Half Plate of Veggies!? Say What?
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CrescentVolf wrote: »Hi!
So, I was wondering how many of my fellow fitness pals grew up in a really misguided food environment? And if you did, did you ever struggle with the new what your plate should look like stuff for balanced eating?
When I was growing up, most of the time the vegetable of the meal was often a starchy veggie, maybe green beans but that was rare. I didn't realize so many wonderful veggies even existed. I didn't realize half my plate should have consisted of said veggies. It was almost shocking to me, but it shouldn't have been haha. I didn't understand how people could possibly do that, until I started making an effort to eat more balanced meals. It's been a huge learning experience, and I still have so much to learn.
Anyone with similar experiences?
This is a great point. I see a number of posts here along the lines "but I don't like veggies....is that ok?"
I grew up eating veggies. We had a garden, my grandparents had gardens. Trying a multitude of veggies was "normal." That said, for years I had gotten away from eating veggies everyday. Eating more calorie dense foods....and still a full plate. That can't be my normal....ever again.0 -
I've always loved veggies, both fresh and cooked. Growing up, we usually had a meat, a starch, and a veggie--but sometimes the veggie was peas or corn (so just more starch). Used a mix of canned and frozen veggies, and I almost exclusively buy frozen veggies if I don't think I can get all the way through a fresh one. Rarely will I buy a can of veggies. Too salty and mushy. I was always a good eater, so I don't remember being pushed to eat any one thing...never had a problem clearing my plate. Also my mom was from the midwest so a lot of foods were "chicken fried" and pot roast style. I still miss my mom's fried pork chops and fried potatoes and gravy. Oh my god her gravy.
I was always active as a kid (played competitive sports), but was always bigger than the other girls. I definitely don't have a small frame, so after two kids, depression, and lots of people dying, I ate a lot of feelings and got out of control fat.
I am SO SO SO SO glad I like most veggies (except raw tomatoes, gross), because it sure does make this journey easier.
My kids also love their veggies. They each have a few they don't touch, but for the most part our meals have a meat, at starch, and a true veggie. I steam or microwave the veggies from frozen and the kids will eat them up without any butter or seasonings, so that's a plus.2 -
I grew up in the '70s and '80s (all over, mostly the west, but with roots in the mid-west) and never heard jello called a salad. A salad was iceberg lettuce, mostly, with some tomatoes and carrots and cucumbers and some kind of bottled Italian or creamy dressing, granted, but it had lettuce unless it was a "fruit salad" and then it was just a mix of fruit, nothing else. Jello could be a "fun" side or a dessert or, most often, some kind of special dish for a potluck or dinner party. A fancy salad (like when company came) would often be a spinach salad, though.
We did have lots of frozen and canned vegetables, and I don't think my mother cooked them that well (as noted above, she never liked to cook and also culturally had learned to overcook everything). However, I don't think that was due to any aversion to fresh vegetables -- we had lots in season, especially when visiting my grandparents who had a huge garden (they'd had a farm when my mother was growing up, but no longer did). Canned and frozen was due to unavailability of other options or price -- what's available to me now is much better and cheaper on average. (I don't think using canned and frozen meant my parents didn't care about vegetables, at all, and we definitely were required to eat them. I didn't really like or dislike them, although I knew they were better in restaurants/some friends' houses by the time I was an adult. Learning to cook them was what taught me to really love them, vs. just seeing them as a healthy and expected part of a meal.
