Ever wonder what it’s like to be a picky eater?  Listen as Carson gains insight into foods he finds disgusting.  He might even change his mind about what he’ll put in his mouth!  

Ocho: You’re listening to “I don’t do that, A lifestyle podcast with me, Ocho. I get to talk to lots of different people about all the things that they don’t do, and you get to hear what they say.

[theme music plays]

Ocho: Episode 1

Carson: “That looks wet. It looks gross. It looks like it would be very unappealing in my mouth. No chance that’s happening…”

Ocho: Episode 1 is “I Don’t Eat Soup.” We’re talking to Carson today, who doesn’t eat soup. Carson is currently working on a bachelor’s degree  in business at a college in the upper Midwestern United States. He identifies himself as male and Caucasian, he’s in his early 20s.  Thanks for being here, Carson. How are you doing?

Carson: Doing good, Ocho, how about you?

Ocho:  Good. I’m really glad to have you on. Thanks for coming.

Carson: Thanks for having me.

Ocho: Yes, our first episode. So our first episode is “I do not eat soup.” So, does this apply to all soup?

Carson: It applies to all soup. I can’t even remember a time where I sat down and ate a bowl of soup.

Ocho: So, would you have a spoonful, like would you try it?

Carson: It’s pretty hard to get me to try foods, and I really can’t recall a time. I’ve tried to stay away from it.

Ocho: So have you ever had soup?

Carson: I had to have.  But even like if I get sick with a cold, no, I’m not going to ask for a can of chicken noodle soup. There’s no chance.

Ocho: So hypothetically, you’re saying, you’ve had it, but you can’t even remember having it.

Carson: yeah.

Ocho: So does this include chili?

Carson: It does include chili

Ocho: Does it include stew?

Carson: What’s the difference between stew and soup?

Ocho: I mean, stew has like bigger chunks…and thicker…

Carson: That would throw me off immediately.  You throw big chunks in something liquidy? No, that’s a no.

Ocho: No. Okay, so this is part of what I’m wondering is, we’re starting to get into some details now about what it is about soup.  And immediately, like, what I’m hearing is, it’s kind of disgusting to you to have big chunks in something liquidy.

Carson: Yeah, just looks, it looks off. Looks doesn’t look appealing. Unappetizing, if you will.

Ocho:  So a photo of it would be unappetizing.

Carson: Yeah, in a way. I’d be ok. It’s not like I have a phobia or nothing. It’s just like nah I’m not going to eat that.

Ocho: But it smells like food, right?

Carson: Yeah sometimes it even smells pretty good from what I know. But just looking at…it’s like they always say like don’t judge food by looks. But I just can’t help myself but judging if it looks pretty wrong like that.

Ocho: Yeah, you said you’re a picky eater in a lot of ways…

Carson: Tons of ways. I always have been.

Ocho: ok. You’re saying maybe noodles, you’re not into that.

Carson:  Noodles are a weird one. Like, I love my mom’s spaghetti. Whenever I go to a restaurant and eat spaghetti it just never tastes the same. It’s almost a taste I don’t like.  I don’t know if it’s because it’s unfamiliar. I don’t know quite exactly what it is.  Just like, other spaghetti?  It gets tough for me to eat.

Ocho: OK what about noodles in like Chinese food or in…?

Carson: Absolutely not.

Ocho: Nothing like that?

Carson: I like my chicken fried rice that’s about it

Ocho: OK rice is cool but not noodles?

Carson: Rice is cool but not noodles.

Carson: So your distaste for food, it seems like it mostly is centered around wetness?

Carson: A lot of it is.  That’s a good way to put it.  If it’s wet and it shouldn’t be…basically if it’s just wet. Yeah that’s just weird.  It’s a weird taste. A lot of the foods I’ve chosen to be picky about, is centered around “that looks wet, it looks gross it looks like it’d be very unappealing in my mouth.  No chance that’s happening.”

