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Gourmand Syndrome

paulraphael
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Panaderia Canadiense

Panaderia Canadiense

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Posted

You mean I can excuse my love of interesting, well created, well presented food on falling out of that tree when I was 5? And here I thought it was a good food education from my parents....

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011) ⋆ My eG Foodblog (2012)

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Kouign Aman

Kouign Aman

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This leads to thoughts of practical application :shock: : that person is PERFECT, except they dont share your love of adventurous dining? Whack 'em upside the head with a rolling pin... :wink:

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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andiesenji

andiesenji

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I know one young man, son of neighbors, who was beaned with a baseball (in the mid '90s), suffered a fairly severe concussion and subsequently became a compulsive watcher of the Food channel.

He also changed his eating habits (he was mildly autistic) went to culinary school in L.A. after high school and is now a sous chef at a big hotel in San Francisco.

When he comes to visit his parents, he talks about food all the time, eats anything and everything, and up to the time of the beaning, when I say his diet was restricted, I mean it.

He wouldn't eat anything that was green, red, orange or any other vivid color and was bothered by anyone eating them at the same table. (Pale golden delicious apples were okay to eat out of hand, otherwise they had to be peeled and cored out of his sight.)

The only exception was stuff that was wrapped in a neutral color - burritos, as long as he could eat them out of hand and didn't have to look at the filling.

In the past few years he has been to France, Portugal and Spain, China and Southeast Asia and this fall is planning a trip to South America and is taking his mom on this trip.

After fifteen years, she is still amazed at the profound change in him from this single incident.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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kayb

kayb

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I know one young man, son of neighbors, who was beaned with a baseball (in the mid '90s), suffered a fairly severe concussion and subsequently became a compulsive watcher of the Food channel.

He also changed his eating habits (he was mildly autistic) went to culinary school in L.A. after high school and is now a sous chef at a big hotel in San Francisco.

When he comes to visit his parents, he talks about food all the time, eats anything and everything, and up to the time of the beaning, when I say his diet was restricted, I mean it.

He wouldn't eat anything that was green, red, orange or any other vivid color and was bothered by anyone eating them at the same table. (Pale golden delicious apples were okay to eat out of hand, otherwise they had to be peeled and cored out of his sight.)

The only exception was stuff that was wrapped in a neutral color - burritos, as long as he could eat them out of hand and didn't have to look at the filling.

In the past few years he has been to France, Portugal and Spain, China and Southeast Asia and this fall is planning a trip to South America and is taking his mom on this trip.

After fifteen years, she is still amazed at the profound change in him from this single incident.

All of you please ignore reports of my 16-year-old son, for whom the five food groups are pizza, hamburgers, chocolate and macaroni & cheese, being whacked upside the hand with a baseball bat. If it worked for Andie's acquaintance....

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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Mjx

Mjx

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There's at least a smidgen of evidence that obsession with food and fine dining can be caused by brain trauma.

I suppose I've been knocked out a couple of times. Years ago. This might become a good excuse for lots of things.

I don't think I know anyone who hasn't had at least one fairly severe frontal head injury, and the interest in food among them seems to reflect the general one in the population (i.e. a few don't care at all, or are intensely interested, most fall somewhere in the middle; my mother, thanks to many years of intractable epilepsy, must have one of the most bashed-up anterior cerebral cortices of anyone I know, and is in the middle ground).

The research paper is suggestive, but it isn't intended as evidence, and the abstract, at least, doesn't mention the (at least as numerous) cases of people who have sustained severe head injuries to the right anterior cortex, and just become run-of-the-mill sociopaths with no special interest in food.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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paulraphael

paulraphael

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The research paper is suggestive, but it isn't intended as evidence, and the abstract, at least, doesn't mention the (at least as numerous) cases of people who have sustained severe head injuries to the right anterior cortex, and just become run-of-the-mill sociopaths with no special interest in food.

Ok, so it's a smidgen of rumor, not a smidgen of evidence. But it probably deserves the same conclusion as much of the published research: "further research seems warranted."

Luckily, quite a few volunteers have emerged through this thread, proposing methods as widely varied as rolling pins and croquet mallets.

Notes from the underbelly

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Dakki

Dakki

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There's at least a smidgen of evidence that obsession with food and fine dining can be caused by brain trauma.

I suppose I've been knocked out a couple of times. Years ago. This might become a good excuse for lots of things.

I don't think I known anyone who hasn't had at least one fairly severe frontal head injury, and the interest in food among them seems to reflect the general one in the population (i.e. a few don't care at all, or are intensely interested, most fall somewhere in the middle; my mother, thanks to many years of intractable epilepsy, must have one of the most bashed-up anterior cerebral cortices of anyone I know, and is in the middle ground).

The research paper is suggestive, but it isn't intended as evidence, and the abstract, at least, doesn't mention the (at least as numerous) cases of people who have sustained severe head injuries to the right anterior cortex, and just become run-of-the-mill sociopaths with no special interest in food.

Same experience here. One sister had a tumor the size of a lemon taken out of her cranium and another has epilepsy; neither of them have any interest in food preparation beyond the occasional batch of cupcakes. I've suffered a couple of bad blows to the head, and post here; another brother, who AFAIK has never suffered an injury worse than a bloodied nose in his life, was local chili cookoff champion in '09 and probably spends a significantly larger proportion of his income and free time on cooking-related projects.

Anyway, now I'm wondering if there's any statistical relation between sociopathy and being a "foodie." That would explain a few things. :raz:

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

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ScoopKW

ScoopKW

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All of you please ignore reports of my 16-year-old son, for whom the five food groups are pizza, hamburgers, chocolate and macaroni & cheese, being whacked upside the hand with a baseball bat. If it worked for Andie's acquaintance....

At the risk of sounding snarky, why tolerate this? Make whatever you want to eat. Eventually, he'll become hungry enough to eat anything. Nothing grinds my gears like grocery shopping and hearing parents ask their "darling" children, "Do you want to have pizza or hamburgers tonight?"

It's not their choice!

Kids should eat what's put in front of them or go hungry. How else are they going to learn to enjoy food that doesn't come wrapped in bright paper, ordered from a clown's mouth?

I know a guy who is 30 years old, and hasn't eaten anything in his life other than PB&J, chicken fingers, pizza and hamburgers. Totally limits one's dating choices when he has the food savvy of a 9-year old*. What kind of woman would want anything to do with such a man? Taking a lady out to a nice restaurant is out of the question, unless they'll let him order from the kiddy menu.

* My apologies to adventurous 9-year olds.

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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CKatCook

CKatCook

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Then I owe the three drunks that I was in a three way head on collision in 96 a big thank you for helping me find my life's passion....

"I eat fat back, because bacon is too lean"

-overheard from a 105 year old man

"The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook" - Julia Child

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