#8 Eating The Same Foods Everyday
Written by SAPL on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 in Uncategorized.
Simple Food
The Asperger child was easy to recognize in the school cafeteria as she always brought the same meal for lunch everyday. While other children may have had their parents to blame for this matter (”You eat what we serve you,” “That is too expensive,”) and often protested, the Aspie child actually enjoyed this. And when it came time to barter your Lunchable for someone else’s PB&J, the Aspie never took part in this marketplace. However, no one was ever really interested in exchanging because the meal the Asperger child bought was probably bland and/or weird anyway.
These Aspies grew into adults who retained their restrictive food preferences, usually due to their extreme disgust of many foods, such as tomatoes, or inability to tolerate the texture (that damn sensory sensitivity strikes again!) of many foods, or just the plain love of certain types of foods. Tom still brings pasta with marinara sauce daily for lunch, has not strayed in 10 years, and would probably have to go on leave of absence should there be a reason he couldn’t make it daily.
This restrictive food fetish comes with its perks. Obviously there is less planning involved in the process. When she finally arrives at the cash register after standing in line at Howie’s Bagels for 10 minutes, the Aspie often finds her Everything Bagel already made to her liking and wrapped, ready to ring up provided the workers have spotted her in the back of the line. When entering restaurants frequented, the Asperger is given special dignitaries and greeted with names such as, “Greek Vegetables?” vs. plain Mr. or Mrs. Eisenhower.
The Aspie will find certain items at the store, frozen or shelf, and often empty the shelves with dozens soon after they are stocked, leaving others to wonder why their favorite item is never there even though they’ve requested the manager bring them in week after week. Their questions are answered after a careful stakeout reveals a man rolling a cart away with 30 Momma Mia Spinach Lasagnas just moments after they are put in the freezer.
“We switched distributors and they no longer carry the product,” is one of the worse phrases the Aspie can hear from the grocer when referring to his favorite foods but all is not lost as at least there is opportunity to go to another store who understands the importance of keeping the right distributors that carry his products.
However, the greatest blow, the final dagger that may leave the Aspie picking up the pieces for days, weeks, even months:
“I’m sorry, Sir. The company discontinued the product.”