Picky - by Helen Zoe Veit (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An eye-opening investigation into why American kids no longer eat broadly and with gusto

"Veit is a wonderful writer who brings to her subject a wealth of research and an attitude of refreshingly nonideological neutrality... If you have ever sat at a restaurant, marveling at the bilge offered on the kids' menu and wondering how on earth we got here, Picky has the answers." ―The Wall Street Journal

"Enlightening ... a rigorous and persuasive call for change." ―Publishers Weekly, Starred

"Upends our assumptions about the foods children can and will eat with gusto."―Bettina Elias Siegel, author of Kid Food

Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the 20th century, Americans saw children as joyful omnivores who were naturally curious and eager to eat. Of course, this doesn't make sense today. Don't kids have special taste buds? Aren't they highly sensitive to food's texture and color? Aren't children incapable of liking "adult foods," and don't parents risk harming kids psychologically by urging them to eat?

But Americans in the past didn't think any of those things. They assumed that children could enjoy the same foods as adults, and children almost always did. They loved spicy relishes, vinegary pickles, and bitter greens. They spent their allowances on raw oysters and looked forward to their daily coffee. So how did modern kids become such incredibly narrow eaters? The story is fascinating - and about much more than rising abundance. Picky shows how fussy eating came to define "children's food" and reshape American diets at large. Maybe most importantly, it explains how we can still use the tools that parents used in the past to raise happy, healthy, wildly un-picky kids today.

Review Quotes

"A sensible, succinct and easily digestible story of good intentions gone wrong."
--The Economist

"The picky eating habits of contemporary U.S. children were far from inevitable, according to this enlightening study... a rigorous and persuasive call for change."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred

"Recounts how kids went from eating jellied brain to consuming, like my toddler, little but macaroni and cheese." --The Atlantic

"A sensible, succinct and easily digestible story of good intentions gone wrong."
--The Economist

"Compelling... Veit's evidence and narrative convinced me that my son is capable of better eating than I thought."
--The Bulwark

"Veit argues that parents should promote diverse diets to raise healthier and happier children."
--Booklist

"The perspective that so many of us desperately need... After having read this book, I walked into dinner last night at a local restaurant with confidence that my kids were going to be a little more open than normal, and my six-year-old tried something that he had never tried before, and he loved it."
--Stateside, Michigan Public Radio

"Absolutely beautiful...I can't tell you how enlightening it was to read this history book."
--Baby-Led Weaning with Kate Ferraro

"Fascinating... Her message is: it's not your fault. There are real, historical reasons why children went from being gloriously hungry omnivores in the nineteenth century and before to refusing to eat what's put in front of them."
--Good Food: KCRW (NPR)

"A really, really interesting new book."
--The Forum with Josh Cowen

"You've given...a lot of parents a big boost of confidence and a sense of relief."
--Press Play: KCRW (NPR)

"Fascinating."
--First Coast Connect

"Like many modern parents trying to figure out how to feed my kid, I often feel trapped between contradictory - and equally dogmatic - approaches. Helen Veit shows us that these anxieties are not inevitable."
--Mara Gordon, MD, NPR contributor and "Your Doctor Friend" on Substack

"This well-told history explains how a wrongheaded notion became conventional wisdom, with disastrous consequences for kids and parents alike."
--Laura Shapiro, author of What She Ate

"A profound historical investigation and a call to action."
--Paul Freedman, Department of History, Yale University, author of Why Food Matters

"In her meticulously researched and eminently readable history of children's eating habits Helen Veit reveals not only how American kids learned to be such picky eaters but exposes the food attitudes of the grown-ups in the kitchen."
--Michael Krondl, author of Sweet Invention

"In breezy, often humorous prose, Helen Veit traces the many forces that created today's 'kid food' and upends our assumptions about the foods children can and will eat with gusto."
--Bettina Elias Siegel, author of Kid Food

"Picky shows us how picky eaters aren't born but made and shows parents how to sort through the conflicting advice to help their children become happy, healthy eaters."
--Andrew Coe, author of James Beard Award-winning A Square Meal

"We loved the book."
―Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything

About the Author

Helen Zoe Veit is an award-winning historian and writer. An associate professor of history at Michigan State University, she is the director of the What America Ate and the America in the Kitchen projects, was an advisor for HBO's The Gilded Age, and is a former editor of Gastronomica. She is often cited in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and more. Her book Modern Food, Moral Food was a James Beard Award finalist, and her edited volume Food in the Civil War Era: The North won a Gourmand International award.