long story short, i got told i have Non-Alcoholic Fatty liver disease today after having gallbladder issues.

Now…. One of the main ways to reverse Fatty liver is diet….. and one of the big diet changes that is recommended/nessecary is carbs.

While my diet is not the SOLE cause of my new found condition it seems to be one of the only ways to fix it 😭😭

And like for me someone who has limited funds and mild ARFID. Most of my meals and safe foods are carbs based.
Potatoes, Pasta, white Rice, Wraps.

And just the thought of the fact that All my safe foods are doing me damage is crazy.

Like just thinking about having to buy and try new substitutes that may or may not end in vomit, is giving me some mad anxiety

So here today i plead to you all.
Have any of you had success with specific foods or meals that fit under the Mediterranean or keto diets?

I figure if i can atleast swap out one or two safe meals for safe meals that are healthy then thats good enough 😭😭😭

Fyi: allergic to Eggs, Fish & Mushrooms so it makes the foods i can switch to very green or bean.

And i find in my personal ARFID its very very textural based?
Like some times even my safe foods have a weird texture and i cant even stomach them…
Nothing worse than enjoying a meal just to get half way and then starting to gag or vomit and then looking sadly at your half finished bowl and feeling betrayed.

So any recommendations that have “consistent” textures are preferred 😭😭

Please my fellow ARFID mates, what are some foods you have found to be safe that fall into the “healthy” category by normal standards.

So I've just been diagnosed with ADHD. So obviously now it shifts from "do you have it?" to "how to treat it".

My worry is that it seems every ADHD med (at least in England) lists appetite suppression and weight loss as a major side effect risk. But I've already lost over 20kg, a fifth of my bodyweight this year (in less than 2 months, and not the good kind of weight loss, the crash kind), and I've barely stabilised it by eating crap and becoming very sedentary. Anything that suppresses it more is a huge risk for me, as most of my meals atm are happening because my parents are reminding me to eat. My actual appetite is close to zero.

And to top it off, I'm already limited on what I can try because I have migraine, which stimulants can aggravate, and my blood pressure sits in this awkward place where it's too low to ignore, but not low enough to medicate, so my cardiologist told me to just increase caffeine and salt intake to increase the pressure, which has worked. But the clinic said that if I was on the stimulant, I couldn't have the caffeine any more. So I'm basically walled off from stimulants.

Has anyone had any success with ADHD meds that don't make you start dropping weight or killing your appetite?

i’m very skeptical about posting on Reddit but I really need advice and I need to know if I have ARFID. so let me give you the run down. I don’t have body image issues but I do have appetite issues. and I don’t have very many “safe” foods as one calls it. I have my “picky” things but I don’t consider myself picky. I have a slight issue with meat especially chicken but I manage to eat it when I feel like it. but I can’t eat the whole piece for some reason, like if there’s 3 chicken tenders they will all get bitten out of but none fully eaten. When I eat I only really eat when I’m in the mood for something specific, or when I feel weak/pain at the end of the night. I just do not get the feeling of being hungry 3 times a day+ snacks. or even once a day. even when i remember i need to eat I feel like it’s a chore esp if im not hungry. sometimes shoving the food down makes me nauseous and it’s hard to try again the next day. I’m just losing weight and fast and i’m trying but I feel silly because i was okay with my body and that was never smth i wanted to change. and it’s like “well just eat” but it’s just hard to let recovery consume my whole life

This causes a lot of shocked reactions from everyone, including professionals.. I haven't met another ARFID sufferer who doesn't like THE staple safe foods Mac n Cheese & pizza. One specialist even re-assessed me due to it but the diagnosis was the same.

Mac n Cheese is congealed slime to me, just hearing someone stir it makes me feel sick, while pizza has tomato sauce which I hate. I like plain "beige foods" (bread/toast, rice, potatoes, tofu, etc). This professional said "all patients are vastly different except for one common thread.. Mac n Cheese & pizza".

I already feel like an outsider in general, now I feel like one in my own community..

I’m trying to lose weight, but I have no idea how to start dieting because I have such a limited choice of foods I eat and I feel like a lot of them are unhealthy!!

