I find this incredibly amazing and interesting. I am experiencing this same type of behavior from my mother who is disabled and lives with us permanently. For decades my mother has been a junk food addict. The only real food she eats is basically unhealthy--fried or loaded with sugar and salt. I have never in my life know her to actually cook a real meal. She has provided childcare for 3 of our children when they were small and they all developed eating issues--our one son is STILL very picky after 5 years! Two years ago, my mother had a bilateral hip replacement and went into the nursing home for recovery. She lost 30 pounds in 9 months. She refused to eat anything. She drank only hot tea (loaded with sugar) and was fed protein drinks just to keep up her strength. Over the years, I have limited the amounts of junk food we eat at home, but as of late, I have stopped buying it all together--no chips, crackers, cookies, or ice cream--except for special occasions or desert on Sundays. My mother eats only this---bread with butter or Miracle Whip. That's it. When my aunt came to visit for a month, she bought chips, crackers, cookies, etc. and mother mother sat at night eating whole boxes of Cheese Nips and Wheat Thins. I have seen her go without food for 3 or 4 days because there is no junk food. In fact, she cried last night because she wanted potato chips and I don't have any in the house. For dinner last night we had chicken stir fry with rice, peppers, baby carrots, broccoli, and snow peas. It was delicious. The children loved it, my mother snarled and begged for chips.