I agree with a lot of the reasons already given. Just want to add that the pickiest eaters in our extended family are the younger folks (vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free, etc) - not complaining, just an observation. Also, my parents and their siblings grew up in the Depression. They eat anything (except what ‘doesn’t agree’ with them for health reasons) because they remember times when they had nothing to eat.

Depends. My mom had, um, enhanced gas when she became older and was so embarrassed by it she hid behind picky eating as an excuse not to eat certain things. Definitely would not tell anyone the real reason why, or take digestive enzymes.

And a lot of thin women are on a life long disordered diet, like a few of my mom's friends.

Other older women I know love to eat.

My MIL has been on a diet for the past 40 yrs, so she’s particular about what she eats.

On my side of the family, the old ladies eat! My 90 yr old grandmother had stomach cancer and has diverticulosis and still wants to eat everything even though she should not.

No, it's my father who has become surprisingly picky with age. He watches his health and eats very healthy, which is hard to go when eating out, so I understand the issue. It would be stupid to discourage him, so we try to accommodate as much as possible.

Nope. The moms eat everything. Picky ones are my dad and kids (other kids, not mine).

My FIL was the pickiest adult I've ever encountered. It was partly because he had health issues that made him sensitive to a lot of foods (basically anything with any spice at all). It was always pretty tough to accommodate him, especially because my DH and I really love spicy foods, especially Mexican, Indian, Thai, and Chinese food. When we visited with his family, we wound up eating in a lot.

But I also think sometimes older people in general just become resistant to trying new things and also can just get grouchy and demanding. My mom is not a picky eater at all in terms of the kind of food she will eat, but it's still hard to please her when we go out to eat because she will complain about the tiniest inconvenience or if any aspect of her meal is not exactly what she expected. Even my dad, who has always been one of the more adventurous eaters I've met in my life, can be a challenge because he's just getting older and complains more and is harder to please. I think it's unfortunately just a normal part of aging.

We are currently in the phase of having hard-to-please older relatives as well as picky young eaters and honestly, I don't even care where we go when we eat out with the whole family anymore because my main goal is simply to avoid any major blowups and survive. We save the really great restaurants for date nights or meals with friends where we might actually get to enjoy it!

My mom was the same way. She would also go into insane detail describing her food. Annoyed the heck out of me. RIP mom...

Anonymous wrote:Maybe luck of the draw. My MIL is like this (and it is so annoying) but I know plenty of other older women for whom this is not true.

OP. I definitely didn't mean to imply that all elderly women are like this. But most of the people who are like this - in my family circles - have been the elderly women. (Even so, I see other posters saying it's the men in their families.)

Anonymous wrote:The old ladies i know only get pissy if their alcoholic beverage of choice is not available.

Yep these are my old birds here

They are more likely to bring up certain foods "no longer agree with them." Meaning it gives them horrendous embarrassing gas.

The old ladies i know only get pissy if their alcoholic beverage of choice is not available.

Not for me either. Pickiest are men and kids.

Maybe luck of the draw. My MIL is like this (and it is so annoying) but I know plenty of other older women for whom this is not true.

The old ladies I know don't require any working around re: their palates.

When we get together with extended families, it's always my mother and/or my mother-in-law whose limited tastes in food have to be worked around. There are a lot of things they don't like, and they get grouchy if that's the food being served (whether at home or at a restaurant.) And, they've since passed, but if memory serves, one of my grandmothers was like this as well. The middle aged and young adults (I'm not counting kids for this discussion) of both genders seem to have a broad palate. I'm not sure if the elderly men particularly like a lot of stuff, but they'll cheerfully eat whatever.

I'm obviously working with a limited sample size here, so I'm wondering if my experience is representative of something more generalized or if it's a luck-of-the-draw kind of thing.