The Creation of Picky-Eaters

I asked my husband what he would like for breakfast this morning and when he looked torn I offered to make German Pancakes, his favorite. When our four year old came to the table for breakfast he very decidedly voiced that he did not want to eat that (although he did not remember, he is also very fond of this special breakfast item.) I felt exasperated. I did not make him eat it, I did set a plate of it at the table, I did not let him eat anything else. Two hours later, the little guy was getting hungry, I took his portion of breakfast out of the fridge and set it at the table for him to eat. I did not let him eat anything else, after much complaining and firm resolve from his father and I. I told him very calmly that when we sit down to eat a meal, he is required to eat three bites before he decides he doesn't like it. Then, if he doesn't want to eat it, he can wait until the next meal to eat something else if he wants to. If he doesn't eat three bites, he will be given the same food until he does.
So he sat down at the table and put three bites in his mouth, when he told me so, I said good job and asked if he would like some more. He asked if he could have more maple syrup on it and I obliged. He proceeded to eat all of his breakfast and then got down and started to play.
As I was cleaning up I realized that I have given him too many options his whole life when it came to food. If the food is nutritious and good, there should be no opportunity for substitution or rejection. When my son was a baby he was "underweight," but he was responsive, happy and healthy and the doctors did not show any concern. My Mother-in-law, however, lorded it over me. So I was always stressing over it, and trying to make sure my little string bean was getting enough food. So, if my toddler turned his noise up at something I quickly replaced it with something else, I just wanted him to eat and thus the picky eating habit was supported.
When I was a child I was expected to eat what I was given, whether it was yummy or not because we didn't have money to spare on wasted food.
I thought as I washed dishes about our ancient ancestor hunter gatherers and wondered if  they ever turned their noses up at dinner... Hmm nope, I don't think so, I think they are whatever they could get. Then I wondered how we as a civilization came to think that we needed to make choices when it came to food. My son sometimes treats me like a short-order cook. I tell him what I am making for dinner and then he tells me what he wants to eat instead, which is frustrating. I do not change my dinner plans. I realize that we go out to eat to much though. He likes choosing something from the menu and getting what he ordered. So now I am drawing a correlation with being able to order whatever you want from a myriad of options and thinking that you need to eat only whatever you want. If there are no other options we will eat what we have if we are hungry enough. Whether good tastes good to us or not shouldn't be a factor of whether or not we eat it.