Ocho: ok, so beef commercial or turkey commercial?  Like a sandwich with mashed potatoes on top of it and gravy

Carson: I don’t like gravy.  No gravy.  I like mashed potatoes.  Mashed potatoes are good. No gravy.  I’m not gonna ask for gravy.

Ocho: Gravy’s a bit like soup, isn’t it?

Carson: In a way, yeah.  I wouldn’t know.  I have no idea what gravy tastes like.  Not even the slightest clue.

Ocho: Would you try some just broth?  With no chunks in it?

Carson: No chunks in it, just broth?

Ocho: yeah

Carson: Yeah you could get me to try that.  Dip a little spoon in there; have some.

Ocho:How about au jus?

Carson: What is au jus?

Ocho: Au jus is like it it’s a dipping sauce for a sandwich.  It’s basically like meat juice.

Carson: I typically like dipping sauces.  Go to a restaurant, order their signature sauce.  it’s typically really, really good.

Ocho:But it’s very thin.  It’s like soy sauce but it’s a meat juice.

Carson: It’s a meat juice?

Ocho: yeah

Carson: I’d give it a try

Ocho: but no chinks in liquid?

Carson: I’m not gonna eat soup.  I’m just not going to.  I even feel really really bad about this one because there’s someone in my family, my grandma’s sister, and she makes this phenomenal soup.  Allegedly. I wouldn’t know.

Ocho: How would you know?

Carson: But she hosts soup nights all the time, and I’ll go talk to family and I will not eat the soup.  Everyone just raves about how good it is.

Ocho: I was gonna I was going to get into that too.

Carson: Yes, there is soup in my family.

Ocho: Yeah, if there’s a good story…

Carson: Yeah my grandma’s sister Slim.  Slim makes good soup that I do not know anything about.

Ocho: So you miss out on your family’s soup traditions, and they kind of understand cause they’re your family…

Carson: yeah they one hundred percent understand it, somehow.  They’ll talk a little dirt about it…

Ocho: Well yeah they’re gonna rib you a little bit or whatever.

Carson: Just a little…

Ocho: Have you ever been in a situation where it wasn’t somebody so understanding?

Carson: Oh a few times, I can’t really remember.  People kind of know that about me.

Ocho: OK so like hypothetically then, what if there were a potential employer and they had something for all the new hires and it was like a chili feed or like something like that?

Carson: Something like that? It’s like I’d almost have to grab a plate and make it look like I’m eating it as much as possible, but I’ve mastered the art of, you know, you take that paper plate, and go to the trash can turn it over and like, don’t let anything spill out.

Ocho: You’d pretend… I can tell you don’t eat soup because you’re talking about eating it off of a plate.

Carson: oh we were just talking about other foods… Alright, so an employer makes a big old batch of soup and I have to get a bowl? Woah that’s a tough one. It’s because like, this is a bowl they’re going to have to, like, like go to a sink for a wash…like, there’s no hiding it.  I can’t just like, throw that.  You can’t just throw soup in a trash can.

Ocho: Could you bring yourself to do it for an important reason?  What if you’re going to like marry somebody and you were talking to like their family and they served you some soup by surprise?

Carson: yeah I’d have to start taking some bites out of it.  I can say with full confidence, it would look pretty embarrassing watching me eat this bowl of soup.

Ocho: You would look like you were suffering.

Carson: I would try to hide it as best as possible. I just don’t think there’s any hiding it.

Ocho: OK if you’ve never tried it I mean like I can’t really ask if it actually makes you sick or anything like that because you wouldn’t know.  But it seems like you expect that it would?

Carson: It’s like it’s engraved in my brain. Like, if I eat this I’m not gonna like it.  I’ll get sick.

Ocho: So this is part of what I want to know about like what it’s like to be a picky eater.  I’m not one, and I assume that other people listening, I assume some of us are and some of us aren’t.  But the mission for this show is to get people to know what other people are like just so we can all accept each other and live together better.  So have you ever had people that don’t accept that and that say “oh, just eat it” or…?

