Picky eaters are usually perceived to be children. They won't eat tomatoes because they look like little, red baby heads. Mundane things like eggs and milk are untouchable "yuckies." But we think they'll outgrow their pickiness by introducing new foods, slowly, into their diets until they're normal adult eaters with a range of culinary interests.

But not all adults grow out of it. Some picky children grow up to be picky adults.

My mother is one such picky eater. She prefers to order grilled cheese and tomato soup, if they have it on the menu. At any sort of Asian restaurant, she'll order fried rice. She's loathe to try anything exotic--or really not so exotic--and is satisfied with eating cheese and crackers for dinner. Occasionally, she'll stop eating her regular meal so that she has room for the only thing she seems to like to eat, ice cream.

Food educator and cookbook author Jill Bloomfield was a similar adult picker eater, who also preferred peanut butter and jelly to anything more nutritious. She echoed the sentiment of the recently-aired Food Network special "I'm an Adult Picky Eater," saying that colleagues looked down on her culinary choices like grilled cheese at a lunch out. Other adult picky eaters said that they often felt lonely or anxious in American society, which so revolves around food rituals.

Bloomfield decided that she needed to train herself to like new foods, and that came from forcing herself to try alternative foods and cook for herself. She began offering cooking classes at the high school where she worked, trying to help children avoid the health risks of picking eating at a young age. She recently started work on a cook book that helps cooking-challenged adults learn basic cooking techniques and recipes, but she still believes that picky eaters are created in childhood.

While Bloomfield's story is certainly inspirational to both picky eaters and smorgasbord eaters who may not eat for their health, it does not seem typical. Adult picky eaters probably don't see as many reasons for change, especially if they have no problems at social, food-based gatherings, or may think that their distaste towards certain foods is innate. Some people simply aren't interested in eating or food as a healthful, nutrition-based action. For them, change seems infinitely more difficult than deciding to start cooking. Cooking will not happen because food is not important to them. Perhaps these picky eaters' problems started after childhood.