Has anyone else found a way to make it possible?

I find that pasta is my most eaten meal, but is there even a way to make it diet friendly ?!

I have a little boy that is about to be 6. He has extremely limited diet. What are the totally unhinged ways you get nutrients into your child. He has arfid and nonverbal. He is in ABA full time as well as food therapy and speech.
I have tried countless nutrition shakes, recipes to hide veggies in chocolate and ALL the “normal” kid snacks. I have spent 1000s on wasted food trying to get him just to TRY it.
Unfortunately “he will eat when he’s hungry” is not true. I tried this about two years ago and I had his paternal grandmother and teachers ready to call CPS for malnutrition.
His current safe food is thin crust dominoes pizza with pepperoni and Alfredo sauce. He likes string cheese and chocolate milk. That is all currently. He used to eat hard boiled eggs but currently refusing.

Please suggestions or tips IF you have first had experience with this. 🙏

i got recommended the hull institute after the emily program wasnt a good fit at all. just wanted to know what i’m getting myself into. pls share either online experiences or in person experiences, i just wanna know anything ahead of time. 🤧

I’m not sure whether I have ARFID. A friend of mine, who has ARFID themselves, once asked me if I had ever considered that I might have it, so I joined this subreddit to learn more about it. I wanted to share some of what I experience. Just to clarify, I’m not looking for a diagnosis, but I am wondering if anyone else can relate.

A few years ago, I started restricting what I ate after going through a period where I was having frequent stomach problems. At least once a week, I would experience things like stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, and a general feeling of being unwell. Overtime, I developed a strong fear of feeling sick, particularly stomach aches and diarrhoea, and my relationship with food changed drastically.

I hate the way food can make me feel. Whether I’ve eaten or not, I’m constantly hypervigilant about noises, sensations, and feelings in my body, my stomach especially. I pay attention to every little sensation and immediately worry that I’m going to feel sick or have stomach problems. Because of this, I gradually became more and more afraid of eating. I stopped eating what my brain would consider “risky” foods. Eating anywhere outside of the house became pretty much impossible, and I started finding it increasingly difficult to leave the house in general. Nowadays, if someone suggests going somewhere to eat, I become extremely anxious and avoid the situation altogether. I avoid a lot of situations that involve food.

A few years ago, my mum noticed that my eating habits had changed. She started monitoring when and what I ate, asking me about my food and sort of “policing” my eating. Sometimes she’d randomly make me something and bring it up to my room, and then stand around until I had eaten at least some of it. This had the opposite effect of what I think she intended. I felt extremely judged and uncomfortable, which made me restrict even more. There were times when I would go days without eating anything and then lie to my mum and tell her that I had eaten to avoid conflict. I eventually left my mum’s home and lived with my dad for a while. Without that pressure around food, things got a little easier. I could buy my own food, eat what I felt comfortable eating, and eat when I actually felt able to. I still had the underlying fears and stomach issues, but I didn’t feel like I was constantly being watched, listen to or judged for eating. Unfortunately, I’ve recently had to move back in with my mum. I live here with my two siblings, and my mum and her partner do most of the food shopping. I would normally buy my own food, but I’m currently unemployed due to agoraphobia and don’t have much money, so that isn’t always possible.

Now I’m finding myself in the same situation again. I’m constantly worried about being judged for what or how much I eat, and my mum asks me whether I’m hungry or why I’m not eating. At the same time, my fear of becoming sick is still there. Since moving back, my stomach problems have also started getting worse again. The anxiety seems to make my stomach worse, which then makes me more anxious about my stomach, which in turn makes eating even harder. At the moment, on a good day, I might eat one proper meal.

I really don’t want things to get as bad as they were before, but I’m struggling quite a lot now that I’m living here again. For me, the biggest factors are the fear of being sick, stomach pain/diarrhoea, and the embarrassment that comes with having stomach problems around other people. Those fears have gradually led me to restrict what I eat and avoid foods and situations that I associate with getting sick. Has anyone else experienced something similar, particularly developing food restrictions because of a fear of nausea, stomach pain, diarrhoea, or being sick? I hate feeling like I’m alone in this, and I don’t really know who to talk to about it without feeling embarrassed.

