Picky Eaters: When Waffles and Fries Are All You Eat

Get some government money! Calling all vegetarian, vegans, teetotalers and others who restrict what they eat.

Bob Krause hates Thanksgiving, and not because of that all forced family time.

Krause, 63, calls himself a picky eater -- one who won't eat anything that's served at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, or any other dinner, for that matter.

Krause survives on little more than grilled cheese sandwiches, French fries and waffles. And, like other picky eaters, Krause hopes that a registry of adult picky eaters, recently begun by Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh, will bring attention to a problem he believes should be considered a medical condition.

The registry, dubbed the Food F.A.D. Study, or the Finicky Eating in Adults study, has already attracted more than 2,000 participants. According to its website, the survey and registry was created to learn more about adults who describe themselves as picky eaters.

"Much of the research on picky eating has been done in children," reads the site, which is run by Dr. Nancy Zucker at Duke University Medical Center along with colleagues at Western Psychiatric Institute in Pittsburgh. "We know very little about what picky eating looks like in adults and whether such eating habits cause any problems for either yourself or your family."

Krause says he knows all too well what picky eating can do to a person's social life. Now on this third marriage, Krause said that his first two ended partially because of his picky eating.

"I absolutely think picky eating is a type of eating disorder," said Krause.

These folks are trying to get money from us contending that "picky eating" is a medical condition.

If so, then those among us who are picky eaters because we do not overeat or refuse to stick some foods in our mouths, e.g., meat, alcohol, animal products, may be in line for the next federal gravy train.

After all, if you do not shove every kind of crap down your pie hole, you must be a "picky eater," i.e., you pick and choose what you eat.

Here is the link to the study website.

Have your friends fill out millions of these questionnaires.

Get in while the getting is good.