Carson: No one who won’t take no for an answer. I don’t know anyone like that.  They’ll just rib me a little and be on with it, and that’s really it. I’ve never met anyone who is, like, giving me an ultimatum like, “you eat that now.”  That just has it sounds like a weird situation.

Ocho:  Now I could see, like you know, where we live in this culture, people being passive aggressive about it. Did encounter any of that?

Carson: Not too much. No.

Ocho: Okay, so it’s been pretty easy.

Carson: Ya. It’s just that I avoid the foods I feel like I wouldn’t like.  And I get that feeling that I wouldn’t like it based on looks and smell, and other things like that.

Ocho: But you feel sort of sick when you imagine eating it.

Carson:Yes.  Big time.

Ocho: So it seems like there’s a strong like psychological component to it.

Carson: Must be. I don’t know where that would have come from. I just always have known myself as a picky eater. My whole life.

Ocho: What would be the worst? Like if it was cold?

Carson: I definitely would prefer hot than cold. Um…the absolute worst? Soup is already as bad as it gets, in a way. There’s so much stuff already in it.

Ocho: Chunks would be bad…?

Carson: Chunks would be bad. Like I see a carrot float in there, I’m gonna avoid that spot. That can just sit on the border of the bowl…

Ocho: Do you like carrots by themselves?

Carson: Hardly. I can maybe take a bite of a baby carrot, but like, eat a pack? No.

Ocho: And that’s raw.  How about cooked carrots?  Worse?

Carson: Never really tried them

Ocho: But there are there things that you would eat, that if they were in soup, you would not eat them.

Carson: Yeah.  I like some of my meats…I don’t even know what goes in soup.  What do most people put in their soup? Well, chicken noodle soup. I like chicken. I eat a lot of chicken, you know?

Ocho: So you like chicken. So, if I had, if I had a chicken breast and I cut it up into little cubes, you would eat it.

Carson: Yeah.  Throw those chicken cubes in a bowl of soup, it’d get a little weird.

Ocho: If I put some chicken broth on top of them in a bowl, then you would not eat it.

Carson: No

Ocho: That’s interesting.

Carson: I know, Yeah, I’m finding this interesting about myself, even.  You’re asking the hard-hitting questions.

Ocho: Good.  I am trying to get it some details you know because I was raised by lawyers, so somewhat trying to understand what’s the specifics of this? What’s the actual definition of soup? I mean, it gets philosophical too.  Like, I was thinking broth you would try, but to you that’s not soup…

Carson: No it’s not because it doesn’t have all the chunks floating in it, and stuff…I bet broth tastes good!

Ocho: What about just like, tomato soup. That’s just basically like tomatoes and spices and water and it’s blended up, it’s hot…

Carson:That’s a good segue into our next chapter, here.  I don’t eat vegetables.  Corn and peas.  That’s it. And that’s only on occasion.  I haven’t touched another vegetable.

Ocho: ok.  So we eat corn and peas and no other vegetables.

Carson: There’s none that I can think of. I hate green beans…

Ocho:potatoes?

Carson: Oh, that’s a vegetable isn’t it?

Ocho: Technically, I’d say. It’s a starchy vegetable.

Carson: Yeah, I do like potatoes.  I like mashed potatoes. I like baked potatoes.  I will not put gravy over it; I just eat it normal. I don’t eat the skins though. If I’m having a baked potato, I won’t eat the skin.  I have people in my family who do…see, I like fruit. There’s like hardly any fruits I don’t eat. But not vegetables.  I don’t go near that stuff.

Ocho: All right, so I think I’ve maybe already touched on this, but I’m just going to ask directly.  So it doesn’t matter, right, if it’s free, if you get free soup and you’re and you’re hungry…

Carson: Yeah it doesn’t matter.  I’m just too picky of an eater

Ocho:  If you’re hungry, you’ll just wait until something else comes along. Because you’re not that hungry.

