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Picky
- Author
- Helen Zoe Veit
- Narrator
- Helen Zoe Veit
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 25 April 2026
- Run Time
- 7 hours 34 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Children’s health
What to expect
An eye-opening investigation into why American kids no longer eat broadly and with gusto
Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the twentieth 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.
Critics Review
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“In her meticulously researched and eminently readable history of children’s eating habits 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
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“Veit draws on centuries’ worth of primary sources to show that children used to be eager little omnivores―right up until the time that American culture, in tandem with the food industry, decided that kids can’t possibly eat what everyone else is eating. 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
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“A profound historical investigation and a call to action.”
Paul Freedman, department of history, Yale University, author of Why Food Matters
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“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
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Helen Zoe Veit
- Narrator
- Helen Zoe Veit
- Duration
- 7 hours 34 minutes
- Release Date
- 25 April 2026
- ISBN
- 9798228627246
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Children’s health
Synopsis
An eye-opening investigation into why American kids no longer eat broadly and with gustoAre children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the twentieth 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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