A nation of fussy eaters – what won’t you eat?

A new study has revealed the extent of fussy eating in Britain, especially when it comes to vegetables. What do you refuse to eat?

A study of 2,000 people, commissioned by Seven Seas supplements, found that 60% of Britons would describe themselves as a ‘fussy eater’.

It's a green thing

One in ten adults has never tried green vegetables such as celery, leek and kale, simply because they think they won’t like them. And one fifth of adults refuse to try olives, while 10 per cent of us never ate broccoli as a child.

Other foods often cast aside because of fussiness include avocadoes, garlic, apricots, blueberries, prunes, aubergines, figs and asparagus. And it’s not just vegetables – one in five of us have never tasted sardines or scampi, while one in ten has never had tuna, salmon or goats’ cheese.

Omega 3 consequences

Worryingly, a lot of the food that fussy eaters tend to avoid happens to contain Omega 3 – a fatty acid important for a normal metabolism. A Seven Seas spokesman said: 'It's surprising to see that many staple foods are regularly avoided or haven't been tried… there is clearly a worrying trend of people avoiding many of the foods that can be of great benefit to health and well-being.”

Biochemist Professor Gordon Bell, who worked with Seven Seas, said: “Samples analysed in our laboratory show that people in the UK have an average of about 25% Omega 3 in their Omega 3 blood count… a count of about 40% would be considered as a healthy level.”

The Government advises that a healthy diet should include at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, for a boost of Omega 3.

20 foods fussy Brits avoid

Sea bass	Cranberries	Kale	Haddock
Papaya	Turnips	Sardines	Parmesan
Shrimp	Spinach	Cantaloupe	Salmon
Figs	Grapefruit	Stilton	Sweet potatoes
Mackerel	Leeks	Goats' cheese	Tuna

Are you a fussy eater? What kind of food have you avoided for years? Or do you eat anything and everything? Talk to us in the Comments box below.

"Broccoli and cross section edit" by Fir0002 - Own work. Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons

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