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Picky

How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History

By: Helen Zoe Veit

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Hardcover | 24 February 2026

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.4 x 14.7 x 2.54

Hardcover

$51.75

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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.

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