Carson: I’ve never been in a situation where I’m literally starving, and I need something to eat. I would really want to know, like if someone put me in a scientific experiment. Will I eat a bowl of soup in like 10 seconds?  If I’m like straight up starving.

Ocho: There’s probably always a situation where you would eat food. I mean, there’s people who, you know, there’s the story of like the plane wreck and they eat the other people who died, you know. So there’s something that’s gonna happen.

Carson: Something primal about all that.

Ocho: There’s some circumstance under which you probably would eat some soup that smells good… Did you ever try to test your limits? We’ve kind of gone over that, but not with soup.

Carson: For some reason I haven’t done with it with soup.  Maybe someone needs to just cook up a big batch of soup one time…I feel like my roommates did that last year? Cooked up a big batch of soup. I didn’t go grab a bowl. Just because it was there, and ready and prepared for me?

Ocho: So you have a part-time job in food service. And you don’t serve soup there?

Carson: No.

Ocho: Would you work with soup?

Carson: Yes I feel like I would.  I don’t get too grossed out if I’m not eating it.

Ocho:  You can be around it. That’s fine.  You could serve it and stuff and hand it to people.

Carson: Yes, I could do that.

Ocho: You could cook it maybe?

Carson: mm-hm

Ocho: ok so you don’t mind

Carson: yeah, I don’t think the smell of soup bugs me at all.

Ocho: In fact, I could see you putting some broth in a pot, cutting up some stuff, putting it in there and even like eating some of it before you throw it into the pot. But just not afterwards.

Carson: Yeah like take a little nibble of something before tossing it in and then and not have a bowl of the soup…

Ocho: What if we got our chicken soup, and we take a piece of chicken out and you put it like on a cloth or napkin and it  dries out. So it’s not all wet…would you eat it then?

Carson: Yeah, but that would be really weird and strange to me.

Ocho: But you would prefer that to eating it out of the bowl.

Carson: I’d prefer that to eating it like a spoonful of soup. This whole episode is making me want to try soup for no reason at all!

Ocho: Wow.

Carson: I know this is kind of crazy to me.

Ocho: Yeah, that’s crazy to me too. That’s not my intention at all. I’m just really trying to get to the bottom of it.

Carson: I guess I’m figuring out some stuff.

Ocho: Yeah, good. That’s great. I’m really happy to hear that.

Ocho: And just one last question. Do you have any thoughts about cooking shows?

Carson: It can be really entertaining to watch and sometimes the food looks delicious. Sometimes it looks like something I know I would never touch.

Ocho: Sure. Yeah, I just ask because you’re a picky eater. So if there’s any…

Carson: Even though it doesn’t look like something I would eat. I can also recognize that it does look pretty good. You can see why other people would love to get their hands on that.

Ocho:  Sure. Well that’s good. That shows some open-mindedness I think.

Carson: Yeah, I definitely have gotten a lot more open-minded about these foods I’ve always been picky against.

Ocho: mhm, because I probably have a stereotype in my mind of people, when they don’t like a food that they just say, “oh, that’s disgusting.” Like it’s an objective fact or something like that.

Carson: Yeah, I don’t ever try to make it like I’m trying to convey a message or like make people think the way I think.  Like “you can’t be eating that; that’s disgusting.” I never try to do that. I’ve just always known myself to be a picky eater, and I’m not trying to change anyone’s minds about the disgusting foods you’re eating, but for some reason, they just look so disgusting to me.  Chicken pot pie just popped up in my mind. Gross! Oh my God!

Ocho: It’s full of gravy, right?

Carson: You open up a delicious-looking, pie, and out come these vegetables and broth and there’s no way!

Ocho: No way. So what do you don’t eat, do you feel like that affects your nutrition?

Carson: Definitely I should be eating more vegetables, obviously. That’s a pretty good one… I eat my fruits and I eat a lot of chicken, which is good for you. But also I don’t know too much about the science behind nutrition, right, but I am always finding myself eating the same like five or six meals every week. And like, how long is that going to be good for me?

