Phobic disorders related to eating are especially dangerous since their consequences also extend to the field of health. This is the case of food Neophobia or the fear of trying new foods, a disorder that is very common in childhood but can reach adulthood if not treated in time. We tell you everything about food Neophobia in our dictionary.
What is food Neophobia?
Food Neophobia is the fear of trying new foods. Hence, it is a disorder that originates in childhood when the child begins to discover all the possibilities of feeding. Based on its texture, its smell, its color or its taste, the child discards foods that he considers potentially dangerous.
But it is an unfounded fear, as is the case with all phobic disorders. Food Neophobia is considered normal behavior at that age when children start with a varied diet. It is the role of the parents to detect the limits between a functional rejection of the novelty and a pathological one. So pay attention.
Causes and consequences of food Neophobia
Discarding food for whatever reason is always a bad investment in terms of health. As we have already seen in the case of lacanophobia or fear of vegetables, restricting eating poses an obvious risk of malnutrition and, in addition, these phobias are usually associated with other types of disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. Cause or consequence?
In food Neophobia, its consequences are more important than its causes. Surely you will know an adult with Avery diet, one of those people who do not like anything and who are not friends with culinary innovations. It may be a capricious person, it is true, but it may also be that he has a disorder such as Neophobia.
Avoiding eating a large amount of food for fear that it is dangerous also leads to social isolation. That person with Neophobia is very aware of her limitations and surely does not understand her own fear of her, since it is an irrational fear. But he thinks that he can’t help it.
Symptoms of food Neophobia
That they put a new food on your plate or that you have already decided throughout your life to exclude it from your diet due to Neophobia leads to suffering all the symptoms of anxiety that we know so well. Sensation of suffocation, dizziness, vomiting, tachycardia… And that feeling of unreality that often leads to a panic attack.
The behavior of a person suffering from food Neophobia or any other phobia is to avoid. Avoid having these symptoms, avoid being in situations that you consider dangerous, avoid eating certain foods, avoid attending events in which you have to face those products that cause you fear. In the end, self-esteem is lowered to the bottom of the earth and you are left with that unsettling feeling that something is very wrong.
How is food Neophobia treated?
In the case of children, it may be the parents themselves who can act to stop this incipient Neophobia, but it never hurts to go. It is important to understand that if a child refuses a food, it is not convenient to force him to eat it because he will associate it with a great negative emotional charge throughout his life.
There are other strategies to get him to accept it and eat it willingly. Hence the importance of going to a psychologist. In both children and adults, cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective in overcoming a phobia.
And in this case of food Neophobia, repeated exposure to the feared food is very helpful to create what is known as a habituation phenomenon. If you put that feared food on the table every day, without forcing them to eat it, without anger and naturally, the child will get used to having that food on the plate and the feeling of danger will be reduced.