That?s probably not its clinical name but I read about it somewhere that people on the spectrum can be easily addicted to some foods.
I never knew this was a thing and I suppose I should do some research, but its one of those things where I am happy to know I am different I just don?t want to dig at exactly how deep that goes.
I can easily find myself chowing down on some snack food or other because I love it and I eat a whole bag or box or whatever, that?s not what I mean here though.
It may be more to do with the texture or specific taste or because you haven?t had it before, that now you have to have it all the time, I don?t know.
Recently I had a job and across from my shop was an Asian kitchen type place and while yes, the lady at the front counter is lovely, I felt I had to go there everyday for lunch and sometimes dinner.
The fact that it was healthy was good too.
Others addictions/ compulsions I have experienced where fried chicken, Burger King, Vanilla ice cream with choc chips in and a few others, oh, lasagna (Garfield addiction simultaneously)
If it's not that uncommon have we got any theories on why we do it?
Well if you think about it, people on the spectrum are renowned for having very heightened senses,
sound
taste
touch
sight
smell
And well food is particularly unique for evoking all of those senses and food as a general thing is very diverse.
The sound of food when cooking or eating whether it be the sizzle of bacon or the snap crackle and pop of rice krispies. Or my favourite the sound of popping candy.
Then you have the taste of food which is so so so unique, spicy foods, sweets foods, plain foods, salty foods. etc.
The texture of food also differs vastly, from a simple thing as an apple to a banana.
How the food looks also obviously is different. For example I cannot eat food that has been cooked then put in the freezer, like the mince for spaghetti, the appearance of how it looks before and after defrosting makes my stomach turn.
And finally smell, the smell of food is so strong, my parents laugh at me because I always know when food is cooked even when i'm upstairs in my room I can just smell the food cooking and I just come down stairs at the exact time when the ovens timer goes off.
The fact of the matter is of course we are going to be obsessed/addicted to certain types of food, all our senses are extremely heightened and food is so diverse and unique. People who aren't on the spectrum favour different types of food and well they don't live with such heightened senses so I guess we just do what we usually do and go to the extreme.
