Why are so many people in their 20s and 30s such picky eaters these days?

It seems like every time I go out to eat with or cook for people in this age range, many of them will not eat most vegetables (some won't even eat most fruits), and many only like the generic fast food/plain cheese or pepperoni pizza/chicken nuggets or tenders and fries/plain hamburger/mac and cheese type of food. Won't eat anything with vegetables or seasoning.

With the way some of them eat (almost exclusively fast/fried foods, junk food and soda), I'm surprised their bodies don't revolt against them any more than they do. 🤣 Many of them act like being asked to try one bite of a vegetable is going to kill them, on the other hand.

Is this a generational thing, or perhaps just a regional thing with people I know? I've noticed this with several people in my age group that are like this.

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WillaKissing · 56-60, M

My kids are like this too, and I do not understand what happened to their sense of taste/palate to make them so picky and narrow minded. I cooked from scratch as I raised my son and daughter by myself from ages 12 to 18, but their mother my ex-wife always bought fast food and was a terrible cook.

JimboSaturn · 56-60, M

@WillaKissing Same here! It's sad to see their world shrink as they lose the variety of food they once ate.

WillaKissing · 56-60, M

@JimboSaturn Absolutely Brother! Absolutely.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@WillaKissing @FreddieUK Peer pressure? The malign influence of the Mactuckycostalotta industry? No proper food served in school?

Many people are not naturally wary of anything unfamiliar, so children not given a wide range of food when young are not likely to want to sample "new" ones. They may do in later life as their interests and tastes broaden, perhaps by peer influence.

The youngsters who won't eat meat may have been unduly influenced by vegan propaganda as well their own tastes; but try finding liver, etc. now. The supermarkets will not stock more than three or four species of fresh meat, and that only as various muscle fillets packaged in many different ways to give a false impression of choice. Nor will they support any local or independent producers. They might stock some fish - also in multiple packet types to appear a wide range - but that is not cheap.

WillaKissing · 56-60, M

@ArishMell I am sorry but the last paragraph of your reply to our replies sounds like you live in a third world country. None of what you wrote about is true about where I live in a rural of Southern, Ohio USA. Whenever I go toe the supermarket/store the meat selections fruit and vegetables is very vast. Also being I live on a farm I produce my own fruits vegetables and meats as well as wild game and fish.

So, your last paragraph does not compute to where I live and how my kids were raised.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@WillaKissing I did not try to accuse your shops of being that sparse - sorry, I should have been clearer.

What I stated is certainly not Third World but is trued of many of supermarkets in Britain.

The more expensive ones are better but many offer a wide ranges of produce types with very limited choices in each produce. You might find two strains each of apples and lettuces, say, or three of potatoes.

There are farmers here struggling to sell other, rarer strains and some do via their own shops but it is not cheap, and the supermarkets here are not interested in anything not fitting their databases. Even the franchise chains of "convenience shops", which could be more flexible and allow their individual managers more initiative, do not like variety, either.

I am not a farmer so have to rely on buying all my own food- but that goes for many people anywhere..