It could be the fear of trying new foods, the fear of swallowing them, the fear of food poisoning, or the fear of eating a certain food group. These are a family of phobias related to various aspects of foods.
What are they and how many types there are? Getting into the subject of food phobias
There are many different types of phobias, but today’s article will focus on the already mentioned food phobias. This is because your brain connects the flavor with unpleasant sensations. There’s a conditioned aversion to taste when you experience food poisoning or when it leads to discomfort (even if only slightly). This effect explains why people systematically reject certain types of food (or similar flavors) that at some point made them sick. Similarly, there’s the rather curious Garcia effect, which is the fear of experiencing food poisoning. For example, having nearly choked on a peanut could be enough to acquire a peanut eating phobia. The direct experience with the phobic stimulus, vicarious learning (by watching others), is the main way to acquire a phobia. You may not know it but phobias usually appear during childhood or adolescence and are usually learned. Even more so when the phobia affects a basic physiological need such as food.
Thus, they require attention and subsequent treatment. Phobic responses are maladaptive and can affect people’s daily lives. Perhaps because the person who’s afraid has the resources to confront it. It’s a reaction of irrational fear to harmless or kind of harmful stimuli that most people keep under control.
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