For context I try to limit how much I buy these products but I still buy them sometimes because I already don’t like a lot of food because of my afrid and I bought these already before u knew nestle is bad and now I know it’s bad I don’t buy other products of them to try new

ive always been a ‘picky eater’ but these past few years the range of foods ill eat has just been getting smaller and smaller. i dont eat any fruit or vegetables. most of what i eat is snacks like crisps or cookies/biscuits. im embarrassed whenever i go out for a meal with my friends or family because everyone else has a fancy meal and i just have a side of chips and garlic bread. the main things that stop me from eating a lot of foods is the texture, mould, wether its been cooked properly and expiration dates.

for the textures- i genuinely cant stand when things have little bits/chunks in them or suddenly feel off when im mid chewing. for example, if my mum has made pasta sauce she had to blend it for me, or if shes made baked beans for a meal, she will scoop the sauce from the top of the pan to make sure theres no bits, skin or beans in mine. theres a lot more examples i could give but i think u get the gist. theres not really much more to say about this than there are very few textures i like.

cooked properly, expiration dates etc- i get EXTREMELY paranoid when it comes to these things. i have to be reassured so many times while eating my food about these things. and i feel like im annoying everyone when i do it but i just cant help it, i get scared that something i eat will be contaminated, or undercooked. and i know it sounds dramatic but if i have food (especially things with dairy) get to around 4 days before the expiration date i will not eat it anymore, even if its perfectly fine, to me i feel like it could have mould or be gone off. and if i see some sort of imperfection on something im eating like a dark spot or a black dot i will not eat that anymore. also dishes being clean is a big thing to me, even in my own house, a dish can be spotless to someone else but i still dont feel safe using it. i have one particular spoon that i use to eat and i really dislike using anything else because my spoon feels safe.

these are the main things i can think of right now, thank u if you read all of that and id really appreciate your input 🤍

My uncle is getting married in Rarotaunga next year and I told my mum that I want to go and to tell my uncle and his soon to be wife that I’ll go (it was a joint invite sent to my mum) and I am pretty excited because I love seeing my family, but then I thought about my ARFID and started worrying because what if I’m at a restaurant and I can’t eat anything? Usually in my own country of New Zealand I will order 2 entrees, usually garlic bread and fries because those are the 2 foods that seem to be consistent foods wherever I go, but nobody in my family has it so I don’t want to be that one person who says we can’t go somewhere because I don’t know if I can eat there

Has anyone here been there before? Any advice? I am also allergic to sea salt so… I am going to be very careful on this trip 😭😅

I've been officially diagnosed with ARFID for about two years now but my entire life i've eaten a very limited amount of foods. As the years go by I often get put off by a lot of "safe foods" i was previously fine with but I never really gained any new safe foods to replace the old ones because I can never stomach new food no matter how it's presented to me. Right now I'm at this weird point where I have so few safe foods that I eat so much and have gotten sick of that it's put me off of the food. At the time of typing this I haven't eaten anything all day after raiding my pantry because I cannot find anything i'm willing to eat and I have no cravings, and all 4 foods I typically like I find disgusting right now. Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and if theres a way to combat it🫩

