Picky : how American children became the fussiest eaters in history / Helen Zoe Veit.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Veit, Helen Zoe, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--Nutrition--United States.

Children.

Children--Nutrition--Psychological aspects.

Food habits.

Feeding Behavior.

Public health.

Nutrition.

Parent and child.

Child rearing.

Parenting.

Food.

Children--Nutrition.

Food industry and trade.

United States.

Medical Subjects:

Feeding Behavior.

Genre:

Popular works

Instructional and educational works

Informational works.

Physical Description:

290 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

How American children became the fussiest eaters in history

Place of Publication:

New York : St Martin's Press, 2026

Summary:

Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the 20th century, Americans saw children as joyful omnivores who were naturally curious and eager to eat. Of course, this doesn't make sense today. Don't kids have special taste buds? Aren't they highly sensitive to food's texture and color? Aren't children incapable of liking "adult foods," and don't parents risk harming kids psychologically by urging them to eat? But Americans in the past didn't think any of those things. They assumed that children could enjoy the same foods as adults, and children almost always did. They loved spicy relishes, vinegary pickles, and bitter greens. They spent their allowances on raw oysters and looked forward to their daily coffee. So how did modern kids become such incredibly narrow eaters? The story is fascinating--and about much more than rising abundance. Picky shows how fussy eating came to define "children's food" and reshape American diets at large. Maybe most importantly, it explains how we can still use the tools that parents used in the past to raise happy, healthy, wildly un-picky kids today.

Contents:

Introduction: The invention of mass pickiness

Little omnivores

Food and fear

The experts

Pickiness as privilege

Overbearing mothers

Selling pickiness

Eat your vegetables

Naturally picky

Epilogue: Happy meals.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-278) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Veit, Helen Zoe. Picky : how American children became the fussiest eaters in history.

ISBN:

9781250402509

1250402506

OCLC:

1573157425