Whether these children will also eventually have more problems with salt-sensitive illnesses such as hypertension, is unknown. As a child, my parents tried to feed me normal kid food, like bologna sandwiches, chocolate milk, and canned peaches. When asked to prepare occasional meals, I tortured my four siblings by spiking their scrambled eggs with chile peppers, until eventually by popular outcry, I was banned from the family kitchen. The tendency to resist trying new or novel foods is termed food neophobia . Food psychologists have confirmed what every mother already knows.
Some people are just picky eaters.
In general, fathers are more neophobic than mothers, and children worse than adults. Even by the age of nine, young boys seem to resist new foods more than girls. There may also be a genetic component to food neophobia, leading to entire families who eat the same foods, prepared in the same way, year after year, generation after generation. What is boring to some, is comfort to others. With the current national epidemic of obesity, various studies have been done to see what can convince food neophobics to be a little more adventurous at the table, and perhaps make better food choices.