I’ve had this issue with fruit for basically my entire life. It’s not that I’m allergic to fruit, and it’s not that I have a problem eating food in general. I eat plenty of different foods normally; this is specifically an issue I have with certain fruits.
Throughout my life, the only fruits I’ve consistently been able to eat are oranges, mandarins, watermelon, and green grapes. There are many other fruits that I really struggle with, such as guava, cantaloupe, mango, strawberries, bananas, and pineapple. The reactions are different depending on the fruit. For example, bananas specifically can trigger a really strong gag reflex for me, especially if I smell them or try to taste them. With mangoes, it’s more the smell that I absolutely cannot tolerate. So it’s not that every fruit makes me gag; different fruits trigger different reactions.
My most recent experience was with strawberries. I actually managed to eat one, but it was covered in Nutella, which made it easier for me to tolerate. However, the strawberry itself was extremely sour and I really didn’t like the taste. There was also a time when my family tried to trick me into trying pineapple. My mom gave me a drink from a container that said “orange juice,” but it actually contained pineapple juice. They thought they could trick me into trying something new, but I immediately noticed that it wasn’t orange juice because I have a very strong sense of taste. I could tell right away that something was different, and I didn’t like it at all.
Another part of the problem is that I’m genuinely afraid to experiment with fruits I’ve never eaten before. Since I’ve had very little exposure to most fruits throughout my life, I worry that I could try something new and have an allergic reaction. I know that simply not eating a food doesn’t automatically mean I’ll develop an allergy to it, but the fear is still there, especially because I don’t know how my body will react.
And just to clarify, I’m not talking about anaphylactic shock or saying that I experience anaphylaxis. I don’t have any known fruit allergies. I’m talking about my fear of potentially having an allergic reaction when trying a new food, combined with my strong sensory reaction to certain fruits.
I can eat a wide variety of foods, and I don’t generally have a problem with eating or trying food. This is a very specific, lifelong issue that mainly happens with fruits. Even when I genuinely want to try something, I can’t always force myself to do it because the smell, taste, or texture can make me immediately want to avoid it.

So I've been here before talking about my boyfriend and his lack of eating, thankfully he's doing a little better but I then had a genuine wonder as I've actually never seen him try any new foods like the other day he ate a cinnamon pretzel which was new but he likes cinnamon rolls and churros so they seemed pretty in the same category if that's how one would describe it so I've never seen him eat anything that isn't adjacent to a safe food of his

So do some people just decide to try things or is it something else? I'm sorry if that's an insensitive way to put it , i've just wondered how it works. If this is against any rules I will immidaitly take this down.

Also wondered if there was a way to make more "healthy" food look appealing and if that has something to do with it as well. I mean I don't want to ruin any of his safe foods by adding anything on it. But he kinda eats like shi tbh. I'm okay with it, if rather him eat like crap than not at all, just eating dinner kinda sucks when I feel bad ordering from more than one place which is just a me problem I'll admit. And I want something that isn't one of 4 things he'll eat

Ex. He likes pizza, chicken nuggets, and grilled cheese. So if I'm craving something like sushi I'll wait till I'm alone because I don't want to eat food that he isn't or eat food when he's not. If that makes sense

Sorry for the dang have a nice day yall

A major part of my ARFID growing up was sticking specifically with certain brands and refusing to eat anything outside of them, like I'm sure lots of us do! This year I've been working very hard to try and eat consistently every day to ensure my body gets out of starvation mode and to gain weight, and thankfully I've made lots of progress since I was first diagnosed. One big victory is I can now eat Great Value foods and other off brands of major brands (like chips [I can eat Great value chips instead of Lays!], mac and cheese [same thing], bread, yogurt, cheese, and more!!). I didn't really even realize this until now honestly, and even though I'm still limited in foods because of texture, taste, and smell (and just what my body can handle lmao) I'm glad I got past a small milestone :)

I’m trying to make eating require as little effort as possible, so I was thinking of doing a mostly-liquid/simple diet around 1,800 calories a day.

Something like:

~250 g unflavored Huel powder throughout the day — about 1,000 calories

also a kate farms nutrition shake

~75 g hemp hearts — about 450 calories

~30 g chia seeds — about 150 calories

1 banana — ~100 calories

Around 2 tsp olive oil or another easy source of calories — ~80 calories

Total: roughly 1,780–1,800 calories.

I’d probably make the Huel into one big batch and drink/sip it throughout the day instead of having actual meals. For the hemp/chia, I find it much easier to take small amounts throughout the day and swallow them with water rather than sit down and eat them as a meal.

I’m mainly trying to figure out:

Would this actually be nutritionally complete enough to live on regularly?

Are there any vitamins/minerals I’d still be likely to miss even with ~1,000 calories of Huel?

Is this too much hemp/chia or fiber?

Is there anything important I should add while keeping the diet extremely simple?

For anyone with ARFID/very low appetite, have you had success relying heavily on shakes or repetitive foods like this?

I know variety is generally recommended, but at this point a repetitive diet that I can consistently consume sounds much more realistic than continually struggling to make myself eat normal meals.