Rarely had frozen meals except when my parents went out. Then we got TV dinners as a special treat, and would look forward to them. (Also liked the occasional fish sticks.)2 -
When I was growing up (I'm 50 from a mid size metro area) the fruit and Veg department in the grocery stores were not as big and diverse as they are today. Fruits and veggies were mainly available in season so frozen and canned veggies (that mom over-cooked) were a staple in our house. I remember how excited we would get when it was artichoke or asparagus or corn on the cob season. Many of my friends had no idea what an artichoke was. Even then the veggies were on the plate to add color and make he plate a pleasing presentation. The fruit and veg department is my favorite part of the grocery store now with all the variety, textures, and colors.1
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Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.0
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Mom's house we never had a veggie, Dad's house = veggies.0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »Not really. Maybe it's because I'm old, but when I was growing up we pretty much always had meat, some kind of starchy veg (bread, potato, corn, maybe rice), and then vegetables. Probably about a third each vs. the half plate of veg, but increasing my portion of veg and otherwise going back to how I ate as a kid when I improved my diet some years ago wasn't too tough. Since being an adult and living in a more metropolitan area (and being exposed to some good restaurants and different ethnic cooking and the like) I do eat proteins other than meat and a much more diverse selection of dishes than we did, though, as my family's cooking was pretty unadventurous (I'd call it very midwestern American).
Anyway, I always thought of this, and the idea that you should have vegetables with lunch and dinner (sometimes it was just fruit with breakfast) was the standard American diet, as it was pretty much how I remember everyone eating as a kid and it's what my mother thought was responsible to prepare even though she hated cooking (I didn't know that until later). Obviously, I was naive or else things changed, probably both.
Yep ... this is pretty much my story too.
My mother was a nurse (who also hated cooking!) who tried to follow the Canada Food Guide for the most part.
6 days a week, our meals were fairly basic, as you describe with meat, starch and veggies, but on Saturdays my father would sometimes make pizza, or my mother might do some mexican-ish dishes, or maybe a lasagne or something special like that.
We'd have veggies with lunch and dinner, and fruit for breakfast and a late evening snack and sometime dessert.
I too have expanded my selection since leaving home, but even now most of our meals are along those lines ... a little less meat, a little less starch, perhaps, and a heaping pile of veggies.
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Where do you live? No frozen meals? They're in just about every grocery store here and in Canada.
As for canned veggies ... to me, they taste tinny and weirdly sweet and sour. As though someone dumped a pile of sugar in during the canning process and then went "oops" and poured in some vinegar to try offset the sweetness. And then they pick up the taste of the can a bit.
The only canned veggies I like are beans of the kidney, chickpea, black, etc. sort which I will use in slow cooker meals.
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Where do you live? No frozen meals? They're in just about every grocery store here and in Canada.
As for canned veggies ... to me, they taste tinny and weirdly sweet and sour. As though someone dumped a pile of sugar in during the canning process and then went "oops" and poured in some vinegar to try offset the sweetness. And then they pick up the taste of the can a bit.
The only canned veggies I like are beans of the kidney, chickpea, black, etc. sort which I will use in slow cooker meals.
I don't live in the US or canada. We have a mostly home cooking culture sometimes with extended families living together or close to each other so there is always someone who can cook, so I guess frozen meals just didn't sell well. We do have canned beans and I buy them often because they are convenient, but I haven't seen actual "vegetables" other than green beans (or maybe wasn't paying attention). What else gets canned? I might buy them and throw them away if I don't like them or have little use for them (like I did with marmite), but I get very curious about any foodstuff I haven't tried. I tried kale and brussel sprouts for the first time last summer and I loved both.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Where do you live? No frozen meals? They're in just about every grocery store here and in Canada.
As for canned veggies ... to me, they taste tinny and weirdly sweet and sour. As though someone dumped a pile of sugar in during the canning process and then went "oops" and poured in some vinegar to try offset the sweetness. And then they pick up the taste of the can a bit.
The only canned veggies I like are beans of the kidney, chickpea, black, etc. sort which I will use in slow cooker meals.
I don't live in the US or canada. We have a mostly home cooking culture sometimes with extended families living together or close to each other so there is always someone who can cook, so I guess frozen meals just didn't sell well. We do have canned beans and I buy them often because they are convenient, but I haven't seen actual "vegetables" other than green beans (or maybe wasn't paying attention). What else gets canned? I might buy them and throw them away if I don't like them or have little use for them (like I did with marmite), but I get very curious about any foodstuff I haven't tried. I tried kale and brussel sprouts for the first time last summer and I loved both.
