk food. I just never drink full sugar pop anymore AT ALL, so when I'm ordering a pizza with a DIET coke makes people look at me strangely. lol.
If there are any closet picky eating adults out there, go to http://www.pickyeatingadults.com. We'd love to hear from you.
So the correct number of foods to eat is 10-20? I'm on the vegan + animals diet (since I found out "natural flavors" is condensed dairy and in most labeled products) and have been eating a variety of plants and animals since I started. I notice that most people eat only one to five animals, when I think a more healthy number would be 10-20 different animals, with people who consume more than 5000 different kinds of animals probably have the most diverse nutrients....or are all the sugars and proteins the same? I think the real problem here is a lack of widely available hard scientific data on human or mammilian diets, and I think it's because doctors are drumming up business with lobbyists again and lying to people about how their bodies work so they can sell them narcotics and cripple them for a huge profit, both in insurance, tax, and direct extortion.
A diabetic who eats only cheeseburgers? Suicidal tendencies, ya think?
The Name of the Show IS Sensationalist and IS offensive.
There are MANY different reasons for this kind of eating and SOME are psychological.
However, in the case of Amber, the French Fry Lady, it was physical, genetic, neurological.
This COULD have been a quality show that informed the public about a little known disorder, Sensory Integration Disorder, that is actually experienced by far more people than the Medical Profession has realized.
It is so easy to say these people are rare freaks and we shouldn't bother with them, till one's own child is born with it and it is heartbreaking and health care professionals are almost universally ignorant of the fact that SID can manifest on it's own in an otherwise perfectly "normal" person without any Autism Spectrum disorder.
One more time, the show LIED, Amber does not eat ONLY French Fries. It is one of a number of things the show lied about and they should be ashamed, because they had the opportunity to inform and to help and they went for the sensational instead.
If only one other SID picky eater has seen the show and is encouraged that they are not alone and that this is a Neurological disorder, then Amber accomplished what she set out to do at great personal cost.
Check out the truth at the website: http://www.pickyeatingadults.com
If not for the Picky Eating Adults group, which I have been a member of for the last 5 years, my son would have continued to suffer alone at that hands of the judgmental and the ignorant.
Uhhh- has no one heard of the eating disorder Pica? This is just another branch of this.