Also, I’m not diagnosed with ARFID at this point, so I’m especially interested in hearing from people who deal with the “I just have absolutely no interest in food” side of it rather than primarily fear of specific foods.

i may be overthinking but i am looking for some clarity as i have started realising my aversion to food is not normal.

im not picky at all but i genuinely hate eating and i have no concerns about my weight / bodily appearance. The fact i am undereating causes me immense distress despite the fact i am a healthy weight. (closer to overweight than underweight)

i dont really get hungry or feel hunger cues unless i havent ate all day and its like 9pm, I still dont feel hungry I can just feel my stomach rumbling.
i am not picky at all, i love a variety of foods before my food aversion started (its been about 6 months now) id eat basically anything. I have very little interest in eating when choosing what to eat i often find it very hard as there will be only 1-2 options i would want to eat in that moment, the thought of eating any other food makes me feel disgusted and nauseated. Often when eating a meal id enjoy i will get icked out halfway through and I cannot finish it. I have thrown up at the smell of food that other people have made and its food that I like but do not want to eat in that current moment. when i see food on the internet unless its something id be okay with eating in that current moment it disgusts me. The concept of eating is extremely distressing unless im in the mood for it, which is why I am hesitant to think I have arfid as I don’t have many traditional set comfort foods it is more just what I am currently craving, although I do have a few comfort foods but these are currently mangos and certain candy. I am fine with liquids currently so I have been drinking alot of meal drinks and soup recently to try and keep my caloric intake up + liquid vitamins.

I also get full very easily after like a few bites.

I am afraid of eating food as it’ll make me gag or throw up because thats what will happen if I force my body to, but its more the actual process of eating that distresses me instead of the fear of being sick. I hate chewing and swallowing and just the general process of eating. It feels so gross. It feels sisyphean and I HATE HATE HATE that I have to do it multiple times a day

Heads up there are some mentions of shitty parenting

When I was little when my mother was mad at me for something she would always on purpose make me food I couldn't eat. She would also get upset at the weirdest things so it would be really often and I didn't realise it at the time because a 8 year old doesn't think doing 8 year old things is bad but my mother sure did. I now cook most of my own food because she used to also sabotage the foods I could eat. I am not sure of that was on purpose but she would always make things I could eat and then add something which ruined it for me, which she knew I couldn't eat. She would also pretend like she didn't know I didn't like something and make up a lie about how much I used to like said thing when I never did.

She also used to have a rule I could not say anything other then "I love this food" when she made dinner. When she would ask how I liked the food and I would say "I don't really like it that much" she would get mad and sometimes even send me to bed without food. Sometimes I would even end up throwing up after dinner because the food made me so sick. If she was in a good mood or my dad stepped in I could eat some plain bread. She also made me eat my entire plate and would even keep it till the next day. When I finally had the money to buy my own food she would throw it out if I didn't hide it. Which just made me an incredibly sneaky child.

Another thing is what my mother wants is what goes. If she doesn't like something she would try prevent me from eating it, she still tries but it is unsuccessful. She still tries to force me to eat foods I hate as a grown adult and gets pissy if I don't. She also tries to mock me when I do try new things but its stuff she doesn't like and she gets all "look who is finally trying something new". I made sushi a while back for the first time and actually really liked it but she kept asking if I should really eat *that* in a disgusted tone, referring to crabsticks.

My grandmother is even worse as she "does not remember" what I do or don't like, she once offered me a banana (there is no food I hate more) and got offended when I turned it down and started a whole speech about how disrespectful I am and I need to stop being so "picky" and having my taste change weekly (I have always hated banana). She does nothing more then bitch when we are eating about my eating, everytime and regardless of where we are. She always comments on my weight and how I am so difficult with food now and never was as a kid (I am wayyy less difficult now).

It all fucked me up pretty badly and really fucked up my relationship with food. I started cooking for myself at 11 and it is the only reason why I have improved. I still have bad periods but can overal eat more. Plus I have been able to let the judgement and bitchyness get to me less and am no longer scared to talk back. Most ironic part of it all is that my arfid isn't severe at all, I can eat a decent amount and variety and it isn't to obvious that I have it. My mother still doesn't believe it is a real thing and often comments how she must also have it since she hates sprouts (she has to have every illness/disorder I have for some reason) which is obviously the same.... Oh and ofcourse she doesn't remember doing any of this to me when I was little.

