How I Stopped Being a Picky Eater as a Person on the Autism Spectrum

I’m going to discuss my experiences in life when it comes to eating as a person on the autism spectrum.

People with autism can be picky eaters as children or adults. They don’t always like to eat the foods they’re supposed to. Healthy eating is all about the food guide pyramid — carbs, proteins, fats, fruits, vegetables and dairy.

But when I was younger, I loved to eat fast food because I didn’t like leftovers. I would rather go to Burger King or McDonald’s pretty much every day. I also never liked to drink water and loved drinking diet soda every day. I was addicted to diet soda like it was smoking. Sometimes I would have it for only one meal, sometimes two and sometimes even all three!

I didn’t know how to cook, so that was another hard part about my eating habits and why I went out for fast food for most meals. I always liked fried foods at fast food restaurants like chicken nuggets and fries. I also never liked to eat fruits. I got into vegetables as I got older, but it took a while. And I did like food after it was just cooked at home but never the next day. I never liked lunch meat, so lunch was always a hard meal.

Needless to say, my health got bad while doing this. My blood pressure went up, and I was overweight. Fast food also has all those preservatives that aren’t good for you. 

So at one point, I started to exercise again and learned how to cook for myself after I moved out and lost 60 pounds in two years. I used an app on my iPhone to help me lose weight and get healthy. My blood pressure has dropped a lot since I did all this. I also started drinking more water, which helped a lot, too.

I feel much better about myself. I have more energy, and I feel like a new man. If fast food or picky eating in general is a problem for anyone with autism, they’re not alone. It was a tough road for me to overcome this, but it’s not impossible. Everyone has the right to be healthy and so do people with autism.

My advice to you is to start drinking more water with meals. Eat no more than 2,000 calories a day. You can still eat fast food, but just don’t eat it every day and don’t eat it for every meal. Start learning to eat leftovers or look up healthy meals to make for yourself that are simple to make.

If there are certain things you like, go out to buy those things at the store even if you have to go with someone. Exercise more, too. I did it and so can you.

Lead photo source: Thinkstock Images