Progress in exposure work isn’t just eating a new food. There are so many ways you can try a new food to get more familiar with it and discover if it’s a food you want to eat.

Many of my clients with ARFID and ARFID like eating behaviors who have been through exposure therapy feel so much anxiety around eating new foods. It can be overwhelming! Eating is a sensory experience and with that can come a lot of overwhelm from what it looks like to how it smells, tastes, and feels like in your mouth. Taking it one step at a time to better learn the sensory profile of a food can be much less overwhelming. Just knowing you don’t have to eat a food to try it can also make exposure work much more approachable.

Here are 15 ways you can try a new food without eating it..

1. Identify sensory preferences.
2. Identify foods that fit sensory preferences.
3. Look at pictures of the food on the internet.
4. Watch cooking videos.
5. Read books about the food.
6. Look at food at the grocery store, or in your home.
7. Try smelling food uncooked and cooked, or in different preparations.
8. Listen to food being cooked, cut or prepared.
9. Touch new food with gloves or utensils.
10. Touch food with your hands.
11. Prepare or cook food for someone else.
12. Have food on table or in sight.
13. Place food on your plate or nearby plate.
14. Touch food to your lips.
15. Lick food with your tongue.

Reminder you don’t have to go from zero (not eating) to 100 ( eating). Each way of trying a new food is progress! This can make not only the idea of exploring new foods more realistic but also attainable and motivating.

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15 Ways to Try a New Food Without Eating It

What ways work for you to learn about/explore new food?