Suggestions for a picky eater?

quartknee11

Hello, I don't really like any vegetables at all and I was just wondering if you have any suggestions for helping me to get over this pickiness. This has been my biggest downfall. I try so hard to eat right but it's hard when I don't like all the good foods. It is part of the reason I have been a serial starter.

Tips?

ShaleSelkies

Anything in particular you don't like about vegetables?

Commonly people don't tend to like them as much because their only experience with them are like... sad boiled carrot pea mixes or iceberg lettuce or something so experimenting with different ways to prepare them and combinations should help in that case. Other than that you could always add them in with other foods such as omelettes or blend them into a smoothie so they don't have to be the meal base at all.

CurlyCockney

There are so many different vegetables, and so many different ways to prepare/cook them, that it's difficult to see what you don't like about any of them. What have you tried, how was it cooked, and what didn't you like about it?

Spiegelchan

Well, cutting them into very small pieces and mixing them in with either beef or chicken into a stir fry helped me include lots more vegetables into my diet. It's a lot easier than just trying to eat plain vegetables, I think, and hot vegetables are usually more filling and tasty and satisfying than a cold salad.

Also, changing the taste with things like spices (I put black and cayenne pepper in pretty much all my vegetables), olive oil, or soy sauce (of debatable and varied healthiness, but it makes vegetables soo good!) can help make them a lot easier to get down.

Speaking of soy sauce, have you tried bean sprouts? It may be you just don't like the vegetables you've been eating. Like, there are some vegetables with easier-to-stomach tastes and textures? For example butternut squash tastes almost exactly like sweet potatoes, and I don't know if I've ever met anyone who doesn't like carrots. I mean, they're so sweet they may as well be a fruit, but they do have lots of vitamins, so it's better than nothing. My parents used to shred them and soak them in lemon juice for me when I was sick.

Have you tried cooking them in different ways? Or eating them raw? Like, cooked cabbage is disgusting, but raw cabbage is actually pretty edible. Tastes like lettuce, kind of. Raw broccoli, on the other hand, tastes like bad breath. I don't know how people can eat it raw. Depending on whether you oven-roast, pan-fry, steam, or boil vegetables, they end up tasting really different.

Finally, there may be some vegetables you really really just can't stand, and even if you do choke them down, they'll make you sick. I can't eat anything in the melon family, for example, including cucumber. If you eat foods you're kind of not fond of, you may eventually develop a taste for them, but I'd say don't push yourself to eat foods you really detest.

kommodevaran

Yes, what do you dislike about vegetables? All vegetables? In any dish? Regardless of way they are prepared? Have you tried all varieties and recipes in the world?

I would suggest stopping the trying to eat right and dividing foods into good foods and bad foods. That is a vague goal, restrictive, overwhelming and confusing, and causes all kinds of anxiety and apathy. Healthy eating is about balance. There are no foods you have to eat, and no foods you have to avoid. All foods can be eaten in moderation. Get in enough of everything (nutritients) and not too much of anything (mainly calories), that's all you have to do. This can be done in a number of ways, so many that it's almost difficult to do it wrong. Eat food you like. Variety is good. Try new recipes and new foods now and then. Try to get in some food from every food group every day.

everher

In winter, I find it easiest to get a good serving of vegetables in soups. So many different soups and I find I will like any vegetable in a soup.

The same can be said for stir frys and I also find I like vegetables better in salad, but I don't eat salad as much in the winter.

I'll also eat vegetarian recipes where veggies have been substituted for meat. A lot of times the way the veggies are prepared in those dishes you can't taste them.

Other than that, explore and find what vegetables you like and how you like them prepared. There's tons of different vegetables out there and tons of different ways to prepare them.

HeidiCooksSupper

Most of us like some vegetables and dislike others. They don't all taste the same at all and each one tastes very different in raw and a variety of cooked situations.

We do learn our taste preferences and can train ourselves to like or dislike things. Many of us thought our first sip of beer or booze was horrible but we certainly learned to like it. When Bill and I first went low sodium we missed the salt. Now we find many things we used to enjoy taste too salty.

So, when it comes to vegetables, keep an open mind. Try lots of different ones more than once. Be prepared to LIKE something rather than expect to dislike it. And over the long haul develop your more refined tastes of some you like and others you don't. It's more fun to have catholic tastes than to be a picky eater. The choice is yours.

CafeRacer808

Here's a personal anecdote that might help you:

I used to hate virtually all vegetables. If I did eat any, it'd be either corn or peas. After the revised recommendations came out stating that we should have "5 cups" of fruit and veg/day, I decided to start making green smoothies. I started with a 3:2 ratio of fruit:veg, which did a very good job of masking the bitter flavor of the greens I was adding (kale, spinach, celery, etc). I started gradually adjusting the ratio until I got to 3:2 veg:fruit. After about 3-4 weeks of drinking these green smoothies regularly, I started to crave vegetables of all kinds. I now eat and enjoy vegetables on a daily basis. (I still make the smoothies as well, but not as often.)

janicelo1971

i dislike most veggies also...i have found ways to add spinach as well as broccoli into smoothies and i dont take it at all. I also found a big difference in eating ones raw verses cooking...I can name less then 3 cooked veggies i like, but raw i have plenty...just a thought!