BTW - by "here" in my post, I meant Australia.
As for the canned veggies, you can try them, but I'd recommend checking the label for the calorie count (and possibly the amount of sugar and salt and things they put into those cans).0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Canned carrots are just nasty. Canned green beans aren't very good....still a step up from carrots. The only canned peas I had growing up were Green Giant LeSueur (tiny peas) not horrible. Canned beets are actually decent.0 -
I have a vivid memory when I was about six, refusing to eat my peas. Olive green from the can, boiled long enough to sterilize, and shrunken to little shrivelled things. It was a standoff and I think I won.
I had similar memories but I tended to eat the peas. We had a meat, potato and a non-starchy vegetable every meal but my mother was a horrible cook TBH. I could cook far better than her and so I did whenever I could when I got old enough. Apparently, beef doesn't have to resemble shoe leather and poultry doesn't have to be drier than Sahara sands nor do the vegetables have to be boiled into a tasteless mush -- who knew!
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
If I eat canned vegetables, other than cream corn, I'll just eat them cold without heating because cooking just doesn't do them any favours.
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For me it was the same as for lemurcat. 1968 til I moved out in 1987 for college.0
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Canned vegetables we like and use - green beans, carrots, beets, corn, beans of all kinds, mushrooms. No sugar added to any of these (I have never seen sugar added to any canned vegetable except pickled beets). Vegetables that are much better frozen in our opinion - asparagus, spinach, collard and other greens, peas, broccoli, cauliflower.
Local and fresh in season are the best. I buy very little supposedly "fresh" vegetables if they are not in season.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad?
I thought they were, especially the green beans, which was my least favorite vegetable growing up and is one of my favorites now. Haven't had them since the '80s, though (other than canned tomatoes), so they may have improved. ;-)
I much prefer frozen if fresh isn't available.0 -
I grew up not eating vegetables because I didn't like them. I did eat potatoes, and the odd piece of cucumber or carrot, but even with that, my parents cooked meats and potatoes, with a side of whatever vegetable was available at that time of year. I grew up at a time when the only fresh vegetables that could be bought in winter were carrots, celery, turnips, cabbages, and iceberg lettuce. Anything else came in cans. I never saw a bag of frozen vegetables in the house back then, so can't tell if they were available. Summers were better because we had a farmers market nearby and we could buy seasonal fruit.
I only started expanding my vegetable repertoire when I got my first apartment at 21 and being introduced to healthier meals by my roommate, an avid runner and budding nutritionist.1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad?
I thought they were, especially the green beans, which was my least favorite vegetable growing up and is one of my favorites now. Haven't had them since the '80s, though (other than canned tomatoes), so they may have improved. ;-)
I much prefer frozen if fresh isn't available.
Not really a reply to lemur cat, but to amused monkey, and to myself.
Canned green beans are nasty. So is canned asparagus. Canned mushrooms are mush. We use canned corn for some things like throwing it in a stir fry, or something. We also use canned tomatoes, canned black beans or pinto beans (not veg, I know, but neither is tomatoes).
All of that said, I have a weird love, and I mean LOVE of canned lima beans and a love for canned le sueur baby peas.
Canned lima beans are comfort food. There, I said it. ha.
And hubs likes canned beets in his salads.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Canned vegetables would've been way more popular when I was growing up than frozen vegetables. My wife grew up in a different culture so knew more about frozen, and does not like canned. The last time we had some excess frozen veg, we gave a package to my mother but she hardly knew what to do with it. Many weeks later when all of ours was gone, we took it back from her and enjoyed every bit of it ourselves.
