My tastes in food are pretty wide-ranging. I’ve got typically male carnivourous tendencies, but I eat most vegetables, and get bored if I see the same kind of meal three days in a row. I despise celery and peanut butter, and I’m not a huge lover of leafy veg, and I prefer not to eat parts of animals that started out spherical. This is something of a contrast to certain members of my family who will remain nameless!
But BBC Three’s Freaky Eaters is a whole new world of people who are fussy about what they eat to the point that, frankly it’s a mental disorder. And, in the two episodes we’ve seen so far it’s basically due to neurotic parents forcing their children to eat stuff they didn’t want or like.
The last episde, “Addicted to Cheese” features a 29 year old guy who ate nothing but crisps (potato chips to American readers) and cheddar cheese. He is seriously deficient in folic acid and vitamin B-12, and is likely to be suffering from severe degeneration of his nervous system within 10 years if he doesn’t change his diet. Yet the thought of eating plain cooked chicken had him looking like he’d been asked to eat a live snake!
Good food is such a pleasure, and such a focal point for social activity, that these people must be missing out on so much in their lives.