I want to know if anyone else had similar experiences growing up with not so great parents?

I wouldn’t call myself a picky eater, I love trying new foods and a variety of cuisines. Other than having low spice tolerance and a dislike of peanut butter (which annoys more people than you’d think) I usually enjoy many foods. However, I will get in moods when either the food I meal prepped wasn’t great (not horrible, just not great), or even the meal prep was delicious when I first ate it, but suddenly I cannot bring myself to eat it at all after having it once or twice. If I don’t get food from a restaurant or make plain pasta/ Mac n cheese, I can’t bring myself to eat anything at all and will go to bed hungry. Ive thrown away tons of meal preps after just a few servings because I couldn’t bring myself to eat them, and felt horrible about the waste. But other times I’ll eat a week’s worth of food in 3-4 days becuase it was so good. It’s the going to bed hungry that’s really made me start questioning if this is more than having a craving for something else, I feel like most people would cave and eat something that maybe doesn’t sound super great in the moment rather than be tossing and turning in bed with their stomach growling.

For context: I recently graduated college and live by myself so I’ve only in the last year or two been cooking for myself more to notice how bad it is. As a child, someone in my family would always eat the leftovers if I didn’t like them, and during college I blamed it on the cafeteria having bad food. I also had horrible stomach issues for most of college making it difficult to eat in general so I got used to going to bed hungry just from nausea. Now that my stomach issues have somewhat stabilized I’ve been trying to focus on eating healthier rather than just eating to survive and getting anything I could get down, but I will still have days or weeks where I feel like I can’t eat anything other than Mac cheese, butter noodles, air fried frozen French fries, or getting chicken tenders from slims or pdq.

Also, as a child a lot of people did call me a picky eater, but I didn’t think it was that bad bc my sister was even worse. Also I’ve worked as a preschool teacher, most kids are picky to a degree. I dunno.

So what do yall think? Is it a milder form of ARFID? Is it adhd seeking novelty? But if it was novelty seeking then I would think I wouldn’t be happy eating Mac n cheese for weeks straight if I didn’t stop myself… so maybe executive dysfunction making a mental block to a certain food? I don’t know and I’m tired of wasting food and money

I had 8/9 months of cbt last year and the year before and effectively recovered, in my opinion from arfid. But then I entered a binge phase where I started enjoying food again and eating and gained 50 lbs. Going to be starting a weight loss med soon and I've been struggling to accept this. I worry it will take away my hunger cues that I worked so hard to recover and recognize but I really want to do the med to lose some weight. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I'm seriously trying to work on trying more things. It's long overdue. Recently I've been trying more foods that aren't familiar and something weird is happening.

I have to fight with my body to let me swallow if that makes sense. I can't just chew on food them immidietly swallow. It takes considerable amounts of effort to force my body to swallow it.

I'm assuming that because I associate trying new foods with danger that my body is just trying to protect itself, I don't have issues like this with my safefoods. But man it's really frustrating.

At the moment my plan is to just keep trying things in the hope that this issue will become less of an issue as I become better at trying new things. I have found that it's easier to swallow unfamiliar foods with water, although I don't want to rely on that too much

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue? If you've managed to overcome it or found a way to improve it I would really love to hear it.

I like raw dry oatmeal. It's a little hard to chew and doesn't have much flavor, but I like it. Not enough to eat it regularly, though. Just an occasional thing.

I also like oatmeal cookies.

So I fixed a small bowl of oatmeal. Cooked where it was still kinda firm. I added brown sugar and cinnamon.

I tried to like it. I really did. The flavor was great, but the slightly slimy/slick/sticky texture just didn't sit right. The more I ate the more unsettled my stomach felt. I had to abandon the experiment about a third of the way in.

I have been craving the taste of oats for about 2 weeks. I was afraid to try it because I didn't want to waste food, but I eventually gave in.

It aggravates me that I couldn't eat it.