While the frozen veg market is growing here, it is still a fact that the higher class supermarkets sell lots of it, and the discount stores sell hardly none. This is due to the income level and completely different types of customer shopping at each location. Home grown or other market fresh vegetables are also preferred rather than frozen.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Now I'm actually curious now about canned veggies. Never tried them, except for canned sweet corn. Are they that bad? I'm tempted to add them to my shopping list this week just to see what everyone is talking about. The only frozen veggies we had as a kid were these peas and carrot mixes, and I literally mean "only". No other frozen veggies were available in shops because I vividly remember asking mom why they had vegetables in the same freezer as frozen dough products, but fresh vegetables and fresh baked items were separate, and she replied it would not make sense to buy a whole freezer for a few bags of peas and carrots. Not sure if we had canned back then or not, but I have seen canned green beans lately while shopping. I'm going to buy a can this week and try them. Frozen meals? now that is something I wish to try. I have been on the hunt and have never seen them sold anywhere.
Where do you live? No frozen meals? They're in just about every grocery store here and in Canada.
As for canned veggies ... to me, they taste tinny and weirdly sweet and sour. As though someone dumped a pile of sugar in during the canning process and then went "oops" and poured in some vinegar to try offset the sweetness. And then they pick up the taste of the can a bit.
The only canned veggies I like are beans of the kidney, chickpea, black, etc. sort which I will use in slow cooker meals.
I don't live in the US or canada. We have a mostly home cooking culture sometimes with extended families living together or close to each other so there is always someone who can cook, so I guess frozen meals just didn't sell well. We do have canned beans and I buy them often because they are convenient, but I haven't seen actual "vegetables" other than green beans (or maybe wasn't paying attention). What else gets canned? I might buy them and throw them away if I don't like them or have little use for them (like I did with marmite), but I get very curious about any foodstuff I haven't tried. I tried kale and brussel sprouts for the first time last summer and I loved both.
There are all kinds of vegetables canned. Spinach, carrots, peas, corn, green beans, yams, mixed vegetables, tomatoes, beets, asparagus for example.
Canned vegetables can have added salt or sugar. They are often mushier in texture. They don't have as much flavor as fresh or frozen. I think corn and tomatoes are the least terrible canned. I buy and use canned tomatoes still but nothing else really. I think the worst is canned mixed vegetables. The flavors combine so they taste like nothing natural with a hint of metallic.
If you lived in a climate where it got cold and snowy for months you would probably have eaten more frozen or canned vegetables and fruits during that time period at least.
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When I was young we would nearly always have some vegetables or legume with the main meal, but it would take up about a quarter to a third of the plate, along with fries or mashed potato or boiled potatoes. Really the amount of meat or poultry was too much now I think back. Nowadays, I have trouble getting my chicken on the plate because of all the veggies. I tend to have a mix of runner beans, brocolli and carrots. I have to say that I don't find them yummy but I eat them because reasons.0
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I'm in my 40's and a proper meal was meat, vegetables and bread/starch. The meat and vegetables were the nutritious part of the meal you had to eat and the bread or starch was the filler. It was considered enough to eat meat and some vegetables - there was no push to eat enormous quantities of vegetables and to limit or avoid meat like there is today.
I like vegetables and eat a lot of them but I don't think the current half-your-plate-more-is-better recommendations today are evidence based.1 -
omg, my dad cooked for us until I was a teen and every night it was Meat, Potato, Beans/Corn (canned). That's what his mom fed him. I started cooking as a young teen just to have something different and those skills have served me well. I have about 40 lbs to lose because I worked night shift, ate crap, and ate to much crap.
However, I do very much appreciate the fact that if we tried something and hated it (looking at you Brussels sprouts) my parents didn't force us to eat it. Both of their parents did that to them and they remember how much they hated it.1 -
It really depended on our finances... My mom would sway between being meat heavy or starch heavy with some colorful veggies on the side. She always put a lot of emphasis on having varying colors in a meal0
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