Something You Should Know The Serious Problem of Picky Eaters & Will AI Make Us Dumber?
12 snips
Feb 26, 2026 Helen Zoe Veit, historian and author of Picky, explains how American children became fussy eaters and why family meals and snack culture changed tastes. Zack Kass, early OpenAI employee and author of The Next Renaissance, argues AI can amplify human potential and serve as a computational partner rather than replace thinking. They discuss historical shifts in diet, practical AI uses, and societal tradeoffs.
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Historic Kids Weren't Naturally Picky
- Children in 19th-century America typically ate the same family food and developed broad tastes without discipline or scarcity driving it.
- Helen Zoe Veit found rich families' children ate vegetables, spicy foods, organ meats, and even coffee, showing communal eating was the norm.
Hunger Decline Fueled Modern Pickiness
- Reduced childhood hunger and rise of snacking reduced kids' appetites at meals and dampened willingness to try family foods.
- Veit cites early 20th-century milk recommendations and increased sedentary lifestyles as drivers of less hungry children.
Keep Offering The Family Meal
- Regain confidence and keep offering family foods rather than immediately providing alternatives to refusals.
- Veit argues repeating offers and not caving to separate meals helps children acquire tastes and improves diet and growth outcomes.
