Is being a bit picky over food a sin?

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Sometimes, we have a meal in my family which I can’t eat too much, because I just can’t eat it.
So, is sometimes being picky over food, and even not eating it and eating something else, a sin?
 
There is no precise answer to this. But here are some things to think about.

Are you allergic to the food? Is the food unsafely prepared?
Are you into the latest rigid craze around what foods constitute a healthy diet?
Do you provide the food? Do you help cook it and clean up after it?
Are you overly “brand loyal” (must have name brand vs store brand.
Have you even tried it?
Or is it just likes and dislikes?

I found that when I was a grown up and it was my job to acquire (including working to get the money for) and prepare meals that I was a lot less picky because I understood the effort it took to put food on the table.
 
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I think that there a valid reasons to be ‘picky’.

Being allergic, as has been mentioned. Being on some type of diet where you’re trying to avoid particular foods, or quite simply, disliking a certain food strongly (Like a lot, not just, “eh, I’m not keen on that”).
 
You can put the food in the fridge and will eat it later, but if it goes to the garbage then it’s not good.
Some even not rich people have parties traditions(weddings, bithrday parties) with abundance of food which is thrown away, afterwards, while in a more rich parts of te world you never see something like this on weddings or birthday parties,because people learn to calculate money.
Pope Francis, by the way has mentioned in his speech to the European Parliament about this, the food which is thrown away, while in other places of the world people starve.
 
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Your family should know your likes and dislikes. I won’t eat raw fish or seafood or anything very spicy. My family knows.
 
Maybe ahead of being served, ask for less of something or to not be served something.
Pope Francis said wasting food is like stealing from the poor.
It’s a good thing to be conscious of, which you are, and try your best not to do.
 
Many people have certain foods they don’t like. There’s nothing sinful about that. I have known people who will only eat the white of an egg, never the yolk, and others who will eat only the yolk, never the white. In both cases it strikes me that they’re missing out on something, because the good thing about eggs is that the yolk and the white go very well together.

In a self-service environment, you naturally pick foods you like and leave the ones you don’t like. If someone else is serving you, you need to ask them not to put on your plate whatever it is you dislike. In my case, it’s coriander, aka cilantro. I find that even a small fragment of coriander makes the whole dish taste of nothing else. As others have said, the important thing is not to waste food. Just make sure they don’t put it on your plate in the first place.
 
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For quite a few years, starting in my late teens, I was what I call an involuntary vegetarian. No meat at all. And I never have liked seafood, so I didn’t eat that, either. It isn’t that I meant to stop eating meat, it was a kind of mental problem, or aversion, to eating meat. Eventually, I got over it.

As long as you don’t waste a bunch of food, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Hopefully your family will understand.
 
We all have our personal tastes, because we all are individuals. While we shouldn’t ever waste food, if those who prepare it know that certain foods are found to be unpalatable to certain persons around the table, but choose to serve those foods anyway, I think one should be free to select from the variety that which one enjoys and not have to eat what one cannot stomach.

In all fairness, the preparer should offer a large enough selection of foods so that everyone can enjoy at least some portion of the meal.

I don’t think it’s right to force someone to eat something they detest. I feel we all have a right to our personal tastes in cuisine. It’s not right to try to cram anything down anyone’s throat.

We eat for two purposes: Nutrition, and enjoyment. That’s why we have taste buds. And as long as one eats enough good food to receive sufficient nutrients to stay healthy, I don’t think anyone suffers if there are some items one refuses to eat, just so long as the diet is reasonably balanced.

When it comes to food, good servers will respect the tastes of those they are serving and either avoid serving what they know isn’t liked, or else include plenty of other dishes that they know ARE liked.

That’s the considerate thing to do.
 
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Well when this happens the first time, or now, you ought to discern yourself if the error is in you or not. That is, what is Gods will in this matter, take the problem to God in prayer. Can you change? Ought you ? But pray first dont just decide that! If you find that you cannot or ought not change then you must talk to your family (ask the Holy spirit be with you) so that food is not wasted ( especially in these times) and be prepared to offer help to prepare your own food or assist in preparing this food. Also be prepared to comprise if what you want is difficult in times of shortage. Listen to your families response carefully. Take this back to God in prayer. Hopefully you will have a solution, though it may take a few times. Speak to your doctor if you feel or are told this is something that may need their intervention. God bless you.
 
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CroatCatholic said:
So, is sometimes being picky over food, and even not eating it and eating something else, a sin?
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I recommend talking to your priest at Confession and maybe a health care provider. The priest can get more context from you, and your provider can rule out any underlying physical factors. I don’t think that Internet forum users have enough to go on.
 
We all have foods we like, and foods we don’t like. I have to imagine that even Our Lord Jesus Christ had favorite foods (“a man like us in all things but sin”).

However, I am not one to waste food. Unless something has gone bad and become inedible, I find a way to use everything I have. I made a small pizza last night out of leftovers, and it was delicious. If I am confronted with food that wouldn’t be my first preference, I try to ask myself if someone in, say, the Central African Republic or South Sudan, would be happy to have that food.

But I can’t abide mayonnaise. I got a jar for my mother (she asked for it) and I had to put it in a brown paper bag in the refrigerator — it makes me gag even to see the jar! In the Washington DC metropolitan area, it takes an act of flippin’ Congress to get a hamburger without mayonnaise. I lived there for almost a decade. Must be a regional thing or something.
 
Some people have fewer taste buds than normal, they tend to be the people who will eat everything!

There are people who had parents who did not offer or did not encourage their toddlers to try a wide range of foods, so, their palate is stunted.

Then on the other end are “super tasters” who have more taste buds than average. As kids, we super tasters are often pegged as picky eaters. Can’t tell you how many times I have done “blind tastings” with people to prove that I really can taste the difference between X and Y. That microwaved coffee is distinctly different that coffee re-warmed on the stove, that roast radishes are not the same as roast potatoes, or that I really CAN tell if you used a can of cream of broccoli soup in the funeral potatoes.

Right now my problem is I accidentally bought fish oil gummies instead of fish oil capsules. I’m not going to be wasteful, but, getting those things down every morning without gagging is a real trick.

So, pickiness happens for different reasons.
 
I’m not getting why this would be sinful. Who is to determine what is too picky or not? If the pickiness is due to pride there is a potential issue but food preferences as a sin, I don’t get. I’m not for wasting food, but turning down something one does not like does not necessarily result in food waste.
 
catholiclala said:
I’m not getting why this would be sinful. Who is to determine what is too picky or not? If the pickiness is due to pride there is a potential issue but food preferences as a sin, I don’t get. I’m not for wasting food, but turning down something one does not like does not necessarily result in food waste.
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Wasting food should be avoided.

We can’t completely control our preference and orientations on various things but we can make responsible decisions and God looks at the intention of the heart. Something I’ve clamped down on in the past is that I have a tendency to shop because I’m bored and then I have too much and end up throwing stuff out down the road. Pope Francis is absolutely correct: I am a thief.
 
You can use it to make compost and then put that on your garden so it gets used? I HATE leftovers but am trying to still have them as it wouldn’t be right to waste it totally
 
Leftovers are why God spoke to man to create…
“The casserole”.
Dominus vobiscum
 
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