Think Picky Eating Is Inevitable? History Begs To Differ

Somewhere between 20-50% of children are picky eaters at some point in early childhood, and many of us assume that’s just how kids naturally are. But after historian Helen Zoe Veit spent more than a decade reading memoirs, cookbooks and parenting manuals from the past 200 years, she came to a radically different conclusion: picky eating is not inevitable. It is a modern cultural phenomenon. She tells Anita how we got here — to the age of bland kids’ menus and dinner tables ruled by toddlers yelling ‘yucky!’ Plus what lessons history has for modern-day parents.

Meet the guest:

- Helen Zoe Veit is the author of “Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History” and an associate professor of history at Michigan State University

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