I was a picky eater as a child and picked up a lot of the same habits as my mother. Especially cheese, the slightest bit makes her sick and I hated it for years. That makes sense since she raised me herself mostly, so it wasn't in the house and I saw her responses to it. But my pickiness went way beyond her tastes. I'll eat cheese now in some instances but not all, and still share her dislike of creamy sauces. But over time I've developed more normal tastes, I have likes and dislikes more than "safe" and "unsafe" foods.

What I do find strange given all the stories of entitled picky eaters in this thread is that while she accommodated for my habits somewhat (e.g. cooking without onions or mushrooms) to avoid hassle, they were never encouraged and it was understood that it inconvenienced me and other people. I was always ashamed of it, but that did little to change my tastes, the fear of trying something I didn't (know I) like overtook any shame. It definitely feels like an anxious habit to me, protective even, though it caused me a lot of distress, especially eating at friends' houses. Curiously when I wondered how picky eating manifested in other cultures (does a picky eater in Japan dislike the same Japanese foods I do, for example, or what are their "safe" foods), searches seemed to suggest that it's largely a western/English-speaking phenomenon. So I'm fairly sure it has a ton to do with how you're raised and such.