Ocho: Well thank you for coming on and talking to me.

Carson: Yeah thank you Ocho

Ocho: I very much appreciate it. And stay healthy.

Carson: I will be staying healthy I promise you all.

[theme music plays

Ocho: And real quick before we wrap up, I want to let our listeners know that this podcast is funded by people like you. If you like what you hear, please visit idontdothatpodcast.com/give. You can make a one-time contribution in any amount or you can sign up for a membership for as little as four dollars per month.  Even that small amount helps a lot. And it will give you access to exclusive content like bonus episodes, original music and comedy, and more!  Make a contribution today at idontdothatpodcast.com/give. We appreciate you.

Thanks for listening to I Don’t Do That. I’m Ocho, your host, chief engineer and producer. I also composed and performed the theme song.  Background music in today’s episode performed by Peter Klug.  Shout out to our sponsor Anders with Primetime Web.  Thanks to Carson, today’s guest.

Do you have an interesting, heartfelt, or entertaining story about something you don’t do?  If you’d like to be a guest on I Don’t Do That, please visit ochotunes.com/guest to apply to be a guest on our show.

We share our stories to celebrate the diversity of human experience. My name is Ocho and I’ll talk to you again. …if I’m lucky. Even though it doesn’t look like something I would eat. I can also recognize that it does look pretty good. You can see why other people would love to get their hands on that.

Ocho:  Sure. Well that’s good. That shows some open-mindedness I think.

Carson: Yeah, I definitely have gotten a lot more open-minded about these foods I’ve always been picky against.

Ocho: mhm, because I probably have a stereotype in my mind of people, when they don’t like a food that they just say, “oh, that’s disgusting.” Like it’s an objective fact or something like that.

Carson: Yeah, I don’t ever try to make it like I’m trying to convey a message or like make people think the way I think.  Like “you can’t be eating that; that’s disgusting.” I never try to do that. I’ve just always known myself to be a picky eater, and I’m not trying to change anyone’s minds about the disgusting foods you’re eating, but for some reason, they just look so disgusting to me.  Chicken pot pie just popped up in my mind. Gross! Oh my God!

Ocho: It’s full of gravy, right?

Carson: You open up a delicious-looking, pie, and out come these vegetables and broth and there’s no way!

Ocho: No way. So what do you don’t eat, do you feel like that affects your nutrition?

Carson: Definitely I should be eating more vegetables, obviously. That’s a pretty good one… I eat my fruits and I eat a lot of chicken, which is good for you. But also I don’t know too much about the science behind nutrition, right, but I am always finding myself eating the same like five or six meals every week. And like, how long is that going to be good for me?

Ocho: Well thank you for coming on and talking to me.

Carson: Yeah thank you Ocho

Ocho: I very much appreciate it. And stay healthy.

Carson: I will be staying healthy I promise you all.

[theme music plays]

Ocho: And real quick before we wrap up, I want to let our listeners know that this podcast is funded by people like you. If you like what you hear, please visit idontdothatpodcast.com/give. You can make a one-time contribution in any amount or you can sign up for a membership for as little as four dollars per month.  Even that small amount helps a lot. And it will give you access to exclusive content like bonus episodes, original music and comedy, and more!  Make a contribution today at idontdothatpodcast.com/give. We appreciate you.

Thanks for listening to I Don’t Do That. I’m Ocho, your host, chief engineer and producer. I also composed and performed the theme song.  Background music in today’s episode performed by Peter Klug.  Shout out to our sponsor Anders with PrimeTime Web.  Thanks to Carson, today’s guest.

Do you have an interesting, heartfelt, or entertaining story about something you don’t do?  If you’d like to be a guest on I Don’t Do That, please visit ochotunes.com/guest to apply to be a guest on our show.

We share our stories to celebrate the diversity of human experience. My name is Ocho and I’ll talk to you again. …if I’m lucky.